Clarendon and George Morphett.

Surveyed land was put up for sale in Clarendon valley in 1840 and Richard Blundell purchased a section. In 1846 James Philcox purchased part of the section and subdivided a town. Within a couple of years George Morphett, (brother of Sir John Morphett) who had purchased the adjoining land to Philcox subdivided his land also for the town of Clarendon. The town grew slowly in this steep valley. The Tally Ho Inn opened in 1848 (now demolished) and later in 1855 the Royal Oak Hotel opened on former Morphett land. To boost his town Morphett donated land for a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in 1849 on land just above his own house- Blackwood Lodge. The Grecian/Gothic style stone chapel (opened in 1851) remains as a private residence but the surrounding gravestones were moved to a new cemetery in 1875. When the new Methodist church opened in the main street in 1875 this church closed and it became the town school and finally a Druids Hall. Morphett’s house Blackwood Lodge dates from 1844 but has been added on to many times including the 1860s and 1890s. Almost next door to Blackwood Lodge is the former home of one of George Morphett’s daughters. The central part of this house was built early but the ends with bay windows were erected in 1876. Morphett’s daughter ran a store here but in 1922 a truck ran into the building and damaged it. It has not yet been repaired!

 

The other activity which set Clarendon apart was the establishment of a vineyard and finally a winery. William Leigh (of Leigh Street Adelaide) bought Clarendon land for a vineyard in the 1840s although he never visited the colony. His SA agent was Sir John Morphett. Consequently John Morphett’s brothers George and Henry Morphett leased the land and planted the first vines around 1848. Edward Peake took over the vineyard in 1853 from Leigh, and appears to have purchased it and built the first cottage on the site in 1858. Peake left Clarendon in 1860 and sold the winery to Joseph Gillard who took over the vineyard and a two story cottage. Gillard ran the winery for 40 years. He built the more winery buildings in 1865 and used to sell most of his wine to Penfolds. In the 1970s the winery complex was renovated and turned into a conference centre. On the road into the winery complex is a fine two storey 19th century house built by Thomas Shipster the town undertaker. He donated land for the recreation ground and playground.

 

The fertile valley at Clarendon helped the town prosper. By the 1860s and 1870s it was a thriving place and a new wave of building occurred, mainly in yellow sandstone. Notable buildings are the wonderful Gothic Court House and Police Station with gothic stables at the rear, all erected in 1868. The architect was William Abbot and the builder George Sara of Willunga. Next door is the Bible Christian Methodist Church built earlier in 1854 with a slate roof. When the 3 Methodist churches amalgamated in 1900 this church as sold off and became the Council Chambers. It is now used as a town museum. In front is a lighted war memorial for seven young locals who gave their lives in war. Nearby on the other side of the main street is the 1875 Methodist Church (now Uniting) built in Grecian style with triangular pediment and pilasters besides the front door. Close by is the Oddfellows Hall designed by the same architect as the Methodist church but built before it in 1872. Further along is the General Store with the fancy Dutch gables. The central part was built in 1873 and the ends were added in the 1880s. At the bottom of the main street are the government school dating from 1885 and the adjoining headmaster’s residence which was built in 1901. (Earlier private schools existed in Clarendon from the mid 1852.) On the same side is the Community Hall in the reserve which was built as the Clarendon Butter Factory in 1893. (But a butter factory had existed in Clarendon since 1890.) After it ceased making butter in 1906 it became the Rechabite Lodge and since 1972 it has been the Community Hall. As noted with the history of Happy Valley, the Clarendon Weir on the Onkaparinga River was constructed between 1892 and 1894 with associated water pipes to pump the water to Happy Valley Reservoir. The weir wall was faced with Macclesfield marble.

Built in 1909 (opened in January 1910) by real estate developer Robert Marsh (who saw Mount Washington as a real estate possibility). His goal was to subdivide the more level land at the top of the hill and create large, exclusive, expensive lots with spectacular views of the ocean, Catalina and the San Gabriel Mountains. He wanted his development to rival the mansions in Westlake, West Adams and South Broadway. And he would lure people to the area by first constructing a resort hotel.

 

Even though the hotel was initially modest the whole project was enormous. Aside from constructing a hotel Marsh had to buy the land, design tracts and install public utilities. Furthermore, there was no practical access to the top of the mountain. Marsh was inspired by the “Angels Flight” incline rail (in downtown Los Angeles) which ran at 33% grade. He took a silent partner (Arthur St. Clair Perry) and built his own incline* rail called the "Los Angeles and Mount Washington Railway Company." The cable system had a length of 3000 feet (with a grade as high as 42%) and cost $42,000. Marsh was convinced that people would ride the Los Angeles Railway from downtown, get off at (what would become) Avenue 43 and Marmion Way and then ride his incline rail cars up to the hotel to experience its breathtaking views. He ran an ad in the May 21, 1909 Los Angeles Times which read:

 

“Mt Washington is just 20 minutes from Broadway and the center of downtown Los Angeles. It is no longer a dream of future achievement. It is a splendid, vivid reality of today. The stately mountain, whose beauties and scenic advantages have been admired for years, is now within 20 minutes of the heart of the business district. The sound of builders is heard from every side. Beautiful costly homes are about to spring up all over the mountain. A magnificent system of streets and boulevards is being projected. A trip to the incline and the summit of Mt. Washington will inspire and thrill you. Just take the Garvanza car, get off at Marmion Way and Avenue 43, and for 5 cents, just a nickel, you will have the ride of a lifetime. Service begins Sunday- May 23rd. Robert Marsh & Company 140 West 5th Street-Los Angeles.”

 

Marsh had wanted service to start on George Washington’s birthday (Feb 22) but the weather did not cooperate with construction. Furthermore the city inspector insisted that wood planking be added to the cable route as a safety measure. But in the end the plan worked, people flocked (the incline cars ran 11 hours a day, 18 hours on weekends) and the area eventually blossomed as an exclusive hilltop residential site.

 

Interestingly enough Mount Washington Hotel had only 18 rooms. With the majority of visitors coming and going for merely an afternoon or an evening there was little profit to be made. However, there were several silent film studios nearby (particularly in Sycamore Grove Park). And motion picture stars were taking up long term residence in the hotel. But in 1913, the studios ran out of room to expand their facilities and started moving to the Edendale section of Los Angeles, leaving The Mount Washington Hotel without customers. It closed in the summer of 1921. Briefly it became the location of the Goodrich-Mount Washington Emphysema Hospital before being purchased (in 1925) by Parmahansa Yogananda, a monk of the ancient Swami Order in India and founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. The hotel was restored when Yogananda purchased it (it was occupied by vagrants and had been vandalized). The hotel building, today, remains the international headquarters of the Self-Realization Fellowship.

 

* The incline rail was what is known as a funicular railway. It consisted of two cars connected to each other by a cable. They counterbalanced each other so as one ascended the other descended. The railway ceased functioning in 1919 (due to a battle with the L.A. Board of Public Utilities who viewed the rail line as an elevator and wanted Marsh to make required upgrades). Although Marsh was granted a license to operate it as a railroad the California State Supreme Court determined that it was a vertical elevator. So Marsh ended the service and abandoned the railway. The City of Los Angeles had to purchase Mt. Washington Dr. (a private road), assume its maintenance, as well as construct other roads to serve the area. Suffice to say that the city spent far more money than if they had simply taken over and run the incline railway themselves.

 

3880 San Rafael Ave., Los Angeles, California

 

A “non-F” photo

147 Walnut St; a Colonial store that opened in the early 60s. Not sure if it ever became another supermarket after closing; currently subdivided into several different stores.

At the 27-acre North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Tunisia rest 2841 of our military dead, their headstones set in straight lines subdivided into nine rectangular plots by wide paths, with decorative pools at their intersections. Along the sout

The Mont-Saint-Michel abbey is divided in two parts: the church-abbey and the "Merveille". The "Merveille" was the monk living area. Seen from outside, it has a gothic front, on the North side, has three levels and was built over 25 years.

The "Merveille" can be subdivided into two parts: the East and the West sides. The East side was built first (from 1211 to 1218) and has three rooms: the chaplaincy, the hosts room and the dining-hall (from bottom to top). The West side was built seven years later and has three rooms: the wine cellar, the Knights room and the cloister.

 

Due to the nature of the Mont and the way that the abbey has needed to be constructed, the cloister is on top of the rest of the abbey buildings and not at the centre of the complex. Despite this, the cloister which crowns the Merveille [1] has maintained the form and functions of other cloisters found in all other monasteries with just a few subtle differences which set it apart, turning it into a symbolic representation of an ideal monastic life.

 

As with other abbeys the cloister’s function is above all a communications centre inspired by the atrium of a Roman villa and providing access to all the essential rooms: to the east, the refectory and the kitchens which no longer exist; to the south, one door led to the church another to the dormitory; to the west, the three traditional apertures must have opened into the chapter hall that was never built and a small door led to the archives. Only the north gallery, in the direction of the sea was not meant to serve as a way of communication with other rooms. The principal functions of monastic life, except for work and reception, were thus distributed around the cloister.

 

The cloister also served as a passageway, and as in all the other monasteries, it was the place set aside for the monk’s personal meditation. Paradoxically, this symbolic centre of the Benedictine abbey, the very essence of which was the community life that St. Benedict considered the only truly monastic way of life is the only space in which the individual is more important than the community.

 

The columns are as tall as a man and are spaced a shoulder’s width apart. This difference in scale compared to the other rooms is all the more striking in view of the fact that truly imposing spaces must be crossed before arriving at the cloister. The impression of weightlessness aroused by the cloister as a whole is thus accentuated.

The purely physical need to make the cloister, which rests on the vaults of another room, as light as possible explains the airy quality which never fails to take the visitor’s breath away.

 

It was impossible, due to the restrictions of weight to cover the portico with stone vaults and columns and buttresses. The covering therefore had to be of wood, and the plastered barrel vault in wood provides the galleries with their astounding perspective.

 

The weight and thrust of the framework are sustained externally by thick solid granite walls, decorated with blind arcading, and inside by the double arcade, set slightly askew, with its two overlapping rows of pointed arches. These authentic small ogive cross vaults in between carried on the acutely pointed arches hollow out the wall and ensure the triangulation which provides the whole with a perfect stability.

 

Unusual esthetic effects combine with the physical advantages of this type of architecture. The unbroken continuity in the rhythm of the supports and the absence of the solid masonry at the corners permit the eye to move unhindered and at the same time assures an absolute transparency towards the centre of the cloister.

 

The cloister is designed to be closed off to the outside yet extremely open to the centre. It is placed so that no other building rises higher and the slope of the roof reaches directly up towards the sky drawing our attention upwards towards heaven giving the monks a continual reminder of the subject of their meditation [montstmichel.co.uk]

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 854 West End Avenue House is one of an intact group of four residences designed by the architectural firm of Schneider & Herter and built by the firm of Schneider & Company as a speculative venture. 1 The rowhouse group is the sole surviving example of a type of site planning used on several comer plots along West End Avenue in the early 1890s where a group of houses facing the Avenue featured a prominent comer house and an additional house was built facing the side street behind the Avenue-facing houses. Treated as the centerpiece of the rehouse group, the comer house at No. 858 West End Avenue is representative of the many larger comer houses with side entrances and comer towers which once stood on West End Avenue.

 

The group of residences was built in 1892-93 during the first period of intense residential development for the comfortable professional class along the northern portion of West End Avenue where the suburban qualities of landscaped streets, the views of the Hudson River, and the amenities of nearby Riverside Park created a desirable residential area. The 858 West End Avenue House is distinguished by ornament characteristic of the mannerist aesthetic of the firm of Schneider & Herter, the juxtaposition of contrasting textures of rough, smooth-faced, and carved brownstone, and the emphasis on a lively roof line punctuated by a bell-shaped tower and chimneys. The quality and distinctiveness of the Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival style design of the 858 West End Avenue House reflects the desire for individuality in the appearance of houses within rowhouse groups and is representative of the eclectically-styled residential architecture of West End Avenue dating from the 1890s.

 

Development of the Upper West Side

 

Despite its long history beginning soon after the colonial Dutch settlement, the Upper West Side, known as Bloomingdale prior to its urbanization, remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s. In the early eighteenth century, Bloomingdale Road (later renamed the Boulevard and finally Broadway in 1898) was opened through rural Bloomingdale and provided the northern route out of the city which was then concentrated in the southern tip of Manhattan. The Upper West Side was included in the Randel Survey of 1811 (known as the Commissioners' Map) which established a uniform grid of avenues and cross streets in Manhattan as far north as 155th Street, although years elapsed before streets on the Upper West Side were actually laid out, some as late as the 1870s and 1880s, and the land was subdivided into building lots.

 

The city grew rapidly northward during the nineteenth century, but it was not until after Central Park (a designated New York City Scenic landmark) was laid out in 1857 that development began around the perimeter of the Park, setting off the first wave of real estate speculation on the Upper West Side.

 

Improved public transportation to the area contributed to the growth and sustained development of the Upper West Side. By 1880 the horse car line on Eighth Avenue had been replaced by street rail service up to 125th Street and the Elevated Railway on Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890) had been completed. However, the biggest boost to the development of the West End (the area west of Broadway) was the creation, between 1876 and 1900, of Riverside Drive and Park (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark) located north of 72nd Street along the Hudson River. The presence of the park and drive, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was an important factor in making this area desirable for high-quality residential development.

 

Development of the Wast End began slowly, due, to a large degree, to the hesitation of would-be residents, but by 1885 it had emerged as the area in the city experiencing the most intense real estate speculation. The expectation that the blocks along Riverside Drive and West End Avenue would be lined with mansions kept the value of these lots, as well as adjacent land, consistently higher and developers were willing to wait to realize profits from the potentially valuable sites. The real estate developers, including the West End Association, founded in 1884 by the prominent developer, W.E.D. Stokes, ultimately stimulated the demand for houses in the West End. Real estate brochures and the local press drew attention to the area, emphasizing the scenic quality of the setting, the nearness of parks, and the availability of public transportation.

 

West End Avenue (formerly Eleventh Avenue) was opened in 1880 from 72nd Street to 106th street and was paved with asphalt by 1893. West End Association members set twenty-year restrictive covenants governing West End Avenue which closed the avenue to commercial traffic and initially limited development to single-family houses, thus enhancing the desirability of the residential area. By 1890 the character of the avenue had emerged as completely residential and was promoted as a suburban-like setting with such amenities as grass plots and trees along the sidewalks. The absence of flats and apartment houses on the avenue provided the opportunity for various treatments of the comers with rowhouses and larger attached residences.

 

In the mid-1880s the most attractive areas for development along West End Avenue were located near the El stations and along the higher elevations of the hilly avenue. Construction of mid-size rowhouses, rather than the more grand type of mansions originally projected for West End Avenue, began in 1885 near 104th Street which was convenient to a Ninth Avenue El station and by 1895 the high plateau between West 99th and 104th Streets had been built up with three- and four-story rowhouses. The architectural tone of these private residences was set by the presence of costly mansions such as the W.F. Foster residence at 102th Street and Riverside Drive and the Bacon residence at 104th Street and Riverside Drive.

 

The Schneider & Company's Houses

 

The site at the northeast corner of West 102nd Street and West End Avenue appears to have been first sold for development purposes in 1881 and at that time an open-ended restrictive covenant was initiated which prevented the construction of a variety of commercial and industrial buildings. The property changed hands several times before Hannah O'Brien filed plans in 1890 to build five three-story limestone-fronted houses designed by Andrew Spence; within a year O'Brien lost control of the property and this project was abandoned.

 

Two New York architects, Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter, along with two partners — John Fish, a previous client, and Eugene Schultz— acquired the property and soon after filed plans for the construction of a group of four three-story residences with raised basements. Beside the comer house, facing West End Avenue, are two narrow houses, nearly identical in design. Situated across the rear of the three West End Avenue houses, facing West 102nd Street and enclosing the yard area, the fourth house has a freestanding side facade. The houses, built between May, 1892, and April, 1893, were appropriately finished on the interior with decorative mantels, hardwood trim, and horseshoe openings ornamented with fretwork dividing the music rooms from the parlors, as well as up-to-date plumbing and utility areas. The placement of the stairhall in the center of each house permitted large full-width front rooms on the upper floors.

 

The first house to be sold in the rowhouse group was No. 856 West End Avenue. In 1895 the remaining houses were divided among the investors and Schneider & Herter acquired title to No. 858 West End Avenue. The house was sold in 1897 but title reverted to Schneider & Herter in 1898; they soon resold the house. No. 854 West End Avenue had been sold in 1895 and the West 102nd Street House was sold in 1896.

 

The Schneider & Company development venture is the sole surviving example of a site development pattern that emerged on West End Avenue in which large comer parcels were purchased for the construction of rowhouse groups. By decreasing the depth of the avenue-facing houses, an additional house could be built on the plot facing the side street; the plan worked to the advantage of the developer who sought a maximum return on the expensive West End Avenue lots. Slightly larger and more prestigious comer houses, with highly visible design features such as comer towers, were characteristic of this site development plan. This scheme was particularly favored in the early 1890s when the area between 99th and 104th streets was developed. Rowhouse groups facing West End Avenue, with a side street-facing house (or houses) across the rear of these lots, were built at the southeast comers of West End Avenue and 99th, 100th, 102nd, and 103rd Streets; all of the groups except the Schneider & Company group have been demolished.

 

The rowhouse group at the southeast comer of 103rd Street and West End Avenue, designed by M.V.B. Ferdon in 1891, included five houses facing West End Avenue and one facing 103rd Street; only the house facing West 103rd Street remains standing. Another group of houses designed by M.V.B. Ferdon and built by Increase Grenell in 1892 at the northwest comer of West End Avenue and 104th Street (demolished) included a comer house very similar to the Schneider & Company house, featuring the entrance near the center of the 104th Street facade.

