actually, i have a few pics from the day trip to Maysville, the wife's hometown. she hosted her mom's 60th bday party. her mom has always been supernice to me, so i'm very supportive. Maysville is town steeped in early American history as an early town on the Ohio, and one that contributed to westward expansion. it's also known as an important stop on the Underground Railroad. i took some pics of the older buildings in town.
this is the old hospital downtown. Maysville abuts a steep hill, so "downtown" ends quite literally behind this hospital. i guess it was placed up the hill to avert floods. L picked this one b/c of the vines, the door, and the ghost window (the open one). it's sort of crooked, isn't it?
i like this one quite a bit. another writer (bike touring i believe) said these remind him of rowhouses of Pittsburg much more than something found in KY. i like the rhythm downward. i like the alternating pitches of the roofs. little L is somewhere down there.
this time white rowhouses/townhouses instead of the red ones on the hill. this is literally 100yds away, down the hill. yet it looks like a while different, more refined part of town, doesn't it? and i like the tree too.
on the same street. this gleaming white spire set against the earth tones of fall make me immediately think 'New England'. never been there, but the church, the white, the fall colors. good stuff. i think the repetition of the post is a bonus. that's the black spire, Dol Goldur.
this final pic is perhaps of the strangest site of all. right next to my wife's church (growing up, you know), they are refurbishing an old house including the back yard. along the alley they've added this stone-carved ?balustrade? fence. ( finally found "balustrade" on an architecture website. it refers to "A railing composed of post (balusters) and a handrail". this isn't a handrail, so it's the wrong term, but i don't have another term to use. i know it's unimportant, but i like words, and correct word usage.) this looks into the backyard through this ornate gate into a relief against the wall. understandable for some italian villa, but very strange running down the alley of downtown Maysville. i'd have it in my yard though.
3 comments:
Great pictures! That row of houses heading down the hill from the hospital was built in 1886 by Lt. Gov. William H. Cox. He's the same guy who built the Cox building on the corner of Third and Market. They're actually replicas of row houses opposite the Gracie Mansion in New York City. Not sure exactly why, but they were named for days of the week... the one closest to Third Street is named Monday and the one closest to the hospital is named Saturday. They're also said to have been built in a Welsh style.
I used to live in Pittsburgh and those row houses really do remind me of many homes in the older parts of Pittsburgh. And the white church reminds me of the colonial style church in Bennington VT that has the grave of poet Robert Frost in the cemetery right behind it.
lovely pictures!
what a cool blog.
i noticed the link to my glossary, so i thought i'd chime in with some terminology.
the garden wall you photographed has a masonry pier construction. the sculpted area is simply referred to an "ornamental pier"
sometimes, when part of a bastion or exedra, they have benches or fountains built into them.
there is a decent garden glossary here
http://faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/glossary.html
and here:
http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden_glossary
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