I made it back out by the Henry Watson House, this time with the sun out, but now with a pesky overhead wire in the way! I had photographed it way back in January of 2009 on a cloudy day. Apparently the house was damaged by fire. Watson owned two quarries; I wonder if one…
Tag: Art-Deco
Fairfield Avenue, Newport, Kentucky
We’ve looked at Newport, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati before, but this time we’re going to look at Fairfield Avenue, starting at Ward Avenue and heading east. As I’ve said before, one of the great tragedies of St. Louis and its relationship to the Metro East is that civic and business leaders have not…
Downtown, Youngstown
Downtown Youngstown is really nice! Now, I’m defining it as the area enclosed by Highway 422, which surrounds it to the northeast, effectively cutting it off from the rest of the city; on the southwest, the Mahoning River forms the other border. Youngstown State University clearly breathes much of the life into the area northeast…
In Search of the Sidaway Bridge and John D. Rockefeller, Cleveland
Sometimes I go searching for something and I don’t find it, but the journey becomes interesting (and a little scary) in of itself. In this case, I went looking for the Sidaway Bridge, further up one of the tributaries of the Cuyahoga River, after reading about it online, and besides being fascinated by its structure,…
Lake View Cemetery and Little Italy, Cleveland
A little bit of a latecomer in the Rural Cemetery Movement, Lake View Cemetery was founded in 1869, east of downtown Cleveland on rugged, steep terrain. While due to the growth of the city and mature trees, the name comes from what had once been a commanding view of Lake Erie. The grounds are lush,…
The Terminal Tower, Cleveland
I want you to just take a look at the historic photograph above for a few minutes and just absorb what you’re seeing. In the background, Irish Bend and the Flats spread out in the distance, the engine house of the industrial heart of the city at its height can be seen, while in the…
Toledo, The City of Glass
Visiting Toledo was fun, because I had absolutely zero expectations. I basically knew nothing about the city, other than it has an amazing art museum, which is a must-see if you’re in town, and that is about it. As I began to research the city, which is in the extreme northwest of Ohio, I discovered…
Down by the River, Detroit
Let’s walk from the Campus Martius, named after the famous field in ancient Rome where soldiers trained (it later filled up with temples such as the Pantheon), and part of the original Woodward plan of Detroit and walk down the street of the same name towards the Detroit River. It’s here that I spot some…
Guardian Building, Former Union Trust, Detroit
Near the southern terminus of Woodward Avenue is the Guardian Building, originally named the Union Trust Building. While Chicago certainly has its own collection of Art-Deco skyscrapers, Detroit blows it and other American cities away with its shear exuberance. The Guardian Building is a case in point. It is a slender building, recalling the Raymond…
The Penobscot Block, Detroit
Time to move to downtown Detroit, and start with one of the most interesting square blocks in the United States, the Penobscot Block. Like all good things, it was the result of the accretion of decades of history and multiple building campaigns by disparate developers. This first building of the ensemble is the 1905 Penobscot…