 

Picturesque Architecture on West End Avenue

 

Curing the intense period of rowhouse development on the Upper West Side, from 1885 to 1900, residential design was dominated by a reaction to the conformity and homogeneity of older Italianate style brownstone rowhouses found elsewhere in the city. The first wave of development along West End Avenue in the period between 1885 and 1895 produced a number of individually-designed houses and speculatively-built, yet distinctive, rowhouse groups which, along with houses in the West End as a whole, represent the culmination of single-family house construction in Manhattan. Many of the most prominent architects working in New York City designed these residences, often for speculative developers who invested in the area. The residences designed for West End Avenue were characteristic of the picturesque eclecticism of late-nineteenth-century architecture, drawing from a wide variety of stylistic sources and expressing the desire of architects and clients for originality, variety, and novelty in residential architecture.

 

There was a movement away from smooth brownstone as a facing material and a new emphasis on the sculptural and textural qualities of surfaces, as well as on the mixture of colors and materials.

 

Unusual, picturesque house design on West End Avenue had been initiated by the construction of two groups of houses with a "Dutch" flavor in 1885-86, designed by Frederick B. White and McKim, Mead & White. Clarence True and other architects continued to design residences for West End Avenue in unusual and picturesque revival styles which were executed with a high-degree of artistic experimentation. Strong rhythmic patterns, asymmetrical massing, and a lively streetscape were created by the profusion of bowfronts, bay and oriel windows, gables, turrets, chimneys, dormers, cornices, stoops, and ornamentation associated with the popular Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles as well as more exotic revival styles. These later rowhouses on West End Avenue, and throughout the Upper West Side, unlike their Italianate brownstone predecessors from earlier in the nineteenth century, were purposely designed to be distinguished from one another, while together forming visually coherent ensembles.

 

The houses designed by Schneider & Herter are representative of this picturesque design movement, and although based on the common hybrid of the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles they are enlivened by unusual carved ornament. The treatment of each of the four houses individually within the easily recognizable group provided the architects with the opportunity to create variations on a theme. The high degree of modulation in the plane of the facades, through the use of recessed entrances as well as projecting bay windows and balconies (which afforded views of the river and park) adds depth and grandeur to the rowhouse designs. Schneider & Herter explored the range of surface effects achievable from smooth-faced and rough-cut brownstone, and incorporated both geometric and figural carving of the material.

 

The repetition of several ornamental elements unites the houses, including paired stringcourses, gridded panels of rough-faced stone, chamfered window surrounds in the smooth-faced facades, sheet-metal panels at the roofline, and elements of the carved stone program. The two smaller West End Avenue houses are identical except for the shape and detailing of the window openings. No. 858 West End Avenue has recessed balconies at the parlor and second stories that relate the comer house to the West End Avenue houses, while the longer West 102nd Street frontage is visually linked to the house at 254 West 102nd Street through the repetition of unusual columns flanking the entrances and the carved panels at the roofline. The round comer tower with a bell-shaped roof serves as the centerpiece of the group.

 

The design of picturesque rowhouses in New York was influenced by trends in the design of architectural ornament in the later nineteenth century, a time when ornament was treated by many architects as an opportunity for creative experimentation. European theorists such as Owen Jones, James K. Collings, and Christopher Dresser encouraged an abstract interpretation of vegetation executed with an emphasis on geometricized form and their publications influenced designers in the United States. At the same time, technological change also influenced the design of ornament. The availability of steam-powered tools encouraged the use of bold, machine-cut ornament while the growing use of terra cotta prompted the design of intricate ornament that could be easily reproduced.

 

The popularity of several revival styles, and the inventive blending of these styles, encouraged the architect/designer to adopt an individualized aesthetic in the design of architectural ornament. This trend can be seen in the abstracted naturalistic ornament developed by such recognized American innovators as Frank Fumess and Louis H. Sullivan, as well as in the pioneering work of architects like Henry Hobson Richardson, who developed a highly personal style drawing on Romanesque sources. Many architects working in New York City also developed identifiable personal styles, such as clarence True with his interpretation of the "Elizabethan Renaissance Revival" style.

 

Schneider & Herter developed a somewhat idiosyncratic and mannerist aesthetic characterized by a lack of reverence for the traditional placement of ornament, an unexpected combining of architectural styles, and asymmetry in the composition of facades and their detailing; these characteristics appear in the firm's early designs for tenements, rowhouses and synagogues. In the ornamental programs of several buildings, including the 858 West End Avenue House, Schneider & Herter combined incised, machine-cut ornament— recalling the earlier Neo-Grec style of incised ornament — with both abstracted naturalistic designs and romantic figurative carving. An uncommon approach to the composition and placement of ornament appears in the design of the entrance where the architects combined pilasters with the projecting balcony above to suggest an entrance portico.

 

Two flattened engaged baluster forms, with incised horizontal bands and necks at the bottom, are topped by capitals with carved shell forms above inscribed circles; animal masks extend from the upper portion of plain blocks above the capitals that support the projecting balcony. Framing the door to the east is a variation on this form, a cylindrical baluster with a capital, different from the flanking ones, of stalky acanthus leaves above which an elongated console bracket supports the balcony. A more subtle example of Schneider & Herter's unusual ornamental treatment appears in the placement of carved stones in the upper courses of the rusticated basement to cap undefined piers.

 

Schneider & Herter

 

Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter began an architectural partnership in New York City around 1887; within a very short time they had a thriving business designing tenements, flats, and industrial buildings, primarily on the Lower East Side. Schneider & Herter worked repeatedly for a group of German-Jewish clients with ethnic backgrounds similar to theirs, the most prominent of whom were the real estate developers Jonas Weil and Bernard Mayer for whom the architects designed a number of multiple dwellings. This association led to the firm's commission for the Park East Synagogue, 163 East 67th Street (1889-90, a designated New York City Landmark), which Weil financed and led as president of the congregation. Schneider & Herter also designed Congregation Kol Israel Arshi at 20-22 Forsyth Street (1892, now owned by the Hellenic Orthodox Community).

 

The firm of Schneider & Herter had acted as architect-developers prior to its venture on the Upper West Side as Schneider & Co., designing and building a pair of French flats at 731-735 East 5th Street in 1890-91 and a French flat at 233-35 Delancey Street in 1891-92; the firm began a warehouse project at 141 West Broadway in 1893. Schneider & Herter later erected a five-story apartment building at 79-81 Perry Street in 1895 (in addition to designing several other buildings now within the Greenwich Village Historic District) and a pair of flats buildings at 309 and 317 West 93rd Street in 1901-02 (within the Riverside-West End Historic District).

 

The West End Avenue-102nd Street project was a departure from Schneider & Herter's usual work designing multiple dwellings, and was among the firm's first projects on the Upper West Side. Many of the firm's more than 100 multiple dwellings in Manhattan no longer stand, but those remaining exhibit the firm's individualistic approach to the use of ornament and facade compositions often featuring round-arched windows characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style.

 

- From the 1990 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Kaufmann's downtown Pittsburgh store has been subdivided and has a Target and Burlington

Mt Pleasant –first town on the Torrens.

This sprawling hills town near the source of the trickling Torrens River has an interesting history. The area was part of one of the SA Company Special Surveys of 1839. The government consequently had surveyed land to sell off which it did in 1842 to three men, Henry Giles Senior, Henry Bushell and James Phillis. They cleared a few trees, built their houses and attracted their relatives, brothers etc to come and take up land in the district. Landowner Henry Glover subdivided some of his land to create the town of Mt Pleasant in 1856 near the pre-existing Mt Pleasant Inn established in 1853. (When this Inn burnt down in 1860 a new hotel was erected called the Mt Pleasant Hotel.) Glover’s town also got the police station (1867). The corbels around the roof line were there originally to support a heavy slate roof which has been replaced with galvanised iron now.

 

Meantime, Henry Giles also decided to subdivide some of his land in 1858 and create a township which he called Totness, immediately adjacent to Glover’s Mt Pleasant township. Giles was already operating a general store here. The two townships competed and then finally amalgamated. In Totness the hotel there opened in 1860 (it began as a single storey hotel with the second floor added in 1918 to provide accommodation for an influx of holiday makers expected with the arrival of the railway in that year). After 1860 Henry Giles developed most of the town himself with a flourmill (1865), blacksmiths, and cottages for his workers and his own residence Totness House (1840s) which is behind the Mt Pleasant Soldiers Memorial Hall. Henry Giles’ Totness roller flour mill had a complex of buildings around it and it is now a café and some shops. The complex included a wattle bark mill, a creamery and a cheese and butter factory. After a fire around 1920 the only part of the old flour mill left was the round stone base but most of the stone buildings for the bark mill, creamery and butter factory survived. Giles’ town progressed more quickly and it soon had a Bible Christian Chapel (1858) now part of the Mt Pleasant School, a Presbyterian Church (1866) and a Wesley Methodist Church (1867). The Town Pound for straying animals also pre-dated Giles town of Totness as it was erected in 1855 and operating until 1944. When the former Bible Christian Chapel closed in 1861 it became the town schoolroom until finally being incorporated into a state school in 1876. The Anglican Church was built in 1860 and has some fine stained glass windows. This is at the northern end of Giles’s town. Across the road from the church is the Anglican cemetery with many fine granite Melrose family headstones with Scottish Celtic crosses on the top.

 

From its earliest days Mt Pleasant was the service centre for some large estates in the district. By the mid 1850s when the town was established, the Melroses had Rosebank estate and the McBeans had Glen Devon estate on the outskirts of Mt Pleasant. These landed gentry had an impact on the town and by 1904 when George Melrose died the Rosebank estate had increased to around 60,000 acres. It was left to the four Melrose children, one who was married to a Murray. After George Melrose’s death there was ongoing conflict between two rival families of the McBeans and the Melroses over the location of the proposed Institute building. Lachlan McBean wanted it on the triangle of land on the main street which used to be an antique shop. He would donate the land but it was a very small odd shaped parcel of land. Robert Melrose wanted it to be on its present site on a spacious block of land that he would donate. There was no agreement on this issue amongst the local committee. The impasse was broken after Henry Giles Junior died in 1921. Robert Melrose bought up most Giles’ lands. Robert Melrose then donated the land for the hall in its present spacious site with parking and a small public reserve. Work began in 1926 and the Institute opened in 1927 but by then it was a War Memorial Hall for the soldiers and service personnel of World War One.

 

Mount Bryan.

The dominant geographical feature of this area is Mt Bryan at 936 metres (or 3,070 feet). Nearby is Mount Razorback which is 863 metres (or 2,831 feet.) Mt Lofty is a mere 727 metres! The pastoralists moved into this high country from 1842 when Alfred Hallett took out a lease over the Mount Bryan Range. Across the ranges to the west Drs William and John Browne took out Booborowie run about the same time. These early leases were annual only and Joseph Gilbert of Pewsey Vale in the Barossa (and Gilberton in Adelaide) took out a 14 year lease over the Mt Bryan Range in 1851 totalling 156 square miles (100,000 acres). Following the development of the great copper mine at nearby Burra more pastoralists moved in on small leaseholds during the 1850s. John Tyler took out a small run on the flat which was later to become the township of Mount Bryan.

 

The Hundred of Kingston (named after Surveyor George Strickland Kingston) was declared in 1860 and farmers rather than pastoralists moved into the district. Several had been employed in Burra and then moved onto the land to make their fortunes or otherwise. One was Henry Collins who established Lucernedale property which later became Collinsville merino sheep stud. He was the first to buy freehold land in the Hundred of Kingston starting with just 176 acres. His son established the sheep stud in 1884 but this was further east in drier country. (John Collins soon had 14,000 acres which became his Collinsville Stud.) Henry Collins near Mt Bryan planted lucerne on the flat land of his property hence his property name. Lucernedale occupied the land immediately to the south of present day Mount Bryan until it abutted Gebhardt’s Mackerode station .It also covered land to the south east of Mt Bryan. The lucerne that Collins grew was used to feed the sheep grazed on the eastern dryer parts of his estate. Another freehold settler from Burra was Gustav Gebhardt a butcher from Burra. He soon purchased 2,000 acres and continually added to it to create his Mackerode property. With his leased land he was the only German background immigrant to join the top ranks of pastoralists in SA. He later owned Pareora near Port Wakefield and other properties. The property was only sold out of the Gebhardt family in the 1990s. Charles Ullman another German background butcher from Burra also purchased land here but he never became one of the wealthy men of the district but more about him later.

 

Mount Bryan emerged as a town over forty years as unusually the Hundred of Kingston had no government town surveyed in it because of its proximity to Burra. The Mt Bryan Hotel opened in 1864 to service travellers and teamsters going further north. There was no rush to build churches in the Mt Bryan area because several pastoralists had small chapels on their own land- the Gebhardts had a Primitive Methodist chapel, Henry Collins had a Wesleyan Methodist chapel and Edward Godden had a Bible Christian Methodist chapel. But in 1874 the District Council of Mt Bryan was formed and the government was talking of extending the railway line from Burra north to Hallett. So in 1878 a rail siding was set to be established at Mt Bryan with the first train reaching the town in 1880. Charles Ullman subdivided part of his land in 1878 to create the private township of Mt Bryan immediately east of the rail siding with one street being Ullman Street. In 1881 another farmer Henry Skews subdivided part of his land to create town blocks west of the railway line near the hotel. Finally in 1907 the government created a government town which surrounded Ullman’s early Mt Bryan. There were plans for the Post Office and Police Station to be built in the new government town but nothing happened. But four identical stone railway workers cottages were erected in the government town. A state school opened in Mount Bryan in 1885 with an attached headmaster’s residence but it closed around 1990. The institute was officially opened in 1910 and is still in use. The Wesleyan Methodist church on Mr Collin’s property became the first Council Chambers and temporary school from 1878 to 1885 when the state school in the town opened. A general store and unofficial Post Office opened in 1879 in the emerging town. The Council later got its own Council Chamber with the new hall and institute and this was rented to the Anglicans and the Lutherans for church. In 1914 the foundation stone for the Anglican Church was laid and the church opened in 1915. The land for the church was donated by Mr Gebhardt. The lych-gate was added in 1964. It is now closed as a church. In 1913 land was donated for a new Methodist church and a wood and iron building called the ‘Cook House” was opened. It served the Methodists until a Romanesque style red brick church was opened next door in 1938. The Catholics held services in the Mt Bryan Hall for some years before they built St Brendan’s Catholic Church in 1925. Today only the hotel and hall survives as the school, churches and store and railway have all been closed.

 

Former Kmart (1993-2005) replaced older location in Holly Square Shopping Center (1980-1993) 1/2 mile away. 96k square foot Kmart subdivided into Farm Fresh supermarket (63k sf) and Big Lots (28k sf), with garden center (5k sf) converted as a Subway.

English

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminha

 

Caminha Village is a municipality in the north-west of Portugal, 21 km north from Viana do Castelo, located in the district of Viana do Castelo.

The municipality has a total area of 137.4 km² and 16,839 inhabitants (2006).

Caminha is subdivided into 20 parishes, among them Vila Praia de Âncora, Moledo, and Vilar de Mouros. The latter is well-known for the oldest rock festival in Portugal. The seat of the municipality is the town (or vila in Portuguese) of Caminha, with 2,500 inhabitants.

The present Mayor is Júlia Paula Pires Pereira da Costa, elected by the Social Democratic Party.

The municipal holiday is Easter Monday.

Caminha is located 2 km from the Atlantic Ocean, on the southern side of the Minho estuary, where this river is met by the smaller and meandering Coura. Here the Minho reaches its widest point (about 2 km) and marks the border between Portugal and Spain. The highly scenic area, with the wide estuary marked by low-tide sandbars, a pastoral and green rural landscape, and pine forests on the slopes of the granitic mountains is increasingly popular for second homes and as a summer resort.

 

Português

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminha

 

Caminha é uma vila portuguesa no Distrito de Viana do Castelo, região Norte e subregião do Minho-Lima, com cerca de 2 500 habitantes.

 

É sede de um município com 129,66 km² de área e 16 839 habitantes (2006),[1] subdividido em 20 freguesias. O município é limitado a nordeste pelo município de Vila Nova de Cerveira, a sudeste por Ponte de Lima, a sul por Viana do Castelo, a norte pela Espanha e a oeste pelo Oceano Atlântico.

 

A foz do rio Minho situa-se em Caminha, fazendo este rio parte integrante da paisagem da vila. Para atravessá-lo rumo à vizinha Galiza, existe um terminal fluvial de barcos, que transportam não só passageiros, mas também automóveis. Desde 1978, Caminha encontra-se geminada com o município francês de Pontault-Combault.

 

Badian is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Cebu, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 37,699 people. The Municipality of Badian is located 97.6 km southwest of Cebu City. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Moalboal; on the south by the municipality of Alegria; on the east by the municipalities of Dalaguete and Argao; and on the west by Tanon Strait.

Badian is administratively subdivided into 29 barangays.

Alawijao Balhaan Banhigan Basak Basiao Bato Bugas Calangcang Candiis Dagatan Dobdob

Ginablan Lambug Malbago Malhiao Manduyong Matutinao Patong Poblacion Sanlagan

Santicon Sohoton Sulsugan Talayong Taytay Tigbao Tiguib Tubod Zaragosa

The Kawasan Falls is a three-layered waterfall series located in the Municipality of Badian, Cebu, which has become a huge attraction with foreign and local tourists throughout the years. The first waterfall is the largest and highest of the three falls, while the two falls uphill are smaller.

Kawasan Falls is located in Barangay Matutinao in Badian, Cebu. To get to Badian from Cebu City you can take a bus at the South Bus Terminal for a three hour ride that will directly take you to Badian. From there, you can take a tricycle that will take you to Barangay Matutinao.

If you are taking a private vehicle, drive past the Municipality of Carcar, and upon reaching the Municipality of Badian through the picturesque mountain road, then drive to Matutinao village. You can always ask for directions from people along the way if it is your first time to go to Kawasan Falls, so you won’t get lost.

When you reach the main road leading to Kawasan Falls, there is a main entrance to the waterfalls area and an entrance fee of 10 peso’s per person. From there, you start on a 20 to 30 minute walk on a trail that will lead you to the first waterfall.

