Sitting aside and crossing the Le Cher River, the Château of Chenonceaux is easily one of the greatest achievements of humans carefully adapting the built environment with the natural environment. Instead of trampling on the natural world, the renovation of what had been an old Medieval fortress was transformed into a residence that worked with…
Tag: Barns
Hameau de la Reine
Easily our favorite stop in the grounds of the Trianon was the Hameau de la Reine, or Queen’s Hamlet, constructed on the order of Queen Marie Antoinette. Despite centuries of slander, Marie Antoinette was not a clueless ditz who pretended to be a peasant girl in her Barbie hovel playset. In reality, the Queen’s Hamlet…
Twin Silos
The question arose when we viewed the entrance gateway to this new development: was the name obtained a priori or a posteriori?
Family Farm, Deer Creek Township, Illinois, June 2022
I took a short trip up to my family’s farm east of Peoria and the crops were just starting to mature out in the fields. I didn’t expect to find these flowers growing so big on the north side of the old ice house. And the tree that is just about dead seems to have…
Around Woodford County, Illinois, June 2022
I went around and looked at some of the towns northeast of the family farm. I started with Eureka, the county seat of Woodford County. I could have sworn I had featured the courthouse before, but apparently not. Got to love the bank where they filled in the windows–who needs natural light when there’s amazing…
Corn Crib and Tree, Cooper Road
Something about this abandoned corncrib and this copse of trees drew me to photograph the group as I drove east down Cooper Road near my family’s farm. Surely there is a backstory behind why this building is left behind, and who planted the two trees that now are standing by the road. I’ve also long…
Dawn, Family Farm, Deer Creek Township, March 2022
I woke up early and caught the sunrise coming up over the fields to the east. The fields are fallow for now, but in a month or two they will be brought back to life.
Clouds Breaking, Family Farm, March 2022, Deer Creek Township
As everyone in St. Louis knows, last week the weather was horrible, and it was elsewhere in the Midwest, but late on Friday the clouds broke and the sun came out, leaving dramatic light and shadow over the prairie at the family farm. As the sun set, pink and purple light shone across the fields…
Christian Science Reading Room
We couldn’t figure out the history of what is now a Christian Science Reading Room, but it is clearly an old house, judging from its Greek Revival style and the soft brick that makes up its walls. Early brick in the St. Louis region was not fired at as high of temperatures as later eras,…
Farmstead, Surrounded by Highways
We spotted this farmhouse, which had received some more decorative millwork but is still essentially a Greek Revival wood frame structure, sitting on a rapidly shrinking plot of land on St. Peters Parkway, just to the north of the Page Avenue Extension. What is interesting is that fair number of outbuildings are still standing. I’m…