Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, Distinctive Gem of Louisiana Plantations…

Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, Distinctive Gem of Louisiana Plantations…
Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, 40136 Highway 942, Darrow, Louisiana
 
Among the jewels of Louisiana’s River Plantation, Houmas House Plantation and Gardens is certainly distinctive.  Furthermore, the whole experience is among the most unusual of “house museums” in the United States.  Since our agents have been to [...]

Savannah’s Owens-Thomas House of the Telfair Museum

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A Matter of Masonic Interest: Greek Revival Masonic Temple in Crawford Alabama

A Matter of Masonic Interest: Greek Revival Masonic Temple in Crawford Alabama

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Can we not respect the past….New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, 122 East 58th Street, New York, New York

Can we not respect the past….New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, 122 East 58th Street, New York, New York
We just don’t understand why the hell the new owners of the former “New York Genealogical & Biographical Society” needed to remove the period sign above the side entrance.  If they got a hold of the New York [...]

Rural Methodist Church Represents Extinct Community, Avery, Avery Road, Derwood, Montgomery County, Maryland

Rural Methodist Church Represents Extinct Community, Avery, Avery Road, Derwood, Montgomery County, Maryland 

While many maps and “cross roads” in rural America bear the name of some long lost community of the early twentieth or some earlier century, there is often nothing left to remind one of the former settlement.  And on the rare occasion that [...]

First Furness, First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, Penna

 
“In front of the church there will be a cloister of six arches, two of which wil be occupied for doors.  At one end of the cloister, there will be a circulating library.  At the corner of the building there will be a tower, the lower part having a carriage porch.”
This unidentified newspaper clipping dated February [...]

The House at Bartram’s Garden, West Philadelphia

In midst of 46 acres of the oldest surviving botanical garden in America, John Bartram’s house remains almost completely in tact from the eighteenth century.  Adapted between 1728-1731 from an originally vernacular Swedish and English combination (see rear elevation below), the house was “palladimized” by Bartram between 1758 and 1770 (see above image).  Bartram designed and handcrafted the [...]

Old State Capitol, Lexington, Kentucky (Constructed 1830)

Yet another winner of a nineteenth century architectural competition (around 1827), Gideon Shyrock (1802-1880) designed the Greek Revival period state capitol building in his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky.  The state edifice was finished in 1830, costing roughly $85,000. 

Born in Lexington, Shyrock also studied in his hometown at the Lancastrian Academy and went on to apprentice for one [...]

Has John Wanamaker been forgotten at 2032 Walnut?

In 1861, John Wanamaker (1838-1922) opened his first store at Sixth and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he eventually became one of the first entrepreneurs in America to have a set price for goods.  His entrepreneurial success won him high regard and eminence as a merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, and as [...]

Building of the Week: Loudoun House, Lexington, Kentucky

As dusk approached we were driving about Lexington, Kentucky, “curating” the built environment with the Lumix when we stumbled upon a great mansion—Loudoun House.   
 
After seeing the Gothic Revival villa of William Coventry H. Waddell at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 37th Street in New York City’s Murray Hill, Francis Key Hunt (1817-1879), [...]