You will then have to trek a further 10 to 15 minutes uphill to get to the second waterfall, and another 15 minute trek to the third waterfalls. There is a resort with restaurant at the area of the first waterfalls. There are small cottages and tables for rent at 300 peso’s each table as at September 2012 ( on top of the menu prices ) and several rooms for rent for those who want to stay overnight. A popular attraction is a bamboo raft ride leading to a shower under the cool falling waters of the first and second waterfall.

The Mactan International Airport is located in Mactan, Cebu; it is served by major airlines like Cebu Pacific Air and Philippine Airlines. You can also fly from Metro Manila to Cebu. There are many domestic flights and sometimes it is economical because many airlines offer a cheaper airfare. Check also for any available promo. If you arrived earlier in Cebu, you can leave straight to Badian providing you already arranged your accommodation there before your arrival or you can stay for a night in Cebu City and have your trip to Badian the next day.

Your choices to come from Cebu City to Badian are: from the airport you can take a taxi to South Bus Terminal look for Ceres Bus Liner via Barili, you can also take Librando Trans. There are buses leaving Cebu City to Badian every 30 minutes or one hour. It will take 2-3 hours or more bus travel to reach Badian from Cebu City depending on the number of stops. You can also hire a taxi at the airport or at the city to Badian, it is more comfortable and faster. Make sure the driver knows where Badian is. The fare is about Php 1500.00 - Php 3000.00 and be prepare for some bartering and some hidden costs

The capital barangay of Badian town is Poblacion. It is located in the centre of the town. This is where the local high school is located called Badian National High School ( BNHS ) is one of the two high schools in the town of Badian. This is also the largest of the two and many students from the neighbouring town just like Moalboal, Alcantara and Ronda come to study in this high school. The lower educational facility in Badian is the Badian Central Elementary School where all the younger children go to school for the simple fact that it is completely free and the only elementary school and the biggest one in town. One more very important institution that is located in Poblacion is the Town Hospital where everyone from every other barangay goes to in the time of sickness.

The facility has been better than the past management they have more improvements to the hospitals than anything else which is the best thing they could have done because this is where most Badianganons run to in the time of need. This is also the location where the town church is located ~ the church of Santiago Apostol, which celebrates its Festival on the 25th of July every year. Together with the Feast of Santiago Apostle is the Banig Festival which was started about three years ago. Poblacion is also where the Municipal Hall is located in sitio sawang. Thus, I believe that the municipality should ought to have more funding's in the Hospital Facility more so that the roads that they are trying to fix every single year Poblacion has many sitios which is the little corners of Poblacion which is residential or commercial properties. Some of these sitios are; Syma, Walog, Sawang, Highway, and many more. This is the only urban place in Badian compared to any other barangays that surround the town. Poblacion is also the most populated barangay in all Badian. Which has 3854 population as of 2007 Census. Poblacion is where the marketplace is located. Thus, most of the trading is here. Many vendors from all over town will show up mostly on Saturdays and Sundays for the trading.

Photo taken 3/16/2018

 

Store has since been subdivided into Harbor Freight and Grocery Outlet.

 

Toys R Us store

317 Boardman Poland Rd, Boardman, OH 44512

Former gunpowder and dynamite factory built in 1879 somewhere in Belgium. This site is where powder and explosives were made, in particular for a use in the mines. The site was sold and demilitarized in 1990 after the bankruptcy of its company.

 

Spread over about ten hectares secretly hidden in the forest, the "factory" is subdivided into approximately fifty buildings isolated from each other. The reason of this isolation? Simply to avoid chain explosions in case of accident.

 

Among all these buildings, there are workshops, laboratories and testing rooms, as well as administration and machinery buildings, and also warehouses. The site is also provided with a central heating network distributed towards all the buildings through above-ground insulated conducts.

 

Discovering the site is comparable to a long and pleasant stroll in the forest, but we have to admit that most of the instruments and working accessories are gone and many buildings are now empty.

 

Besides, the site is polluted and many nitrophilous plants took a malicious pleasure in regaining control of the place, even growing inside the houses.

 

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Ancienne poudrerie et dynamiterie belge construite en 1879. À ne pas confondre avec la poudrière (soit le "magasin à poudre"), ce site était une usine de fabrication de poudre et explosifs, destinés notamment à un usage dans les mines. Le site fut revendu et démilitarisé en 1990 suite à la faillite de la société.

 

Étalée sur une bonne dizaine d'hectares enfouis secrètement dans la forêt, "l'usine" se subdivise en (approximativement) une cinquantaine de bâtiments isolés les uns des autres. La raison de cet isolement? Simplement pour éviter des explosions en chaîne en cas d'accident de travail.

 

Parmi tous ces bâtiments, on retrouve des ateliers, laboratoires et salles de test, ou encore des bâtiments administratifs, de machinerie et des entrepôts. Le site est également muni d'un réseau de chauffage central redistribué vers tous les bâtiments via des conduites aériennes à parois isolantes.

 

Si la visite du site constitue une longue et agréable balade en forêt, force est de constater qu'il reste peu d'instruments et accessoires de travail dans les bâtiments.

 

Le site étant par ailleurs pollué par des ingrédients (comme le nitrate) qui servaient à la fabrication de la poudre, les plantes nitrophiles ont depuis lors pris un malin plaisir à se ré-approprier les lieux, allant jusqu'à pousser à l'intérieur des maisons.

Victoria Beach ( Praia da Vitória) is a city and county located in the eastern part of Terceira Island in the central group of the Azores.

 

In the Azores, the city has about 6 200 inhabitants. It is the seat of a municipality with 162.29 kilometers ² and 20 252 inhabitants (2001), subdivided into 11 parishes. The council, one of two of the island is limited to the south and west by the municipality of Angra do and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east

 

Installed definitely the first settlers on the island of Terceira, Jacome Bruges became the first captain of the donee of the island, the place from the beach, where its residence, along with his lieutenant Diogo Teive. The beach was formed as the seat of the captaincy of the Third between 1456 and 1474, when the island was divided into two provinces, the disappearance of the grantee, leaving the captaincy of the Beach office of Álvaro Martins.

 

The region has developed rapidly, thanks to the culture of pastel and wheat. Thus, the beach was elevated to town, the county seat in 1480, yet the time of Alvaro Martins Homem.

 

In the last quarter of the sixteenth century, Gaspar Frutuoso thus describes the village:

 

"(...) And soon the town is the beach, sumptuous and noble and good buildings, built for a good way, surrounded by good wall with its bastions and strong all-round, filled with noble and old residents, as one of the oldest villages on the island, surrounded by fermosa farms and rich noble and grand nobles with a sumptuous and parish church of three naves, with a chapel with a dome and pillars and portals of carved stone and marble, all surrounded chapels of great (...) morgados its invocation main Santa Cruz (...)."

"(...) Where there house and Mercy hospital, two churches, a hospital of the Holy Spirit and one of Our Lady, with a ship in the middle (...); fermoso and a monastery of St. Francis in who continually lie ten or twelve religious, there are many chapels morgados similar to the aforesaid, three monasteries of nuns, the most important of which is Jesus (...), forty nuns in black veil and two, one Our Lady of Light and other Chagas, obedience and observance of St. Francis, where there are less religious. " (FRUTUOSO, Gaspar. Saudades da Terra (Paper VI). Chapter I, p. 15.)

In the context of Philippine Dynasty, here was fought the battle of Sala (1581). Beach was the pretender to the throne of Portugal, D. Antonio Prior of Crato, was proclaimed king at the time of their arrival in this city in 1582. Later, in the context of the Portuguese Restoration of Independence, was the Beach that took the acclaim of John VI of Portugal, when the arrival of Francisco Ornelas of the Third House.

 

The village was devastated by the earthquake of 1614, with the sea swallowed it were the closest. During the seventeenth century was rebuilt, still prey to many smaller earthquakes.

 

During the Portuguese Civil War (1828-1834), yet here was fought the battle of Bay Beach (August 11, 1829), when a frustrated attempt to land a squad of troops Miguelistas. This victory meant that, by royal charter on 12 January 1837, in recognition, we were awarded the titles of "Outstanding Mui" and "Victory" by the sovereign.

 

Its economic importance has remained, despite the great earthquake of June 15, 1841 (the "Dump the Beach") that partially destroyed. The reconstruction, from the mid-nineteenth century was due to the initiative of the Director José Silvestre Ribeiro. Father Jerónimo Emiliano de Andrade, who lived in the mid-nineteenth century, states:

 

"Only the traveler leaves the village of Cabo da Praia is soon to view the magnificent and majestic town of Praia da Vitoria, which is at a distance of just over a mile. (...)"

The village was elevated to city status on 20 June 1981 and was called Vila da Praia da Vitória to 1983.

 

In the second half of the twentieth century was built in place of Lajes a large aerodrome, the airport of Lajes. At this important work has joined more recently, the Ocean Port of Praia da Vitoria, with a jetty and 1400 meters long, also of great importance to the regional economy. Along the island's port is located in the main industrial center of the island.

 

Financial District, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The American Bank Note Company Office Building is a distinctive, neo-Classical structure which was built in 1907-08 as the corporate, administrative, and sales headquarters for this important, yet little-known company. Created from the merger of several bank note engraving firms in 1858, the American Bank Note Company became, by the late nineteenth century, one of America’s most prominent producers of bank notes, stamps, stock certificates, and letters of credit. The American Bank Note Company had located in lower Manhattan because of its need to be near major financial institutions. After outgrowing several smaller quarters, the firm subdivided its operations, building this headquarters on Broad Street and several years later, a modern printing plant in the Bronx. Both were designed by the architectural firm of Kirby, Petit & Green. The American Bank Note Company Office Building is a five-story structure on a narrow lot bounded by three streets. Its overscaled columns, continuous window bays, and classical carving created a striking corporate image for an unusual manufacturing firm.

   

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

  

The American Bank Note Company

 

The American Bank Note Company has long dominated the specialized field of security engraving.This company was formed in 1858 as the result of the merger of seven major note engraving companies. The printing of bank notes is a unique type of printing started during the early nineteenth century by several companies which produced paper currency for the large number of newly-established state banks. Because of the need to protect documents against counterfeiting and to prevent any losses during the course of printing and issue, the production of securities and currency differed from other types of printing. In order to produce documents that could not be easily replicated, the American Bank Note Company manufactured its own machinery and inks, developed specialized printing methods and unusual types of paper, and used vignettes and other complex designs produced by highly skilled engravers. As the preeminent security engraving firm during the nineteenth century, the American Bank Note Company produced bank notes, postage and revenue stamps, bonds, stock certificates, checks, drafts, and letters of credit for many governments and institutions. In 1891 the American Bank Note Company began producing the American Express Company's new "Travelers Cheques."

 

On its founding in 1858, the American Bank Note Company established its New York City headquarters in the Merchants' Exchange Building at 55 Wall Street. The company moved its office and plant to 142 Broadway (at the corner of Liberty Street) in 1867, and again to another new facility at 78-86 Trinity Place in 1882. A period of rapid growth during the early years of the twentieth century, and the increased value of Lower Manhattan real estate created the need for other New York facilities. Under the leadership of president Warren L. Green, an engraver who rose through the management ranks of the organization, the American Bank Note Company began to update several aspects of its operation. The removal (in 1908) of the company’s administrative and sales functions to a new building by Kirby, Petit & Green at 70 Broad Street, in the heart to the financial district, was the first step toward easing the space shortage. Shortly thereafter (1909-11), plans were drawn for a new plant at Hunt’s Point in the Bronx, also designed by Kirby, Petit & Green. This separation of administration and production was accompanied by a restructuring and streamlining of management and a more efficient reorganization of the printing operation. The changes were related to the emerging discipline of industrial engineering, which influenced the industrial production and management of many establishments around the turn of the century. With their new administrative headquarters on Broad Street and a new production facility in the Bronx, the American Bank Note Company was justifiably proud. It considered itself the organization in the bank note industry with the finest office building, the best-equipped plant, the most advanced employee welfare and research programs, and the most skilled designers, engineers, and printers.

 

Kirby, Petit & Green

 

The architectural firm of Kirby, Petit & Green was active during the first decade of the twentieth century.Its work included two office buildings in lower Manhattan: one for the Bush Terminal Company, c.1904-06 (100 Broad Street, now demolished), and the office of the American Bank Note Company. In addition to the Bronx printing plant for the American Bank Note Company (1909-1911), Kirby, Petit & Green created plans for other printing facilities, including the Hearst Building, erected in San Francisco (1908), a nineteen-story building which housed the Examiner printing plant in the lower floors, and the new facility for the Country Life Press, in Garden City, Long Island (1910), which was sited as a model factory in a park-like setting. Kirby, Petit & Green's local work also included alterations on a Hearst-owned building near Columbus Circle in Manhattan in 1909, "Dreamland" at Coney Island (c.1904), and several residences in New York and Connecticut.

 

The senior partner in the firm was Henry P. Kirby (1853-1915), son of an architect and builder, who grew up in Seneca County, New York. Kirby trained with Thomas U. Walter in Philadelphia, had brief periods of residency in several Midwest cities, and studied in Europe. Working over twenty years as chief designer for George B. Post, Kirby is considered to have had a major role in the design of the New York Times Building on Park Row (1888-89), the Union Trust Building at 78-82 Broadway (1889-90, now

 

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demolished), the City College competition entry (1897), several city residences, and many other projects. During the 1890s, Compositions by Henry P. Kirby was published in Boston, and through his drawings and paintings Kirby gained a reputation as a gifted delineator and a champion of the eclectic, romantic school of architecture.

 

James C. Green (1867-1927) attended the University of Missouri and also studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; he was the head draftsman in the office of Nathan Clark Mellen in New York City from 1899 to 1901. After leaving the firm of Kirby, Petit & Green in 1909, Green maintained an architectural practice in New York City through the early 1920s.

 

John C. Petit (1870-1923) established a practice in Brooklyn during the early 1890s and is best known for his residential work in what is now the Prospect South Historic District. Petit was the official architect employed by the developer of this area and several of his residential designs were published in Architects' and Builders' Magazine. Petit also designed the All Souls Universalist Church (1905, Ocean and Newkirk Avenues, Flatbush), and rowhouses and tenements in other sections of Brooklyn; he maintained an architectural office through 1922.

 

The American Bank Note Company Building

 

From the city’s earliest days, New York’s business and financial center has been located in Lower Manhattan. Through the nineteenth century, this area was the location of much manufacturing as well as trading and banking. The pressure for more space and the resultant rising rents in Lower Manhattan helped fuel the popularity of tall office buildings by the turn of the century. The proliferation of skyscrapers actually gave small buildings, constructed for a specific client, more distinction. Banks and similar institutions often chose to exploit this distinctiveness by hiring prominent architects to create buildings which would enhance the image they wanted to portray, that of a solid and trustworthy place in which to put one's money. Thus, after the turn of the century, banks tended to favor individual, monumental buildings, often in classical styles. Overscaled columns, made prominent by recessed windows became a symbol of a banking institution.

 

Due to its close relationship with numerous financial institutions, the American Bank Note Company had been located in Lower Manhattan since its formation in the mid-nineteenth century. The need for this proximity continued to exist during the twentieth century for the company's new administrative offices. Following trends in banking design of the period, the American Bank Note Company sought to create a distinguished and distinctive corporate headquarters to declare their prominence in their field. For this they turned to the architectural firm of Kirby, Petit & Green.

 

Shortly before this commission, Kirby, Petit & Green had designed a small office building for the Bush Terminal Company on a similarly shaped lot, a few blocks from that purchased by the American Bank Note Company in 1906. Located at 100 Broad Street (and now demolished), this small office building served as a design precedent for the American Bank Note Building. Although the American Bank Note Company Building had an additional floor, and was dressed in neo-Classical detailing, and the Bush Building was done in a neo-Gothic style, the shape and fenestration patterns of the two buildings were remarkably similar.

 

Description

 

This five-story granite building sits on a narrow lot. The building’s main facade, which is only one bay wide, faces Broad Street, while the two identical side facades face Beaver and Marketfield Streets. Broad cornices divide the building horizontally, above the first story and below the top story, setting off the center three floors which are linked by continuous columns on the front and pilasters on each side. Between these vertical elements, angled bay windows (not original) rise continuously for three stories. Set on a raised water table, the first story is further distinguished by rusticated stonework, with alternating narrow and wide horizontal bands.

 

The main entrance is centered on the Beaver Street facade and is reached by a short staircase. The opening is emphasized by engraved rectangles in the stones which give the effect of quoins. Within the opening is a glass and metal replacement door, set in a glass surround similar in style to the windows. Mounted above the entrance is a carved eagle atop a medallion, the corporate symbol of the American Bank Note Company. The prominent Greek key molding at this level represents the classical themes of this building. Rising for three stories above this entrance are two fluted, Corinthian columns in antis. These overscaled elements flank the recessed, (replacement) metal sash windows and support an entablature which originally held the name, "American Bank Note Company.” To each side of the entrance stairway, on the ground level, is a small, narrow window with replacement sash. A similar window is located above these, at the next level.

  

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All four windows are covered by metal grilles.

 

The identical side facades are each five bays wide. The rusticated stone work located on the ground story of the front facade continues on each side. Each of the three center bays at this level have a large window with glass and metal mullions in a pattern similar to the other replacement windows. Near the intersection of Beaver and Broad Streets, a new entrance has been cut in the stone, with a modern glass and metal doorway. Another entrance (original) with a small stoop and carved lintel is located in the bay nearest the rear of the building. On the second through fourth stories, the three center bays have modern, metal-sash bay windows (painted black) which rise continuously. They are flanked by overscaled, flat pilasters. The end bays of each side facade are primarily flat, ashlar masonry, pierced at each level by single, narrow windows with modern sash and vents.

 

Above the fourth story a broad cornice encircles the building. It is topped by a plain metal railing. Recessed behind this railing, the fifth story continues the fenestration pattern of the lower floors. Pilasters flank the central, three-window bay on the Broad Street facade, as well as the three large bays on the side facades. The end bays of these side facades have a small, centered window similar to those on the floors below. A simple cornice crowns the building on the three exposed sides, surmounted by small gargoyles located near the corner of each facade.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1984, the American Bank Note Company closed its Bronx printing facility and moved to a new plant in Rockland County. The offices were moved in 1988 to Blauvelt, New York, and this building at 70 Broad Street was sold to real estate investors. The building served for several years as a fast food facility. The building changed owners again in 1995 and has been reopened as a restaurant serving the Wall Street area.

 

- From the 1997 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

(Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Corp. Building, Jamaica, Queens

 

Constructed in 1929, the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building maintains a commanding presence near the business center of Jamaica, Queens. Designed by the distinguished architectural firm of Dennison & Hirons which was known for its bank buildings, this eight-story structure was built at a time of tremendous business prosperity and building activity.

 

The architects used the Art Deco style enhanced with colorful terracotta ornament to create a modern and distinctive headquarters for the Long Island-based firm, which was organized in 1925 to insure real estate titles, guarantee mortgages, and make loans. Echoing the dominant shapes of the prominent Art Deco skyscrapers of the period in this smaller building, the architects emphasized the verticality of the structure with continuous masonry piers and a variety of setbacks near the top.

 

This arrangement, along with the brightly-colored, terra-cotta panels by noted sculptor Rene Chambellan that are strategically applied to the crown and the second story, make this a truly unique building in downtown Jamaica, and a rare example of the skyscraper style applied to small buildings outside of Manhattan.

 

Development of the Area

 

Jamaica, one of the oldest settlements within the current boundaries of New York City, developed into the leading commercial center of Queens County by 1900 and continues to be the largest and most densely-populated neighborhood in central Queens. The Dutch purchased the land in Jamaica from the Jameco Indians in 1655. The following year, Governor Peter Stuyvesant granted a charter to the town, originally known as Rusdorp.

 

Following the transfer of power from the Dutch to the English in 1664, Rusdorp was renamed Jamaica, after the original inhabitants of the region. Queens County (incorporating present-day Queens and Nassau Counties) was chartered in 1683 and Jamaica was one of the three original governing units established there (along with Newtown and Flushing). Outside the town center, Jamaica was largely an area of farms and pastures. The rural village was officially incorporated by New York State in 1814.

 

Jamaica's central location in Queens County, and the extensive transportation network that developed in the town during the nineteenth century, transformed the village into the major commercial center for Queens County and much of eastern Long Island. The arrival of the railroads in the 1830s began this evolution.

 

The rail lines connected Jamaica with other sections of Queens county, Brooklyn, eastern Long Island, and the ferries to New York City. Jamaica's farmland was soon being subdivided into streets and building lots, and many houses were erected.

 

By the turn of the century, Jamaica' s importance as a commercial area became evident in the impressive buildings constructed on Jamaica Avenue, most notably the Beaux-Arts Jamaica Savings Bank Building (161-02 Jamaica Avenue, 1897-98, Hough & Duell), and the neo-ltalian Renaissance Queens County Register Office (161-04 Jamaica Avenue, 1898, A.S. Macgregor, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

After Jamaica was incorporated into the Borough of Queens and became a part of New York City on January 1, 1898, additional transportation improvements brought increasing numbers of people. As a result, the population of Jamaica quadrupled between 1900 and 1920.

 

During the 1920s, when the major mass transit links were in place and private automobile ownership was growing at an extraordinary rate, Jamaica experienced its major expansion as a commercial center. By 1925, lots on Jamaica Avenue between 160111 Street and 168th Street had the highest assessed valuation in Queens County.

 

Many small-scale commercial buildings were erected in Jamaica at this time, as well as several major office and commercial structures, including the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Building on 161st Street (1928-29, George W. Conable) and the J. Kurtz & Sons Store on Jamaica Avenue (1931, AUmendiger & Schlendorf, a designated New York City Landmark). When the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company chose Jamaica for its new headquarters building in 1929, this was the most prosperous commercial section of the borough. It was also a center for banking and insurance in Queens, with several other banks and title guarantee companies located on the same block.

 

Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company

 

The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company was founded in 1925 for the purpose of insuring property titles, making loans on bonds and mortgages, and selling guaranteed mortgages. The company, with businessman Willard Baylis as president, was organized in Suffolk County, but had offices in Manhattan, Long Island City, Mineola, and Riverhead, as well as Jamaica, Queens.

 

Its slogan was "A Title Company that Knows Long Island." Established during the period of intense business activity of the nineteen-twenties, the company expanded rapidly, and by 1927 had acquired another well-known title company, Clarke & Frost. By 1928, the firm needed larger quarters to accommodate its increasing business and began acquisition of this site near the commercial center of Jamaica, Queens. They hired the architectural firm of Dennison & Hirons, known for its important bank buildings in the newly-popular Art Deco style, to create a distinctive headquarters and unique symbol for this growing business.

 

Dennison & Hirons

 

Ethan Allen Dennison (1881-1954) Frederic Charles Hirons (1883-1942)

 

Ethan Allen Dennison, born in New Jersey, studied architecture at the Godfrey Architectural Preparatory School and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He began his career in the office of Trowbridge & Livingston in New York in 1905, joining with Frederic Hirons to form the partnership of Dennison & Hirons in 1910. Their firm continued until 1929, including the one year (1913) during which they were joined by Percy W. Darbyshire, creating the firm of Dennison,

 

Hirons & Darbyshire. Dennison won the Medal of Honor of the Society of Diploma Architects of France and was a member of the Beaux Arts Society of New York, as well as the American Society of the French Legion of Honor. After the dissolution of the firm of Dennison & Hirons, Dennison continued to practice architecture in New York as the head of Ethan Allen Dennison & Associates. Much of his later work was in Connecticut, where he lived, and in 1940 he moved his firm to that state.

 

Frederic Charles Hirons was bom in England but moved as a child to Massachusetts with his family. He worked as a draftsman in the Boston office of Herbert Hale from 1898 until 1901 when he began to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1904, he won the Rotch traveling scholarship, and went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He won the Pans Prize in 1906, enabling him to continue his studies and travel in Europe through 1909.

 

Hirons was always interested in drawing and the education of young students. He led his own atelier for several years after his return from Europe, taught architecture at Columbia University, was a founder of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, and served as president of the Beaux Arts Society of Architects. He was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in recognition of his services for architectural education. In 1929 Hirons formed a partnership with F. W. Mellor from Philadelphia for two years, and then practiced under his own name until 1940.

 

Hirons won the competition for the design of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York (1928, a designated New York City Landmark) as well as several courthouses and war memorials. Early works of the firm of Dennison & Hirons include the whimsical Childs Restaurant in Coney Island, and such neoclassical style buildings as the Delaware Title & Insurance Company, Wilmington, Delaware, the Kanawha Banking and Trust Co., Charleston, West Virginia, the Purcellville National Bank, Purcellville, Virginia, the National State Bank, Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the Trenton Banking Company, Trenton, New Jersey. Later in their partnership, Dennison & Hirons designed numerous tall bank buildings in the Art Deco style, often collaborating with architectural sculptor Rene Chambellan for the terra-cotta panels.

 

The State Bank and Trust Company of New York at Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street, the Home Savings Bank, Albany, New York, and the Society for Savings, Hartford, Connecticut, as well as the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building were all Art Deco style office buildings designed by Dennison & Hirons and adorned with Chambellan's characteristic ornament.

 

The terra cotta used in these buildings was similar to that featured by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company in a special issue of their magazine devoted to the work of this architectural firm.

 

This article included an explanation of Dennison & Hirons method for producing the colored terra-cotta panels used on their buildings. One-quarter scale models were created and painted according to their designs. These were then mounted on the building at their exact locations, so that the colors could be adjusted according to the differing light exposures. After these models were finalized, the Polychrome Department of the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company would create glazes to achieve the desired shades. In this way Dennison & Hirons were able to produce colorful ornament which has remained visually stunning for many years.

 

Rene Chambellan (1893-1955)

 

Rene Paul Chambellan became a noted architectural sculptor and model-maker whose sculpture, bas-reliefs, and panels were executed in a number of materials, including bronze, stone, and terra cotta. Bom in Union City, New Jersey, he was educated at New York University (1912-14), and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (1914-17), and Ecole Julian (1918-19) in Paris and was a student of the sculptor Solon Borglum. He served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army in France in 1917-19. After returning to the United States, Chambellan worked with Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells on the ornament of the Tribune Building (1924) in Chicago, and participated in the design and execution of the ornament of many important buildings of the 1920s and 30s in New York City.

 

Chambellan did many of the flat, highly stylized designs popular on Art Deco buildings and he worked on several projects with the architects Dennison & Hirons, creating models for the terra-cotta ornament based on Hirons' designs.

 

Art Deco Style

 

The Art Deco or Modern classical style of architecture, which primarily appeared in this country from the mid- 1920s through the 1930s, has been called an "avant-garde traditionalist" approach to creating a contemporary idiom for buildings of the period.

 

Much of the architecture known as Art Deco was based on accepted, standard forms and construction techniques and most of the architects active in this style had received traditional Beaux-Arts training in which the plan and the design of elevations were the first and most important phases in the design of a building. However, designers and critics of this time expressed the need for a new style which could be deemed appropriate for the period dubbed the "Jazz Age," with all its accompanying technological developments. Thus buildings were given a modern cast through the use of a characteristic ornament, and a variety of materials, some new and some simply used in a new way.

 

The popular design and ornamental ideas of the period evolved from numerous influences including: the Paris 1925 Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs (from which the Art Deco style took its name), the well-publicized designs of the Vienna Secessionists and the Wiener Werkstatte, and the German Expressionists, as well as American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan, current theatrical set designs, and Mayan and other Native American forms.

 

The most well-known buildings of this period were skyscrapers and their overall shape came about as a result of the 1916 Building Zone Resolution of New York which decreed setbacks at various levels of tall buildings to allow light and air to reach the streets in an increasingly dense city. A series of dramatic renderings by architectural Tenderer Hugh Ferriss (1889-1962) published in Pencil Points (1923) and in Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929) significantly influenced architects of the period. The drawings and the laws from which they came directed the architects' attention to the building as a whole rather than to a single facade of the structure, thus altering the whole design process. By visualizing buildings "from every possible angle" the architect was transformed from a designer of facades into a "sculptor in building masses."

 

The zoning law provided architects with a rational basis for the form and appearance of the skyscraper as well as a new source of creativity; historical styles did not seem to express this modem sensibility and consequently, a new "skyscraper style" emerged in the 1920s. Major characteristics of the new style, as generated in part by the zoning restrictions, were sculpted massing, bold setbacks, and ornament subordinated to the overall mass. The dramatic rendering style of Ferriss and others articulated this new modernist aesthetic. In addition, an emphasis on the vertically of the tall building derived from the wide influence of Eliel Saarinen's second-prize winning competition entry for the Chicago Tribune Building in 1923. These same sensibilities and vertical emphasis were also often applied to the design of small buildings during this period, with owners and designers trying to demonstrate their modernity.

 

Additionally, architects of this period emphasized the decorative capacity of the building's surface. While designing in such a way as to make it obvious that the outer surfaces were not structural but only there to enclose the space, contemporary designers used a variety of materials. Newly-created metal alloys gave interesting effects, but brick and terra cotta were also favorites because of their wide range of color and textural possibilities. Ornament, usually in low relief and concentrated on specific areas such as the entrance, took the form of angular, geometric shapes such as ziggurats and zigzags, or simplified and stylized floral patterns, parts of circles, or faceted crystalline shapes.

 

The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building

 

In 1928, two lots on the north end of the block bounded by Jamaica and 90th Avenues, and 160th and 161s1 Streets were purchased in the name of Jessica Baylis, wife of the president of the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company. One of these was obtained from the Jamaica Lodge of Free-Masons which had a clubhouse there.15 The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company erected its building on the site in 1928-29, but did not take title to the property until May, 1930, well after the building had been occupied. The company's offices filled the entire structure, including a large, double-height banking room with a mezzanine which occupied most of the street level space.

 

The architects Dennison & Hirons designed many bank buildings during their partnership, both skyscrapers and smaller structures, for the sole use of their owners. By erecting its own building, a company's structure became the symbol of the organization and a physical embodiment of the business in the greater community in which it did business. Banks in particular, wanted buildings which would draw customers but also create an image of stability and reliability. Art Deco style buildings were novel enough to attract attention, but not so unusual that they would be seen as eccentric.

 

Dennison & Hirons were able to satisfy the needs of their customers with buildings that were characterized by simple lines, a variety of setbacks near the roofline, and discrete panels of decoration, strategically placed on the building's facades. Frederic Hirons was a draftsman of exceptional ability and he often worked with modeler Rene Chambellan to create unique panels of terra cotta in flat, stylized designs of leaves, flowers, and fountains which added a distinctiveness to each building.

 

The architects employed all of these elements on the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building. Eight stories tall, this is one of the larger and more unusual structures in the area, with its irregular massing at the upper stories and its colorful ornament. As seen on the more typical Art Deco style skyscrapers, this building has a distinct base with stone cladding which stops in the piers above the second story and an irregularly shaped top created by several floors of setbacks. While this type of massing was originally a response to the 1916 Building Zone Resolution when it was applied to tall buildings in Manhattan, here the architects used the same idea for its aesthetic contribution, since the zoning laws would not have required setbacks on a building of this height.

 

Continuous brick piers with recessed windows also emphasize the height of the building, and stress the grid-like pattern of the facade. The spandrels, which feature inset brick panels, reflect the interest among Art Deco architects for textural patterns on the building's skin. The brightly-colored terra-cotta panels which are located on the spandrels between the second and third stories are unique to this building. The flat, stylized designs of leaves, flowers and fountains repeat across each facade, with the panels on the 90th Avenue side different from those on the two narrow ends.

 

Designed to draw attention to the upper floors of the building, brightly-colored and patterned terra-cotta lintels cap the windows of the eighth story and a large terra-cotta panel is located near the top of each of the narrow facades of the building. These sections display a highly stylized eagle holding a shield, a common symbol on bank buildings and similar to one used by Dennison & Hirons on their City National Bank and Trust Company Building in Bridgeport, Connecticut, of the same period.

 

Following the convention in many Art Deco style buildings of emphasis placed on the entranceway, in this building the two main doors are embellished with surrounds formed of painted ironwork using similar motifs to those found in the terra cotta. In addition a pair of winged griffins in full relief, holding a shield tops each doorway. While the long facade on 90th Avenue has no entrances, its large, ground-story windows have similar, decorative ironwork which has been painted.

 

Subsequent History

 

The Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company moved into their new building during the first half of 1929, but their good fortune and success was short-lived. By 1935, the business was bankrupt. Shortly thereafter it was taken over by the state insurance department and its assets, including this building, were liquidated, although the company continued to be listed at this address until 1940.

 

It took many years for the property to clear after the bankruptcy and liquidation. It was finally resold in 1945 to Frederick C. Trump, a large land-holder and developer in Queens and Brooklyn.18 Trump donated the building to the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation in the 1980s and the offices are currently used by this group and a number of other not-for-profit organizations.

 

Description

 

This eight-story office building has designed facades on 161st Street, 90th Avenue, and 161st Street. The fourth facade overlooks a parking lot and is faced with plain brick. Midway across the fourth facade, rising from the second story, is a narrow light court with a door and window on each story. Near the top of this facade, a neon-lit artwork entitled ''Let It Roll" by Cork Mareschi has recently been installed.

 

161st Street Facade

 

The main entrance is located on the eastern facade. The building is three bays wide with a double-height ground story. The main entrance to the building, which consists of a non-historic, revolving glass-and-metal doorway with a glass transom, is located in the southern bay, while an entrance to the ground story office space via double glass and bronze doors topped by a transom is located in the northern bay. Perched on the bronze lintel of each doorway is a pair of winged griffins with long fish tails holding a tablet.

 

A large plate glass window above a painted iron railing fills the central bay. Ornate painted-metal, three-dimensional surrounds ornament each of the three ground-story openings and include stylized fountain and flower designs. Above the first story letters denoting "The Title Guarantee Company" are applied to the stone facade, replacing the original sign identifying the Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company.

 

Above a granite watertable, the two lowest stories are faced in ashlar limestone that changes to brick with a stepped design in the piers between the second and third stories. Multi-colored, terra cotta panels in a stylized fountain design decorate the spandrels between the second and third story windows. Between the third and sixth stories, the spandrel panels are composed of brick in a darker tone, with an inset of an embossed square pattern.

 

Continuous masonry piers run from the ground floor through the sixth story. Recessed, paired windows with one-over-one, double-hung sash are located within each of the three bays, with a narrow, continuous pier between the two windows in each pair. These piers project slightly above the plain brick cornice at the sixth story level. The building sets back from the street at the seventh story, which is topped by a continuous, plain brick cornice with a narrow stone cap. At the eighth story, the building steps back again and is also narrower, with a single window in each of the two side bays. The four windows at this level are segmentally-arched, with broad, decorative, terra-cotta lintels. The brick piers continue above this level with a central, stepped parapet ornamented by a terra-cotta eagle holding a shield, which covers mechanical equipment.

 

90th Avenue Facade

 

The building is nine bays wide on this elevation. At the ground story are single-pane, double-height windows over painted iron railings. Letters spelling "The Title Guarantee Company" are located between the first and second stories. The design on the second through the sixth stories is the same as on the 161st Street elevation, with terra-cotta and darker brick spandrels, and continuous piers between the bays. The three center bays rise with continuous piers through the eighth story. The three bays on each side step back slightly at the seventh story, and further at the eighth story. Above this are parapets with recessed bays between brick piers which screen elevator equipment and the water tower.

 

160th Street Facade

 

This facade is three bays wide and is almost the same as that on 161st Street. Here the entrance is in the southern bay and is identical to the entrance on 161st Street. The central bay is filled by a ventilating grill and the third bay has a large window opening over painted iron railings. The upper stories have the same arrangement, ornamentation, and setbacks as those on 161st Street.

 

- From the 2001 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Dec.9th 2015_Final Review

 

“Lo-Lux”: This project explores the possibility of combining low-income housing with luxury housing in one tower by giving these two types of housing a different interpretation in public space - in both domestic and the shared space of the tower.

 

In modern context, “luxury” equals to “privatize”. Luxury apartments tend to privatize everything to guarantee the least amount of disturbance from others, therefore we have luxury apartments with private swimming pool at the balcony, private gym and home theatre within the housing unit. In this case, luxury apartments are located at the half of the tower which adjacent to High Line in this project. These units have the view of High line, larger unit space and standard layout.

 

Low-income housing is usually featured with shared space because that’s the more efficient way to distribute space as a resource. Communal kitchen or restrooms are designed for social housing at the beginning. The idea of the Pilotis from Le Corbusier was also aiming at freeing the ground floor space for public use. However, with the development of virtual communication tools, people tend to stay at home to communicate with others virtually, rather than going out physically. Now, the public/shared space for housing needs to be subdivided and scattered.

Inside Margate's Tudor House

 

The Tudor House is one of the Margate’s oldest buildings, dating back to the first half of the sixteenth century. Its form is that of a ‘transitional house’ – bridging the gap between the medieval open-hall and early-modern houses with two storeys throughout. The building was clearly of high status with distinctly ‘showy’ features. Many of these were advanced for its time, including glazed windows and two chimneys at a time when one would have been noteworthy.

During the seventeenth century, the house was the centre of an estate extending up to the cliff top where the current Winter Gardens are sited. A 1776 map shows a sizable farmyard surrounding the dwelling; including a malthouse which still exists to the rear.

Between the late seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, much of the land belonging to the house was sold off; and the building itself had been subdivided into 3 cottages by 1867.

The remaining site was purchased by the council in the late 1930s as part of a slum clearance scheme. However, the importance of the building was recognised after the Second World War and the house was carefully restored in the 1950s. The building today contains much original fabric, together with some noteworthy additions from later periods, such as the ornate plaster ceiling dating from the start of the Stuarts.

[Visit Thanet website]

Badian is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Cebu, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 37,699 people. The Municipality of Badian is located 97.6 km southwest of Cebu City. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Moalboal; on the south by the municipality of Alegria; on the east by the municipalities of Dalaguete and Argao; and on the west by Tanon Strait.

Badian is administratively subdivided into 29 barangays.

Alawijao Balhaan Banhigan Basak Basiao Bato Bugas Calangcang Candiis Dagatan Dobdob

Ginablan Lambug Malbago Malhiao Manduyong Matutinao Patong Poblacion Sanlagan

Santicon Sohoton Sulsugan Talayong Taytay Tigbao Tiguib Tubod Zaragosa

The Kawasan Falls is a three-layered waterfall series located in the Municipality of Badian, Cebu, which has become a huge attraction with foreign and local tourists throughout the years. The first waterfall is the largest and highest of the three falls, while the two falls uphill are smaller.

Kawasan Falls is located in Barangay Matutinao in Badian, Cebu. To get to Badian from Cebu City you can take a bus at the South Bus Terminal for a three hour ride that will directly take you to Badian. From there, you can take a tricycle that will take you to Barangay Matutinao.

If you are taking a private vehicle, drive past the Municipality of Carcar, and upon reaching the Municipality of Badian through the picturesque mountain road, then drive to Matutinao village. You can always ask for directions from people along the way if it is your first time to go to Kawasan Falls, so you won’t get lost.

When you reach the main road leading to Kawasan Falls, there is a main entrance to the waterfalls area and an entrance fee of 10 peso’s per person. From there, you start on a 20 to 30 minute walk on a trail that will lead you to the first waterfall.

You will then have to trek a further 10 to 15 minutes uphill to get to the second waterfall, and another 15 minute trek to the third waterfalls. There is a resort with restaurant at the area of the first waterfalls. There are small cottages and tables for rent at 300 peso’s each table as at September 2012 ( on top of the menu prices ) and several rooms for rent for those who want to stay overnight. A popular attraction is a bamboo raft ride leading to a shower under the cool falling waters of the first and second waterfall.

The Mactan International Airport is located in Mactan, Cebu; it is served by major airlines like Cebu Pacific Air and Philippine Airlines. You can also fly from Metro Manila to Cebu. There are many domestic flights and sometimes it is economical because many airlines offer a cheaper airfare. Check also for any available promo. If you arrived earlier in Cebu, you can leave straight to Badian providing you already arranged your accommodation there before your arrival or you can stay for a night in Cebu City and have your trip to Badian the next day.

Your choices to come from Cebu City to Badian are: from the airport you can take a taxi to South Bus Terminal look for Ceres Bus Liner via Barili, you can also take Librando Trans. There are buses leaving Cebu City to Badian every 30 minutes or one hour. It will take 2-3 hours or more bus travel to reach Badian from Cebu City depending on the number of stops. You can also hire a taxi at the airport or at the city to Badian, it is more comfortable and faster. Make sure the driver knows where Badian is. The fare is about Php 1500.00 - Php 3000.00 and be prepare for some bartering and some hidden costs

The capital barangay of Badian town is Poblacion. It is located in the centre of the town. This is where the local high school is located called Badian National High School ( BNHS ) is one of the two high schools in the town of Badian. This is also the largest of the two and many students from the neighbouring town just like Moalboal, Alcantara and Ronda come to study in this high school. The lower educational facility in Badian is the Badian Central Elementary School where all the younger children go to school for the simple fact that it is completely free and the only elementary school and the biggest one in town. One more very important institution that is located in Poblacion is the Town Hospital where everyone from every other barangay goes to in the time of sickness.

The facility has been better than the past management they have more improvements to the hospitals than anything else which is the best thing they could have done because this is where most Badianganons run to in the time of need. This is also the location where the town church is located ~ the church of Santiago Apostol, which celebrates its Festival on the 25th of July every year. Together with the Feast of Santiago Apostle is the Banig Festival which was started about three years ago. Poblacion is also where the Municipal Hall is located in sitio sawang. Thus, I believe that the municipality should ought to have more funding's in the Hospital Facility more so that the roads that they are trying to fix every single year Poblacion has many sitios which is the little corners of Poblacion which is residential or commercial properties. Some of these sitios are; Syma, Walog, Sawang, Highway, and many more. This is the only urban place in Badian compared to any other barangays that surround the town. Poblacion is also the most populated barangay in all Badian. Which has 3854 population as of 2007 Census. Poblacion is where the marketplace is located. Thus, most of the trading is here. Many vendors from all over town will show up mostly on Saturdays and Sundays for the trading.

Here, hundreds of researchers, businesses and progressive home- owners will be living and working side-by-side, along with great food, drink and entertainment venues. A collection of stunning public spaces for everyone, of all ages, to use.

Everyone here is united by one purpose: to help families, communities and cities around the world to live healthier, longer, smarter and easier lives. In short, to live better. In the process, our businesses will continue to grow, employ more local people and help ensure Newcastle excels.

 

Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a member of the Russell Group, an association of research-intensive UK universities.

 

The university finds its roots in the School of Medicine and Surgery (later the College of Medicine), established in 1834, and the College of Physical Science (later renamed Armstrong College), founded in 1871. These two colleges came to form the larger division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form King's College in 1937. In 1963, following an Act of Parliament, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

The university subdivides into three faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.[6] The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £592.4 million of which £119.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £558 million.

 

History

Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle

The establishment of a university in Newcastle upon Tyne was first proposed in 1831 by Thomas Greenhow in a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1832 a group of local medics – physicians George Fife (teaching materia medica and therapeutics) and Samuel Knott (teaching theory and practice of medicine), and surgeons John Fife (teaching surgery), Alexander Fraser (teaching anatomy and physiology) and Henry Glassford Potter (teaching chemistry) – started offering medical lectures in Bell's Court to supplement the apprenticeship system (a fourth surgeon, Duncan McAllum, is mentioned by some sources among the founders, but was not included in the prospectus). The first session started on 1 October 1832 with eight or nine students, including John Snow, then apprenticed to a local surgeon-apothecary, the opening lecture being delivered by John Fife. In 1834 the lectures and practical demonstrations moved to the Hall of the Company of Barber Surgeons to accommodate the growing number of students, and the School of Medicine and Surgery was formally established on 1 October 1834.

 

On 25 June 1851, following a dispute among the teaching staff, the school was formally dissolved and the lecturers split into two rival institutions. The majority formed the Newcastle College of Medicine, and the others established themselves as the Newcastle upon Tyne College of Medicine and Practical Science with competing lecture courses. In July 1851 the majority college was recognised by the Society of Apothecaries and in October by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and in January 1852 was approved by the University of London to submit its students for London medical degree examinations. Later in 1852, the majority college was formally linked to the University of Durham, becoming the "Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Medicine in connection with the University of Durham". The college awarded its first 'Licence in Medicine' (LicMed) under the auspices of the University of Durham in 1856, with external examiners from Oxford and London, becoming the first medical examining body on the United Kingdom to institute practical examinations alongside written and viva voce examinations. The two colleges amalgamated in 1857, with the first session of the unified college opening on 3 October that year. In 1861 the degree of Master of Surgery was introduced, allowing for the double qualification of Licence of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, along with the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine, both of which required residence in Durham. In 1870 the college was brought into closer connection with the university, becoming the "Durham University College of Medicine" with the Reader in Medicine becoming the Professor of Medicine, the college gaining a representative on the university's senate, and residence at the college henceforth counting as residence in the university towards degrees in medicine and surgery, removing the need for students to spend a period of residence in Durham before they could receive the higher degrees.

 

Attempts to realise a place for the teaching of sciences in the city were finally met with the foundation of the College of Physical Science in 1871. The college offered instruction in mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology to meet the growing needs of the mining industry, becoming the "Durham College of Physical Science" in 1883 and then renamed after William George Armstrong as Armstrong College in 1904. Both of these institutions were part of the University of Durham, which became a federal university under the Durham University Act 1908 with two divisions in Durham and Newcastle. By 1908, the Newcastle division was teaching a full range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science, which also included agriculture and engineering.

 

Throughout the early 20th century, the medical and science colleges outpaced the growth of their Durham counterparts. Following tensions between the two Newcastle colleges in the early 1930s, a Royal Commission in 1934 recommended the merger of the two colleges to form "King's College, Durham"; that was effected by the Durham University Act 1937. Further growth of both division of the federal university led to tensions within the structure and a feeling that it was too large to manage as a single body. On 1 August 1963 the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963 separated the two thus creating the "University of Newcastle upon Tyne". As the successor of King's College, Durham, the university at its founding in 1963, adopted the coat of arms originally granted to the Council of King's College in 1937.

 

Above the portico of the Students' Union building are bas-relief carvings of the arms and mottoes of the University of Durham, Armstrong College and Durham University College of Medicine, the predecessor parts of Newcastle University. While a Latin motto, mens agitat molem (mind moves matter) appears in the Students' Union building, the university itself does not have an official motto.

 

Campus and location

The university occupies a campus site close to Haymarket in central Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the open spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor; the university medical school and Royal Victoria Infirmary are adjacent to the west.

 

The Armstrong building is the oldest building on the campus and is the site of the original Armstrong College. The building was constructed in three stages; the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000 and opened by Princess Louise on 5 November 1888. The south-east wing, which includes the Jubilee Tower, and south-west wings were opened in 1894. The Jubilee Tower was built with surplus funds raised from an Exhibition to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. The north-west front, forming the main entrance, was completed in 1906 and features two stone figures to represent science and the arts. Much of the later construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the metallurgist and former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, after whom the main tower is named. In 1906 it was opened by King Edward VII.

 

The building contains the King's Hall, which serves as the university's chief hall for ceremonial purposes where Congregation ceremonies are held. It can contain 500 seats. King Edward VII gave permission to call the Great Hall, King's Hall. During the First World War, the building was requisitioned by the War Office to create the first Northern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. Graduation photographs are often taken in the University Quadrangle, next to the Armstrong building. In 1949 the Quadrangle was turned into a formal garden in memory of members of Newcastle University who gave their lives in the two World Wars. In 2017, a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was erected in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his honorary degree from the university.

 

The Bruce Building is a former brewery, constructed between 1896 and 1900 on the site of the Hotspur Hotel, and designed by the architect Joseph Oswald as the new premises of Newcastle Breweries Limited. The university occupied the building from the 1950s, but, having been empty for some time, the building was refurbished in 2016 to become residential and office space.

 

The Devonshire Building, opened in 2004, incorporates in an energy efficient design. It uses photovoltaic cells to help to power motorised shades that control the temperature of the building and geothermal heating coils. Its architects won awards in the Hadrian awards and the RICS Building of the Year Award 2004. The university won a Green Gown award for its construction.

 

Plans for additions and improvements to the campus were made public in March 2008 and completed in 2010 at a cost of £200 million. They included a redevelopment of the south-east (Haymarket) façade with a five-storey King's Gate administration building as well as new student accommodation. Two additional buildings for the school of medicine were also built. September 2012 saw the completion of the new buildings and facilities for INTO Newcastle University on the university campus. The main building provides 18 new teaching rooms, a Learning Resource Centre, a lecture theatre, science lab, administrative and academic offices and restaurant.

 

The Philip Robinson Library is the main university library and is named after a bookseller in the city and benefactor to the library. The Walton Library specialises in services for the Faculty of Medical Sciences in the Medical School. It is named after Lord Walton of Detchant, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Neurology. The library has a relationship with the Northern region of the NHS allowing their staff to use the library for research and study. The Law Library specialises in resources relating to law, and the Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms offers additional study spaces and computers. Together, these house over one million books and 500,000 electronic resources. Some schools within the university, such as the School of Modern Languages, also have their own smaller libraries with smaller highly specialised collections.

 

In addition to the city centre campus there are buildings such as the Dove Marine Laboratory located on Cullercoats Bay, and Cockle Park Farm in Northumberland.

 

International

In September 2008, the university's first overseas branch was opened in Singapore, a Marine International campus called, NUMI Singapore. This later expanded beyond marine subjects and became Newcastle University Singapore, largely through becoming an Overseas University Partner of Singapore Institute of Technology.

 

In 2011, the university's Medical School opened an international branch campus in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia, namely Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia.

 

Student accommodation

Newcastle University has many catered and non-catered halls of residence available to first-year students, located around the city of Newcastle. Popular Newcastle areas for private student houses and flats off campus include Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford, Shieldfield, South Shields and Spital Tongues.

 

Henderson Hall was used as a hall of residence until a fire destroyed it in 2023.

 

St Mary's College in Fenham, one of the halls of residence, was formerly St Mary's College of Education, a teacher training college.

 

Organisation and governance

The current Chancellor is the British poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker. She assumed the position of Chancellor on 1 January 2020. The vice-chancellor is Chris Day, a hepatologist and former pro-vice-chancellor of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

 

The university has an enrolment of some 16,000 undergraduate and 5,600 postgraduate students. Teaching and research are delivered in 19 academic schools, 13 research institutes and 38 research centres, spread across three Faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.

 

It holds a series of public lectures called 'Insights' each year in the Curtis Auditorium in the Herschel Building. Many of the university's partnerships with companies, like Red Hat, are housed in the Herschel Annex.

 

Chancellors and vice-chancellors

For heads of the predecessor colleges, see Colleges of Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle.

Chancellors

Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (1963–1988)

Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley (1988–1999)

Chris Patten (1999–2009)

Liam Donaldson (2009–2019)

Imtiaz Dharker (2020–)

Vice-chancellors

Charles Bosanquet (1963–1968)

Henry Miller (1968–1976)

Ewan Stafford Page (1976–1978, acting)

Laurence Martin (1978–1990)

Duncan Murchison (1991, acting)

James Wright (1992–2000)

Christopher Edwards (2001–2007)

Chris Brink (2007–2016)

Chris Day (2017–present)

Civic responsibility

 

The university Quadrangle

The university describes itself as a civic university, with a role to play in society by bringing its research to bear on issues faced by communities (local, national or international).

 

In 2012, the university opened the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal to address issues of social and economic change, representing the research-led academic schools across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences[45] and the Business School.

 

Mark Shucksmith was Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal (NISR) at Newcastle University, where he is also Professor of Planning.

 

In 2006, the university was granted fair trade status and from January 2007 it became a smoke-free campus.

 

The university has also been actively involved with several of the region's museums for many years. The Great North Museum: Hancock originally opened in 1884 and is often a venue for the university's events programme.

 

Faculties and schools

Teaching schools within the university are based within three faculties. Each faculty is led by a Provost/Pro-vice-chancellor and a team of Deans with specific responsibilities.

 

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

School of Arts and Cultures

Newcastle University Business School

Combined Honours Centre

School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences

School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

School of Geography, Politics and Sociology

School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Newcastle Law School

School of Modern Languages

Faculty of Medical Sciences

School of Biomedical Sciences

School of Dental Sciences

School of Medical Education

School of Pharmacy

School of Psychology

Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB)

Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering

School of Computing

School of Engineering

School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics

School of Natural and Environmental Sciences

Business School

 

Newcastle University Business School

As early as the 1900/1 academic year, there was teaching in economics (political economy, as it was then known) at Newcastle, making Economics the oldest department in the School. The Economics Department is currently headed by the Sir David Dale Chair. Among the eminent economists having served in the Department (both as holders of the Sir David Dale Chair) are Harry Mainwaring Hallsworth and Stanley Dennison.

 

Newcastle University Business School is a triple accredited business school, with accreditation by the three major accreditation bodies: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.

 

In 2002, Newcastle University Business School established the Business Accounting and Finance or 'Flying Start' degree in association with the ICAEW and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The course offers an accelerated route towards the ACA Chartered Accountancy qualification and is the Business School's Flagship programme.

 

In 2011 the business school opened their new building built on the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery site next to St James' Park. This building was officially opened on 19 March 2012 by Lord Burns.

 

The business school operated a central London campus from 2014 to 2021, in partnership with INTO University Partnerships until 2020.

 

Medical School

The BMC Medicine journal reported in 2008 that medical graduates from Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle performed better in postgraduate tests than any other medical school in the UK.

 

In 2008 the Medical School announced that they were expanding their campus to Malaysia.

 

The Royal Victoria Infirmary has always had close links with the Faculty of Medical Sciences as a major teaching hospital.

 

School of Modern Languages

The School of Modern Languages consists of five sections: East Asian (which includes Japanese and Chinese); French; German; Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies; and Translating & Interpreting Studies. Six languages are taught from beginner's level to full degree level ‒ Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese ‒ and beginner's courses in Catalan, Dutch, Italian and Quechua are also available. Beyond the learning of the languages themselves, Newcastle also places a great deal of emphasis on study and experience of the cultures of the countries where the languages taught are spoken. The School of Modern Languages hosts North East England's only branches of two internationally important institutes: the Camões Institute, a language institute for Portuguese, and the Confucius Institute, a language and cultural institute for Chinese.

 

The teaching of modern foreign languages at Newcastle predates the creation of Newcastle University itself, as in 1911 Armstrong College in Newcastle installed Albert George Latham, its first professor of modern languages.

 

The School of Modern Languages at Newcastle is the lead institution in the North East Routes into Languages Consortium and, together with the Durham University, Northumbria University, the University of Sunderland, the Teesside University and a network of schools, undertakes work activities of discovery of languages for the 9 to 13 years pupils. This implies having festivals, Q&A sessions, language tasters, or quizzes organised, as well as a web learning work aiming at constructing a web portal to link language learners across the region.

 

Newcastle Law School

Newcastle Law School is the longest established law school in the north-east of England when law was taught at the university's predecessor college before it became independent from Durham University. It has a number of recognised international and national experts in a variety of areas of legal scholarship ranging from Common and Chancery law, to International and European law, as well as contextual, socio-legal and theoretical legal studies.

 

The Law School occupies four specially adapted late-Victorian town houses. The Staff Offices, the Alumni Lecture Theatre and seminar rooms as well as the Law Library are all located within the School buildings.

 

School of Computing

The School of Computing was ranked in the Times Higher Education world Top 100. Research areas include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and ubiquitous computing, secure and resilient systems, synthetic biology, scalable computing (high performance systems, data science, machine learning and data visualization), and advanced modelling. The school led the formation of the National Innovation Centre for Data. Innovative teaching in the School was recognised in 2017 with the award of a National Teaching Fellowship.

 

Cavitation tunnel

Newcastle University has the second largest cavitation tunnel in the UK. Founded in 1950, and based in the Marine Science and Technology Department, the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel is used as a test basin for propellers, water turbines, underwater coatings and interaction of propellers with ice. The Emerson Cavitation Tunnel was recently relocated to a new facility in Blyth.

 

Museums and galleries

The university is associated with a number of the region's museums and galleries, including the Great North Museum project, which is primarily based at the world-renowned Hancock Museum. The Great North Museum: Hancock also contains the collections from two of the university's former museums, the Shefton Museum and the Museum of Antiquities, both now closed. The university's Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum project, and remains within the Fine Art Building.

 

Academic profile

Reputation and rankings

Rankings

National rankings

Complete (2024)30

Guardian (2024)67

Times / Sunday Times (2024)37

Global rankings

ARWU (2023)201–300

QS (2024)110

THE (2024)168=

 

Newcastle University's national league table performance over the past ten years

The university is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's research-intensive universities. It is ranked in the top 200 of most world rankings, and in the top 40 of most UK rankings. As of 2023, it is ranked 110th globally by QS, 292nd by Leiden, 139th by Times Higher Education and 201st–300th by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Nationally, it is ranked joint 33rd by the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide, 30th by the Complete University Guide[68] and joint 63rd by the Guardian.

 

Admissions

UCAS Admission Statistics 20222021202020192018

Application 33,73532,40034,55031,96533,785

Accepte 6,7556,2556,5806,4456,465

Applications/Accepted Ratio 5.05.25.35.05.2

Offer Rate (%78.178.080.279.280.0)

Average Entry Tariff—151148144152

Main scheme applications, International and UK

UK domiciled applicants

HESA Student Body Composition

In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Newcastle ranked joint 19th in Britain in 2014. In 2015, the university gave offers of admission to 92.1% of its applicants, the highest amongst the Russell Group.

 

25.1% of Newcastle's undergraduates are privately educated, the thirteenth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 74:5:21 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.

 

Research

Newcastle is a member of the Russell Group of 24 research-intensive universities. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Newcastle is ranked joint 33rd by GPA (along with the University of Strathclyde and the University of Sussex) and 15th for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).

 

Student life

Newcastle University Students' Union (NUSU), known as the Union Society until a 2012 rebranding, includes student-run sports clubs and societies.

 

The Union building was built in 1924 following a generous gift from an anonymous donor, who is now believed to have been Sir Cecil Cochrane, a major benefactor to the university.[87] It is built in the neo-Jacobean style and was designed by the local architect Robert Burns Dick. It was opened on 22 October 1925 by the Rt. Hon. Lord Eustace Percy, who later served as Rector of King's College from 1937 to 1952. It is a Grade II listed building. In 2010 the university donated £8 million towards a redevelopment project for the Union Building.

 

The Students' Union is run by seven paid sabbatical officers, including a Welfare and Equality Officer, and ten part-time unpaid officer positions. The former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron was President of NUSU in 1991–1992. The Students' Union also employs around 300 people in ancillary roles including bar staff and entertainment organisers.

 

The Courier is a weekly student newspaper. Established in 1948, the current weekly readership is around 12,000, most of whom are students at the university. The Courier has won The Guardian's Student Publication of the Year award twice in a row, in 2012 and 2013. It is published every Monday during term time.

 

Newcastle Student Radio is a student radio station based in the university. It produces shows on music, news, talk and sport and aims to cater for a wide range of musical tastes.

 

NUTV, known as TCTV from 2010 to 2017, is student television channel, first established in 2007. It produces live and on-demand content with coverage of events, as well as student-made programmes and shows.

 

Student exchange

Newcastle University has signed over 100 agreements with foreign universities allowing for student exchange to take place reciprocally.

 

Sport

Newcastle is one of the leading universities for sport in the UK and is consistently ranked within the top 12 out of 152 higher education institutions in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings. More than 50 student-led sports clubs are supported through a team of professional staff and a network of indoor and outdoor sports facilities based over four sites. The university have a strong rugby history and were the winners of the Northumberland Senior Cup in 1965.

 

The university enjoys a friendly sporting rivalry with local universities. The Stan Calvert Cup was held between 1994 and 2018 by major sports teams from Newcastle and Northumbria University. The Boat Race of the North has also taken place between the rowing clubs of Newcastle and Durham University.

 

As of 2023, Newcastle University F.C. compete in men's senior football in the Northern League Division Two.

 

The university's Cochrane Park sports facility was a training venue for the teams playing football games at St James' Park for the 2012 London Olympics.

 

A

Ali Mohamed Shein, 7th President of Zanzibar

Richard Adams - fairtrade businessman

Kate Adie - journalist

Yasmin Ahmad - Malaysian film director, writer and scriptwriter

Prince Adewale Aladesanmi - Nigerian prince and businessman

Jane Alexander - Bishop

Theodosios Alexander (BSc Marine Engineering 1981) - Dean, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology of Saint Louis University

William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong - industrialist; in 1871 founded College of Physical Science, an early part of the University

Roy Ascott - new media artist

Dennis Assanis - President, University of Delaware

Neil Astley - publisher, editor and writer

Rodney Atkinson - eurosceptic conservative academic

Rowan Atkinson - comedian and actor

Kane Avellano - Guinness World Record for youngest person to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle (solo and unsupported) at the age of 23 in 2017

B

Bruce Babbitt - U.S. politician; 16th Governor of Arizona (1978–1987); 47th United States Secretary of the Interior (1993–2001); Democrat

James Baddiley - biochemist, based at Newcastle University 1954–1983; the Baddiley-Clark building is named in part after him

Tunde Baiyewu - member of the Lighthouse Family

John C. A. Barrett - clergyman

G. W. S. Barrow - historian

Neil Bartlett - chemist, creation of the first noble gas compounds (BSc and PhD at King's College, University of Durham, later Newcastle University)

Sue Beardsmore - television presenter

Alan Beith - politician

Jean Benedetti - biographer, translator, director and dramatist

Phil Bennion - politician

Catherine Bertola - contemporary painter

Simon Best - Captain of the Ulster Rugby team; Prop for the Ireland Team

Andy Bird - CEO of Disney International

Rory Jonathan Courtenay Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan - heir apparent to the earldom of Cork

David Bradley - science writer

Mike Brearley - professional cricketer, formerly a lecturer in philosophy at the university (1968–1971)

Constance Briscoe - one of the first black women to sit as a judge in the UK; author of the best-selling autobiography Ugly; found guilty in May 2014 on three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice; jailed for 16 months

Steve Brooks - entomologist; attained BSc in Zoology and MSc in Public Health Engineering from Newcastle University in 1976 and 1977 respectively

Thom Brooks - academic, columnist

Gavin Brown - academic

Vicki Bruce - psychologist

Basil Bunting - poet; Northern Arts Poetry Fellow at Newcastle University (1968–70); honorary DLitt in 1971

John Burgan - documentary filmmaker

Mark Burgess - computer scientist

Sir John Burn - Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University Medical School; Medical Director and Head of the Institute of Genetics; Newcastle Medical School alumnus

William Lawrence Burn - historian and lawyer, history chair at King's College, Newcastle (1944–66)

John Harrison Burnett - botanist, chair of Botany at King's College, Newcastle (1960–68)

C.

Richard Caddel - poet

Ann Cairns - President of International Markets for MasterCard

Deborah Cameron - linguist

Stuart Cameron - lecturer

John Ashton Cannon - historian; Professor of Modern History; Head of Department of History from 1976 until his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1979; Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1983–1986

Ian Carr - musician

Jimmy Cartmell - rugby player, Newcastle Falcons

Steve Chapman - Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University

Dion Chen - Hong Kong educator, principal of Ying Wa College and former principal of YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College

Hsing Chia-hui - author

Ashraf Choudhary - scientist

Chua Chor Teck - Managing Director of Keppel Group

Jennifer A. Clack - palaeontologist

George Clarke - architect

Carol Clewlow - novelist

Brian Clouston - landscape architect

Ed Coode - Olympic gold medallist

John Coulson - chemical engineering academic

Caroline Cox, Baroness Cox - cross-bench member of the British House of Lords

Nicola Curtin – Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics

Pippa Crerar - Political Editor of the Daily Mirror

D

Fred D'Aguiar - author

Julia Darling - poet, playwright, novelist, MA in Creative Writing

Simin Davoudi - academic

Richard Dawson - civil engineering academic and member of the UK Committee on Climate Change

Tom Dening - medical academic and researcher

Katie Doherty - singer-songwriter

Nowell Donovan - vice-chancellor for academic affairs and Provost of Texas Christian University

Catherine Douglas - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine

Annabel Dover - artist, studied fine art 1994–1998

Alexander Downer - Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (1996–2007)

Chloë Duckworth - archaeologist and presenter

Chris Duffield - Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation

E

Michael Earl - academic

Tom English - drummer, Maxïmo Park

Princess Eugenie - member of the British royal family. Eugenie is a niece of King Charles III and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. She began studying at Newcastle University in September 2009, graduating in 2012 with a 2:1 degree in English Literature and History of Art.

F

U. A. Fanthorpe - poet

Frank Farmer - medical physicist; professor of medical physics at Newcastle University in 1966

Terry Farrell - architect

Tim Farron - former Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale

Ian Fells - professor

Andy Fenby - rugby player

Bryan Ferry - singer, songwriter and musician, member of Roxy Music and solo artist; studied fine art

E. J. Field - neuroscientist, director of the university's Demyelinating Disease Unit

John Niemeyer Findlay - philosopher

John Fitzgerald - computer scientist

Vicky Forster - cancer researcher

Maximimlian (Max) Fosh- YouTuber and independent candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election.

Rose Frain - artist

G

Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster - aristocrat, billionaire, businessman and landowner

Peter Gibbs - television weather presenter

Ken Goodall - rugby player

Peter Gooderham - British ambassador

Michael Goodfellow - Professor in Microbial Systematics

Robert Goodwill - politician

Richard Gordon - author

Teresa Graham - accountant

Thomas George Greenwell - National Conservative Member of Parliament

H

Sarah Hainsworth - Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University

Reginald Hall - endocrinologist, Professor of Medicine (1970–1980)

Alex Halliday - Professor of Geochemistry, University of Oxford

Richard Hamilton - artist

Vicki L. Hanson - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2017

Rupert Harden - professional rugby union player

Tim Head - artist

Patsy Healey - professor

Alastair Heathcote - rower

Dorothy Heathcote - academic

Adrian Henri - 'Mersey Scene' poet and painter

Stephen Hepburn - politician

Jack Heslop-Harrison - botanist

Tony Hey - computer scientist; honorary doctorate 2007

Stuart Hill - author

Jean Hillier - professor

Ken Hodcroft - Chairman of Hartlepool United; founder of Increased Oil Recovery

Robert Holden - landscape architect

Bill Hopkins - composer

David Horrobin - entrepreneur

Debbie Horsfield - writer of dramas, including Cutting It

John House - geographer

Paul Hudson - weather presenter

Philip Hunter - educationist

Ronald Hunt – Art Historian who was librarian at the Art Department

Anya Hurlbert - visual neuroscientis

I

Martin Ince - journalist and media adviser, founder of the QS World University Rankings

Charles Innes-Ker - Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford

Mark Isherwood - politician

Jonathan Israel - historian

J

Alan J. Jamieson - marine biologist

George Neil Jenkins - medical researcher

Caroline Johnson - Conservative Member of Parliament

Wilko Johnson - guitarist with 1970s British rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood

Rich Johnston - comic book writer and cartoonist

Anna Jones - businesswoman

Cliff Jones - computer scientist

Colin Jones - historian

David E. H. Jones - chemist

Francis R. Jones - poetry translator and Reader in Translation Studies

Phil Jones - climatologist

Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling - Member of the House of Lords and the Conservative Party

Wilfred Josephs - dentist and composer

K

Michael King Jr. - civil rights leader; honorary graduate. In November 1967, MLK made a 24-hour trip to the United Kingdom to receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Newcastle University, becoming the first African American the institution had recognised in this way.

Panayiotis Kalorkoti - artist; studied B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art (1976–80); Bartlett Fellow in the Visual Arts (1988)

Rashida Karmali - businesswoman

Jackie Kay - poet, novelist, Professor of Creative Writing

Paul Kennedy - historian of international relations and grand strategy

Mark Khangure - neuroradiologist

L

Joy Labinjo - artist

Henrike Lähnemann - German medievalist

Dave Leadbetter - politician

Lim Boon Heng - Singapore Minister

Lin Hsin Hsin - IT inventor, artist, poet and composer

Anne Longfield - children's campaigner, former Children's Commissioner for England

Keith Ludeman - businessman

M

Jack Mapanje - writer and poet

Milton Margai - first prime minister of Sierra Leone (medical degree from the Durham College of Medicine, later Newcastle University Medical School)

Laurence Martin - war studies writer

Murray Martin, documentary and docudrama filmmaker, co-founder of Amber Film & Photography Collective

Adrian Martineau – medical researcher and professor of respiratory Infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London

Carl R. May - sociologist

Tom May - professional rugby union player, now with Northampton Saints, and capped by England

Kate McCann – journalist and television presenter

Ian G. McKeith – professor of Old Age Psychiatry

John Anthony McGuckin - Orthodox Christian scholar, priest, and poet

Wyl Menmuir - novelist

Zia Mian - physicist

Richard Middleton - musicologist

Mary Midgley - moral philosopher

G.C.J. Midgley - philosopher

Moein Moghimi - biochemist and nanoscientist

Hermann Moisl - linguist

Anthony Michaels-Moore - Operatic Baritone

Joanna Moncrieff - Critical Psychiatrist

Theodore Morison - Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne (1919–24)

Andy Morrell - footballer

Frank Moulaert - professor

Mo Mowlam - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, lecturer at Newcastle University

Chris Mullin - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, author, visiting fellow

VA Mundella - College of Physical Science, 1884—1887; lecturer in physics at the College, 1891—1896: Professor of Physics at Northern Polytechnic Institute and Principal of Sunderland Technical College.

Richard Murphy - architect

N

Lisa Nandy - British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Shadow Foreign Secretary

Karim Nayernia - biomedical scientist

Dianne Nelmes - TV producer

O

Sally O'Reilly - writer

Mo O'Toole - former British Labour Party Member of European Parliament

P

Ewan Page - founding director of the Newcastle University School of Computing and briefly acting vice-chancellor; later appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Reading

Rachel Pain - academic

Amanda Parker - Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire since 2023

Geoff Parling - Leicester Tigers rugby player

Chris Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes - British Conservative politician and Chancellor of the University (1999–2009)

Chris M Pattinson former Great Britain International Swimmer 1976-1984

Mick Paynter - Cornish poet and Grandbard

Robert A. Pearce - academic

Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland - Chancellor of the University (1964–1988)

Jonathan Pile - Showbiz Editor, ZOO magazine

Ben Pimlott - political historian; PhD and lectureship at Newcastle University (1970–79)

Robin Plackett - statistician

Alan Plater - playwright and screenwriter

Ruth Plummer - Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research and Fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences.

Poh Kwee Ong - Deputy President of SembCorp Marine

John Porter - musician

Rob Powell - former London Broncos coach

Stuart Prebble - former chief executive of ITV

Oliver Proudlock - Made in Chelsea star; creator of Serge De Nîmes clothing line[

Mark Purnell - palaeontologist

Q

Pirzada Qasim - Pakistani scholar, Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi

Joyce Quin, Baroness Quin - politician

R

Andy Raleigh - Rugby League player for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

Brian Randell - computer scientist

Rupert Mitford, 6th Baron Redesdale - Liberal Democrat spokesman in the House of Lords for International Development

Alastair Reynolds - novelist, former research astronomer with the European Space Agency

Ben Rice - author

Lewis Fry Richardson - mathematician, studied at the Durham College of Science in Newcastle

Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley - Chancellor of the University 1988-1999

Colin Riordan - VC of Cardiff University, Professor of German Studies (1988–2006)

Susie Rodgers - British Paralympic swimmer

Nayef Al-Rodhan - philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author

Neil Rollinson - poet

Johanna Ropner - Lord lieutenant of North Yorkshire

Sharon Rowlands - CEO of ReachLocal

Peter Rowlinson - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine

John Rushby - computer scientist

Camilla Rutherford - actress

S

Jonathan Sacks - former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

Ross Samson - Scottish rugby union footballer; studied history

Helen Scales - marine biologist, broadcaster, and writer

William Scammell - poet

Fred B. Schneider - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2003

Sean Scully - painter

Nigel Shadbolt - computer scientist

Tom Shakespeare - geneticist

Jo Shapcott - poet

James Shapiro - Canadian surgeon and scientist

Jack Shepherd - actor and playwright

Mark Shucksmith - professor

Chris Simms - crime thriller novel author

Graham William Smith - probation officer, widely regarded as the father of the national probation service

Iain Smith - Scottish politician

Paul Smith - singer, Maxïmo Park

John Snow - discoverer of cholera transmission through water; leader in the adoption of anaesthesia; one of the 8 students enrolled on the very first term of the Medical School

William Somerville - agriculturist, professor of agriculture and forestry at Durham College of Science (later Newcastle University)

Ed Stafford - explorer, walked the length of the Amazon River

Chris Steele-Perkins - photographer

Chris Stevenson - academic

Di Stewart - Sky Sports News reader

Diana Stöcker - German CDU Member of Parliament

Miodrag Stojković - genetics researcher

Miriam Stoppard - physician, author and agony aunt

Charlie van Straubenzee - businessman and investment executive

Peter Straughan - playwright and short story writer

T

Mathew Tait - rugby union footballer

Eric Thomas - academic

David Tibet - cult musician and poet

Archis Tiku - bassist, Maxïmo Park

James Tooley - professor

Elsie Tu - politician

Maurice Tucker - sedimentologist

Paul Tucker - member of Lighthouse Family

George Grey Turner - surgeon

Ronald F. Tylecote - archaeologist

V

Chris Vance - actor in Prison Break and All Saints

Géza Vermes - scholar

Geoff Vigar - lecturer

Hugh Vyvyan - rugby union player

W

Alick Walker - palaeontologist

Matthew Walker - Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley

Tom Walker - Sunday Times foreign correspondent

Lord Walton of Detchant - physician; President of the GMC, BMA, RSM; Warden of Green College, Oxford (1983–1989)

Kevin Warwick - Professor of Cybernetics; former Lecturer in Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Duncan Watmore - footballer at Millwall F.C.

Mary Webb - artist

Charlie Webster - television sports presenter

Li Wei - Chair of Applied Linguistics at UCL Institute of Education, University College London

Joseph Joshua Weiss - Professor of Radiation Chemistry

Robert Westall - children's writer, twice winner of Carnegie Medal

Thomas Stanley Westoll - Fellow of the Royal Society

Gillian Whitehead - composer

William Whitfield - architect, later designed the Hadrian Building and the Northern Stage

Claire Williams - motorsport executive

Zoe Williams - sportswoman, worked on Gladiators

Donald I. Williamson - planktologist and carcinologist

Philip Williamson - former Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society

John Willis - Royal Air Force officer and council member of the University

Lukas Wooller - keyboard player, Maxïmo Park

Graham Wylie - co-founder of the Sage Group; studied Computing Science & Statistics BSc and graduated in 1980; awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004

Y

Hisila Yami, Nepalese politician and former Minister of Physical Planning and Works (Government of Nepal

John Yorke - Controller of Continuing Drama; Head of Independent Drama at the BBC

Martha Young-Scholten - linguist

Paul Younger - hydrogeologist

Some of us are born to create, to play music, to write, to nurture, to teach, to be an advocate. It's not a choice we've actively pursued, but a desire that was woven into the very structure of who we are as a human being. The choice lies with whether or not we decide to foster these interests. As ridiculous as it might sound to others, I acknowledged a long time ago that for me this ingrained passion was for dolls. It was never a hobby I saw in the hands of others, researched a bit, and then chose to delve into. It wasn't a desperately needed outlet that I elected for myself. No, dolls were a part of my DNA, and when we met, it was like a magnetic attraction that I couldn't deny or push away, no matter how hard I tried in later years. The very moment my first two dolls, a balding Ice Capades Barbie and a shabby All American Ken, entered my world, something clicked. As I held Christina in my tiny, two year old hands that first time, I vaguely remember that feeling--this was right. Her overpowering purple eye shadow, arched eyebrows, and dimpled smile were the most magnificent sight I had ever held. This feeling was pure magic, and it lit up my world, even as a little toddler.

 

I might have only been two, but that one experience manifested itself very quickly. Before I knew it, I had several dolls--some clones, a few secondhand Barbies, and a Disney doll or two. Whenever I had allowance money, I always wanted a Barbie, and if I couldn't afford one but had to buy something, I picked a clone. I looked forward to Christmas and birthdays, mostly because I wanted more dolls. The other gifts were subpar compared to my dolly friends. They also became a bond between my older sister and me. Before I had my own dolls, we mostly played separately with our own friends. Colleen wanted nothing to do with me as she was jealous that I was the younger sister, and all my attempts to make her my best friend were all in vain. But after I stole some of her dolls and accessories, and we battled back and forth about the thefts, she finally caved. The hours we spent on my shaggy tan bedroom rug, which didn't even cover the entire floor, were countless. Dolls became our number one pastime, and even in most cases trumped pure make believe. It was the one thing we really agreed on, and as we grew to be a little older and less crude with dolls, our bond strengthened. I played dolls with many friends in my younger years, but I noticed early on that Colleen and I were different. Compared to the doll games at my friends' houses, ours were "sophisticated." We had plans ahead of time, special sets, storyboards, specific cast members, etc. Mom even thought we were bizarre--I recall her asking us one time why we needed to plan things out ahead of time, and why we didn't just sit down and play. We shook our heads and rolled our eyes at such a "simpleton" suggestion. Mom, of course we needed structure to our scenarios--if we didn't have a game plan, how did we know who was related to who? How did we know where they lived, how old they were? What if we wanted to arrange for a love story to happen or what if our dolls had to flee from "bad guys?" It wasn't just our desire for extensive planning that I felt put a great divide between my fellow doll playing friends, but also the general demeanor towards the dolls themselves. I remember some of the other kids we played with threw their dolls, smacked them up against each other, and made them run around wildly biting each other. Colleen and I often had "rated R" doll games with abusive alcoholics, domestic violence, and child neglect, but we were always careful not to be too rough with our friends. I wouldn't even dream of throwing one of my precious plastic friends from the top of our playscape like I had seen other kids do. I wouldn't dare draw all over my dolls as a cruel form of amusement, nor would I cut their hair with the intent to make it look bad (although sometimes my best of intentions were fraught with bad outcomes). My dolls always had to have brushed hair, and by the time I was maybe three or four, I had started organizing me stuff in a more manageable fashion. As we grew older, the disparity between Colleen/myself and other children grew wider. I dreaded playing dolls with friends, and I always cringed whenever they wanted to play with one of my dolls and tossed her around like a piece of garbage and acted in an "uncivilized manner." And so this developed into a special, secluded outlet between the two of us. It became our private world that nobody else was a part of.

 

My interest in dolls was always deeper than just what ones were pretty or came with cool fixings. As soon as I started learning the ABCs, my inner curiosity belted out. What were these markings on Christina's back, on her head? Why were some of the tags in their outfits different? For me, I learned what a "fakie" doll was at an early age--just by the smell and weight of the plastic, and the differences in their facial screenings. The question, "How do you know a real Barbie or American Girl apart from a knock off" always baffled me. How could you not know?!! This feeling wasn't cockiness, but rather an honest misunderstanding...to me it felt natural to just look at a doll, accessory, or outfit and deduce if it were "real" or "fake." But I craved knowledge--I was desperate to have all these mysteries solved. One of the things I wanted to know early on was who Christina and Kevin were. How old were they? Who had owned them before? Why, why were they abandoned? It would take nearly twenty years before these questions had answers, but they were the fuel in the fire that was my thirst for doll knowledge. I began to collect dolls around the age of nine. Of course I refused to use the word "collect" as I associated it with coldness, and an interest in only the doll's value. I imagined a collector to be an old, grumpy man or woman, holed up in a dark room with all boxed dolls counting dollar bills. I didn't realize that the word meant so much more, and that it was an honor to wear it as a badge. I recall in the early 2000s, Colleen and I suddenly took an interest in the dolls of the 90s. It became our newest "thing," much like how earlier we had focused on hoarding Kid Kore and other clone dolls (but that was born out of a childish "boycott"). We searched high and low for 90s beauties at the local flea market, and whenever we found an inexpensive boxed one, we had to nab her. There was something about opening a doll that had previously never been freed that gave me such inner satisfaction. The child in me wanted to doll to experience love and admiration from outside her cardboard and cellophane prison...and to be honest that desire never left. I was fascinated by their box art, the differences in the Barbie logos, and of course the advertisement pamphlets tucked inside their packaging. Within a few months we had several de-boxed 90s friends, and out of date stuff we found at places like Toys 'R' Us and KB Toys. This was the start of our collecting--in the years after we focused on 70s and 80s Barbie, Skipper, Stacie, Ken, Bratz, Mary-Kate and Ashley, etc. But even before this turning point, we always did have pinpointed interested--Colleen built up a magnificent Kelly collection, and I had a proclivity towards ethnic dolls, Disney characters, and of course the Generation Girls. As we got older and discovered the world wide web at Dad's office, we were able to further our research. As our collection expanded I noticed differences in the plastic, hair types, packaging, etc of all these dolls...even down to the way they smelled. I wanted to know it all, and each tidbit of information I acquired felt victorious.

 

But there was more to this story than just our lust for doll knowledge. Growing up with predominantly secondhand dolls up until the age of maybe eleven, I always wanted to restore them in some way. It began at the age of six when I discovered that the No More Bedhead spray worked miracles on our ratty Water Jewel Magic Jasmine. But that was not enough within a few years. It occurred to me one day to wash and condition their hair, and when I did and saw the results, it sparked my inner cleaning demon. As a kid who probably had undiagnosed OCD, which led me to compulsively brush my doll's hair, over organize their things, and cry over imagined filth, the power to fix them up was ever so satisfying. Foam 'n Color Barbie and Corduroy Cool "Lizzie" were just the practice dolls. But once I realized how powerful this treatment was, all my dolls got it. This became a ritual--every time we imported secondhand dolls from the flea market, they'd either get hand washed or thrown all together in the bathtub for a cleaning. Their clothes and accessories were no exception. Afterwards we'd follow up with a blow dry and hair styling. It was a very rudimentary version of what we do nowadays. And as for our old favorites who were regular cast members in our dolly games, well they got weekly treatments. I became obsessed with my dolls always looking and smelling their best. My desire to organize well also intensified and I had little containers for everything--the dishes were all subdivided by cups, pan lids, plates, bowls, etc. Each doll type also had his/her own containers too. We were always trying to identify clothes and accessories, so we could properly sort them. And I remember saving hair I brushed out from other dolls and storing it in a ziploc, thinking that maybe one day I could do a hair transplant of sorts. If doll social media had been a thing back then, and I had access to the knowledge I do nowadays, I can guarantee we would have tried it all--the boil wash, the flat iron, properly washing their clothes, etc. I think part of why I do overkill these days when it comes to cleaning is because it was a skill I desperately wanted as a kid, and now that I know how to do it all properly, I just can't stop!

 

You could say that I always had a one track mind when it came to dolls. Not only were they my main interest and therefore the desirable gift to receive or the obvious choice to splurge my allowance money, but they also occupied just about every other space in my brain. I would daydream about dolls all day--on the school bus, sitting in class, laying in bed at night, at the dinner table. Because my thoughts were constantly revolving around dolls, it seems natural that I would see the world in terms of dolls. Discarded food advertisements and mini umbrellas from the Chinese restaurants weren't just trash to us. No, they were props for our dolls. Even when we owned a vast amount of authentic Barbie/fashion doll accessories, we still saw the potential in all sorts of odds and ends. Kid Kore Katie and my Perfume Princess Jasmine dolls (aka Reggie and Myra) were lucky enough to profit from this behavior--they had quite the expansive collection of McDonald's toys, Polly Pockets and other bits and bobs to fill out the space in their "bedrooms." A shoe box was the perfect closet, my bookcase the ideal shack, and I always waited eagerly for little tins and food containers to be emptied so I could store my dollies' valuables inside. When Memeré first moved out of our house and left a vacant bedroom, Colleen and I immediately envisioned a dolly paradise. For several months it was--the drawers in the desk she left behind were great for tucking away some of their things, and the fold down top was a magnificent spot to put the dolls at night, safe out of harm's way. Things honestly haven't changed much. My thoughts are always brewing new ideas for doll stuff. Whether it is content for videos, concepts for "dolly essays," or the possibilities I feel when I see discarded jewelry, everything seems to tie back to dolls. I find myself constantly brooding over better ways to organize, and aimlessly meandering through aisles at the store looking for inspiration for doll crafts. If I have a gift card, even for a non toy stocked store, I wonder what could my dolls gain from this?. I'm that person who literally spent all her birthday gift card for Michael's on discounted pads of scrapbook paper which would create countless backdrops for my doll photography and future video scenarios. I admit, I'm intense, even compared to some other collectors. I never have any qualms about moving my own stuff out of the way to make space for my dolls, much like how I shove our own towels out of the closet to accommodate my guinea pig and chinchilla laundry.

 

For a long time, I think I resisted dolls because they were so all consuming. I began to feel a sense of discomfort and awareness about my unconventional passion as a teenager. It wasn't "normal" to spend Friday nights at toy stores with your dad buying dolls when you are fourteen. It certainly wasn't acceptable to be toting dolls with you to restaurants either. I met a crossroad during this time. There was the part of me that genuinely wanted to know who Shelly was without dolls, but there was also the other half of me that knew she couldn't leave them behind. Even when all the dolls were packed up and put away to be forgotten about in the basement, I still felt something whenever I saw dolls. It could have been a glimpse of a doll in a movie, or a pile of kanekalon haired Barbies at the flea market, or the toy aisle at the brand new Wal-Mart Supercenter I had never ventured into. I felt intrigued, compelled, and no matter how hard I tried to push the thoughts out of my mind, they were always there. Even though in that time I forgot exactly what it was I loved about dolls, even if my deep connection for Bratz became buried to the point of me shunning them later on, my heart never failed to leap at the thought of dolls. I'll never regret my time away from the hobby, because it gave me the chance to figure out who I wasn't. I dabbled with your typical teen interests--makeup, boys, clothes, the internet, bands, etc. But most of it never felt natural, it almost was as if I was dressed up for Halloween. It made me feel very much like those "picture days" at school when Mom crammed me in some hideous dress that I would never willingly wear, or that discomfort I get whenever I drive a vehicle that's not a Jeep. Some things just fit, whether or not you want them to, whether or not they fit your "aesthetic." In the darkest hours of my life, the pages of Barbie and Disney collector books lit a little match inside me. I truly believe that dolls are part of who I am, which is probably why I had no self control when I delved back into the hobby in 2011. Within a few months that one shelf of Disney dolls in my room turned into a huge shelf unit just for Bratz, a doll house, and another bookcase all dedicated to my dollies. Almost every waking hour of free time was somehow devoted to dolls--research, organization, cleaning, shopping, creating...you name it. I'm not sorry about any of it either. While Shelly is and always was a separate person from dolls, I have to admit that I'm a happier with dolls in my life. Honestly, I think I'm the best version of myself when it comes to dolls. I'm the most motivated, thorough, creative, and courageous because of my dolly companions. Although there may be occasions in the future when I can't have a huge collection or I have to dedicate most of my free time to more important aspects in my life, dolls will always be there lurking in the shadows, waiting for me to be done with "adulting" so we can play. I may have been born to love dolls, but I choose to keep them in my life no matter what judgements or criticisms come my way, because to deny my passion them would be an inauthentic version of myself.

Faubourg Tremé is a famed district immediately North of the French Quarter, known as the "Back of Town" or simply Treme. Around 1794, developers began subdividing the Morand Plantation, opening it to a mixed community. Treme was famed as the location of Congo Square, the place where slaves were able to sing and dance on Sundays, until the practice was banned around the 1850s. In 1897, Storyville, the legendary New Orleans red light district, was carved out of Treme. In those semi-legal brothels, African-American artists developed and spread what is now jazz. Storyville survived until 1917 when it was closed by order of the Sec of Navy during WWI. In the 1960s, urban renewal plans resulted in the demolition of most of central Treme before the project died, leaving a large vacant lot until the 1970s, when it became Louis Armstrong Park. Urban renewal also caused I-10 to cut a swath through the area.

 

Artists from Treme include Alphonse Picou, Kermit Ruffins, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Lucien Barbarin, "The King of Treme" Shannon Powell, Henry Ragas, Louis Prima and Alex Chilton. The district has recently been depicted in the show Tremé, which is well-regarded by locals.

Tremé, New Orleans, Louisiana

190 Fordham Street, City Island, Bronx, New York City, New York

 

Summary

 

Located on City Island in the Bronx, Public School 102 (later Public School 17 -- The City Island School) was constructed in 1897-98 and served as the community's only school until 1931. The architect of the two-story (plus basement), Georgian Revival style red brick-clad building was C.B.J. Snyder, Superintendent of School Buildings for New York City from 1891 until 1923. This is one of Snyder's few extant school designs in this mode, and represents a suburban typology appropriate to a larger

 

lot size, in contrast to the constricted building lots located on densely built up urban blocks of Manhattan and Brooklyn, where Snyder pioneered the use of the H-plan school buildings with exterior courtyards. As originally constructed, Public School 102 measured roughly 65 by 87 feet, but was expanded in 192930 to meet the needs of a growing population. Re-numbered Public School 17 in 1903 and designated as The City Island School in 1916, it was replaced in 1975 by P.S. 175. The original school building then began to be used by various community groups; the City Island Historical Society and Nautical Museum still occupies a portion. In 2000, part of the original structure and the addition were converted into condominium apartments. Despite the painting of the red brick cladding, loss of the historic entrance and portico by fire in 2007 (since re-created), the removal of the original cupola, and the addition of side dormers, Public School 102 remains a rare example of Snyder's use of the Georgian Revival style, is one of the few small community schools by Snyder that is extant, and is an important reminder of the period of this community's consolidation into the City of New York. The designated Landmark consists of the original 1897-98 portion of the school building, as well as the adjacent western and eastern side yards and the northern front yard.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

City Island

 

Located just south of Pelham Bay Park in Long Island Sound, New City Island received its name around 1761, when a syndicate intended to transform it into a commercial center that would rival New York, a project that failed to materialize. In 1818, 42 acres at the island's southernmost tip came into the possession of George Horton, Supervisor of the Town of Pelham in Westchester County, who promoted the layout of streets, including Pilot, Pell, Schofield, and Main (now City Island Avenue), the public highway. In the first half of the 19th century, parts of the island were subdivided and changed hands many times, but this remained a largely rural community. The island's first commercial enterprise, a solar salt works that produced salt from evaporated seawater, was established by E.C. Cooper in the 1820s. Around 1830, Orrin Fordham, a shipbuilder from Connecticut, established an oyster planting business on the island's east side, a concept that revolutionized the American oyster business. Between 1847 and 1869, numerous settlers moved to City Island to take part in the oyster business, which became "the chief industry employing the bulk of the male population at City Island."

 

City Islanders also profited by servicing, supplying, and building ships, which supported the island's economy throughout most of the 20th century. There were many small shipyards serving the oyster boats throughout the 19th century, but the first commercial one, D. Carll Shipyard, was established in 1862. After the Civil War, the Carll yard became known for the construction and rebuilding of large luxury yachts, and other commercial yards were soon established, resulting in the construction of numerous luxury and racing yachts including a number of America's Cup winners. The federal government also commissioned vessels from City Island boatyards during both World Wars. After World War II, the leisure-boating industry rose to prominence.

 

City Island was part of the Town of Pelham, Westchester County, linked to the mainland by a toll bridge in 1873, until it became part of the eastern Bronx when it was annexed by New York City in 1895. The population around that time was about 1,400. Limited access to the island discouraged dense development, and as a result the island has retained its small-town atmosphere, with yacht clubs, marinas, and popular seafood restaurants continuing to play a role in the island's economy.

 

The first school on the island, constructed by the Town of Pelham, opened in 1839 on Main Street (now City Island Avenue), and was enlarged in 1847. This was replaced in 1860 by a school at Main Street and Orchard (now Hawkins) Street. The City Island School (Grammar School No. 102) was one of nine former Westchester County schools that became part of the 24th Ward of the Annexed District of the Bronx. In 1895, the publication School reported that the City Island School was an "old frame structure... found in a dilapidated and unsanitary condition. It is on a low, sunken lot, and [the Chairman of the Board of Education] suggested that the proper disposition of this would be to sell the property and to purchase a new site on higher ground, and erect a new and suitable building." The Board of Education soon began making plans for a new school building for the island.

 

C.B.J. Snyder, Schools Architect

 

Charles B.J. Snyder (1860-1945), New York City's Superintendent of School Buildings, was the architect responsible for the planning, design, and construction of all new and expanded schools in the five boroughs after the Consolidation of Greater New York in 1898. Appointed to this position in 1891 (at age 31), when he oversaw only Manhattan and the Annexed District of the Bronx, Snyder remained in the post until 1923. By that year, he had presided over some 400 school projects -- new buildings, as well as numerous additions and alterations to existing schools, throughout the city. Snyder was born in Stillwater, New York, attended Cooper Union (c. 1881-84), and worked in the early 1880s with William E. Bishop. His own architectural practice was first listed in New York City directories in 1886. History and Commerce of New York 1891 claimed that he had erected

 

a large number of handsome and substantial edifices, warehouses, office buildings and fine residences, not only in this city but elsewhere. He has developed a large business in Central America. He is the designer of the earthquake-proof buildings which have been erected in Costa Rica and other points in that section. ... Mr. Snyder was the first to discover the true principle on which such buildings should be erected...

 

Snyder remained in practice until around 1936.

 

As a specialist in school design, C.B.J. Snyder was recognized as a national leader in this regard as early as 1905 in American Architect & Building News:

 

Possibly it was not the best, probably it was not the most economical, certainly it was not the most expeditious way to have all the school-houses the city stood in such sore need of designed and built by the official architect to the Department of Education. But, since that method had to be followed, it is a matter of wonderful good fortune that the official architect chanced to be such a man as Mr. C.B.J. Snyder, who not only at the outset showed such distinct capacity for his task, but has proved himself a man able to grow as his opportunities opened before him. Mr. Wheelwright in Boston, Mr. Ittner in St. Louis, Mr. Mundie in Chicago, have done excellent service to their respective cities in the way of building schoolhouses... but they have not had to do their work under the same sort of pressure that has been put upon Mr. Snyder, and they have not had to adapt their architectural treatment to as closely restricted

 

sites.

 

Snyder's achievement was particularly remarkable given the scale of new school construction in New York City, as cited in the same publication:

 

The magnitude of the undertaking and the reality of the need for these new school-houses is shown by the fact that, even after several years of active building, there are at this time seventy-seven school-houses in various stages of completeness now in charge of the architect to the Department of Education, while contracts for twenty-four more will shortly be made.

 

Snyder's concern with health and safety issues in public schools focused on fire protection, ventilation, lighting, and classroom size. He used terra-cotta blocks in floor construction to improve fireproofing, and numerous large windows to increase light and air in classrooms. He also developed new methods for mechanical air circulation in schools, and an interlocking double-staircase for quick evacuation. The problem of school design in New York, particularly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, was heightened by the relatively constricted sites which were necessitated by the high cost of land acquisition.

 

As a result, in 1896 Snyder introduced the efficient "H-plan" having two side courts, which provided increased light and ventilation as well as areas between the wings for safe recreation. In Snyder's schools, dedicated indoor and outdoor play space was considered "much to the advantage of the untaught training of childhood," and reflected the latest in pedagogical theory. Other innovations included the provision of facilities for manual training, fine arts, and home economics, and accommodations for public assembly and adult education programs.

 

The use of steel skeleton framing for buildings over four stories allowed for cheaper and faster construction and increased window areas. Because of the need to produce so many buildings in such a short span of time, Snyder's office built upon the design and planning ideas of earlier schools for new ones, and sometimes used the same basic design for multiple sites. This was made easier by his reorganization of the deputy superintendents, so that each was responsible for a single part of the building (such as design and planning, heating and ventilating, electricity, plumbing and drainage, furniture, and inspection and records) and each reported directly to Snyder.

 

Embracing a variety of architectural styles, Snyder's schools were considered inventive, handsome, and appropriate as civic monuments. His earliest designs continued the Romanesque Revival style of George W. Debevoise, his predecessor as Superintendent of School Buildings, but Snyder later moved into many other idioms, such as Jacobean, Dutch Renaissance, French Renaissance, Georgian and Colonial Revival, Beaux-Arts, and Secessionist. Snyder is credited with the introduction of the Collegiate Gothic style to New York public school architecture, a style usually associated with universities and one that he successfully used for more than twenty years. John Beverly Robinson, writing in the Architectural Record, commended Snyder's design sensitivity, noting

 

With all this [i.e. so much construction] the architecture of the buildings has not been neglected, for as education ceases to be conducted by factory methods it is well that the walls where education dwells should signalize the change by forsaking their factory appearance.

 

Snyder was able to adapt these large buildings to the requirements of their sites, while still creating picturesque and well-functioning school buildings. The dramatic and vigorous designs of these buildings, with their distinctive profiles and unique details, helped these schools serve as strong focal points for their communities.

 

Public School 102 on City Island

 

The task of designing and constructing a new school for City Island during the years of Consolidation was a convoluted, three-year process. In February 1896, C.B.J Snyder reported to the New York City Board of Education's Committee on Buildings that a one-story brick school could be erected, similar to Bronx Public School 33, for $32,000, and recommended renting a City Island building as an annex to Grammar School No. 102 until a new school was finished. In March, the Committee voted to rent a building at Main Street and Fordham Avenue (later Street) as an annex, and to advertise for construction bids for the new school. Snyder submitted his proposal and sketch plans in April. On May 26, 1896, the City acquired for $4,500, from Charles L. and Phoebe Berge, a 115-by-380-foot site, reputedly the highest point on the island and by legend the location of its earliest cemetery, on the south side of Fordham Avenue between Billar Place (now Minneford Avenue) and Fordham Street (now Place). That same month, Snyder filed plans with the Department of Buildings for a one-story (with basement and attic) brick school to cost $30,000. In June, the Board of Education authorized bids for the construction contract, and received nine. The Board reported in July that it had entered into a $59,000 contract with builder James O'Toole, but he subsequently declined to execute this contract and forfeited his deposit. In August, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment passed a bond appropriating funds for the City Island school.

 

The Board of Education re-advertised for proposals for the new school's construction in October 1896, receiving five bids, and the contract was awarded to Harry McNally for $70,750. In November, however, this appropriation was laid over, with the request that Snyder report on "what style of a school building" could be erected instead for around $30,000. Snyder in December stipulated that costs could be reduced to $40,000 for a one-story building, with a simpler interior and exterior design; lesser quality materials, including red brick instead of Tiffany (ironspot) brick, and no cut stonework; a flat roof instead of a pitched one; and reduced size of the paved playground.

 

The Committee on Buildings thus voted to re-advertise for proposals for a less expensive school. In April 1897, Snyder filed new plans with the Department of Buildings, and in July the Board of Education received construction estimates. This time, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment refused to issue bonds on this and another Bronx school project on the grounds of "too much woodwork." Snyder filed new plans in August for a two-story (plus basement) brick school to cost $60,000. In October, after nine bids were received, the contract was awarded to the lowest ($53,906), that of the German-born Herman C. Probst (1853-1911), previously a builder in Chicago. That same month, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment approved the $53,906 in bonds.

 

Probst's construction contract was supposed to be completed by March 15, 1898, but there were reports in early 1898 of delays due to extreme weather and the "exposed location" of the school's site. The new Public School 102 was finally completed and opened in October 1898 with some 400 students, at a cost (including contents) variously recorded as $55,828 or $61,578. The building, measuring roughly 65 by 87 feet, accommodated eight classrooms on the two upper floors, with playrooms in the basement. The majority of the furniture was supplied through the Superintendent of State Prisons.

 

The Georgian Revival style Public School 102 is one of C.B.J. Snyder's few school designs in this mode, as well as one of the few small community schools by Snyder, that is extant, and represents a suburban typology appropriate to a larger lot size, in contrast to the constricted building lots located on densely built up urban blocks of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Snyder's use of the Georgian Revival style was typified here by the pedimented central pavilion with a prominent Palladian window and an oculus window, the segmental-pedimented entry porch (now re-created), the entrance doors with sidelights and fanlight (also re-created), the central cupola (no longer extant), and the use of red brick. Following Consolidation in 1898, schools in New York City were systematically re-numbered, and this became Bronx Public School 17 in January 1903.

 

Later History: Public School 17 - The City Island School

 

As part of the Board of Education's school naming policy in 1916, P.S. 17 was designated as The City Island School. By 1922, additional classrooms were needed, for which the City provided portable ones for 135 students. To meet the needs of the island's growing population, the Board of

 

Education approved an addition for the school in January 1929, which was occupied in September 1930 (Walter C. Martin, architect). Public School 17 remained the only school on City Island until 1931, when the Catholic parochial St. Mary, Star of the Sea School opened on Minneford Avenue (a new building was constructed in 1948). P.S. 17 ceased its function as a school when it was replaced in 1975 by P.S. 175. The following year, the Save the Schoolhouse Committee was formed, and the former school building was leased as community center by various community groups, including the Community Centre and Historical Nautical Museum, Art Resource Centre, and a Youth Program operated by the Police Athletic League. In 1984, the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

The City sold the property in 1988 for $500,000 to the 190 Fordham Street Realty Corp., with a covenant stipulating that 50% of the older portion of the building be used for "not-for- profit, City Island related, museum and community center uses." Part of the 1890s school building, and the entire 1929-30 addition, were converted in 2000 into the 16-unit Nautical Winds Condominium. In 2007, the front portion of the original school, including the entrance and portico, was damaged by fire; the portico and entrance were re-created in 2008 by architect Kaitsen Woo, in part with a grant from the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The City Island Historical Society and Nautical Museum still occupies part of the original building, which remains an important reminder of the period of this community's consolidation into the City of New York.

 

Description

 

Note: the Landmark consists of the original 1897-98 portion of the school building, as well as the adjacent western and eastern side yards and the northern front yard.

 

Historic: two-story (plus basement) Georgian Revival schoolhouse; brick cladding (now painted), stone watertable, granite stringcourses; central pavilion with Palladian window (originally with Gothic muntins in the round arch) and pediment with oculus window; rear stairwell extension (second-story side windows added 1929-30) with brick chimney stack; denticulated wood cornice; complex hipped roof

 

Alterations: portico with columns, shingled base, and segmental pediment re-created (2008) after fire (1929 side storm windows not re-created); entrance with wood-and-glass double doors, sidelights, and fanlight re-created (2008) after fire (1929 storm enclosure doors and windows not recreated); one-over-one aluminum windows surmounted by fixed panes (originally six-over-six double-hung wood sash with tripartite transoms on first and second stories, later (c. 1931-36) six- over-six double-hung wood sash without transoms, including basement level), except Palladian window with single panes and fanlight; polygonal cupola on roof removed (c. 1936-77, part of base remains); side dormers and roof deck added (c. 2000)

 

Site: front yard grassy hill, with steps (post-1984) at eastern corner, and wrought-iron fence set on stone base with gates (pre-1930); historic bluestone entrance steps and stone cheek walls with central pipe railing (post-1936); ramp with metal railings (c. 2000); flagpole (pre-1930); driveway, concrete block retaining wall (post-1984), and chainlink fence on eastern side

 

- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

 

Jamaica Business Resource Center, 90-33 160th Street, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, United States

 

La Casina is a rare surviving example of Streamlined Moderne design in New York City. The metal and stucco facade of this former nightclub and restaurant structure was constructed c. 1933, during the period of greatest popularity for the streamlined style. The building, erected in the heart of Jamaica’s commercial center, is representative of the many entertainment facilities built in Jamaica during the first decades of the twentieth century as this area developed into the commercial and entertainment hub for Queens County and nearby sections of Long Island. Although altered over the years, the La Casina Building has been beautifully restored and is again one of the most distinctive structures in Jamaica’s business district.

 

Development of Jamaica

 

Jamaica, one of the oldest settlements within the boundaries of New York City, developed into the leading commercial and entertainment center of Queens County. The Dutch purchased land in Jamaica from the Jameco (also spelled Jemeco) Indians in 1655. The following year, Governor Peter Stuyvesant granted a charter to the town, originally known as Rusdorp.

 

Following the transfer of power from the Dutch to the English in 1664, Rusdorp was renamed Jamaica, after the original Indian inhabitants of the region. Queens County (incorporating present-day Queens and Nassau Counties) was chartered in 1683. The English established Jamaica as the governmental center of Queens County, with a court, county clerk’s office, and parish church (Grace Church; the present structure, dating from 1861-62, is a designated New York Landmark). Outside the town center, Jamaica was largely an area of farm fields and grazing land for cattle. The rural village was officially incorporated by New York State in 1814.

 

Jamaica’s central location in Queens County and the extensive transportation network that developed in the town during the nineteenth century, resulted in the transformation of the community into the major commercial center for Queens County and much of eastern Long Island. It was the arrival of the railroads that began this transformation. The roads and rail lines connecting Jamaica with other sections of Queens County, with Brooklyn to the west, eastern Long Island, and ferries to New York City had a tremendous impact. Jamaica’s farmland was soon being subdivided into streets and building lots, and new homes were erected.

 

By the turn of the century, Jamaica’s importance as a commercial area became evident in the impressive buildings beginning to appear on Jamaica Avenue, most notably the Beaux-Arts Jamaica Savings Bank Building (Hough & Deuell, 1897-98), 161-02 Jamaica Avenue. After Jamaica was incorporated into the borough of Queens and became a part of New York City on January 1, 1898, additional transportation improvements brought increasing numbers of people. As a result, the population of Jamaica quadrupled between 1900 and 1920.

 

It was during the 1920s, when the major mass transit links were in place, and during a period when private automobile ownership was growing at an extraordinary rate, that Jamaica experienced its major expansion as a commercial and entertainment center. By 1925, Jamaica Avenue between 160th Street and 168th Street had the highest assessed valuation in Queens County.

 

During the 1920s and early 1930s, many small- scale commercial buildings were erected in Jamaica, as well as several major office and commercial structures, including the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Building (George W. Conable, 1928-29) on 161st Street; the Title Guarantee Company Building (Dennison & Hirons, 1929), 90-04 161st Street; and the J. Kurtz & Sons Store (Allmendinger & Schlendorf, 1931; a designated New York City Landmark) on Jamaica Avenue. In addition, Jamaica developed into a significant entertainment center. By the mid-1930s, there were at least eight movie theaters on or just off of Jamaica Avenue, and there were over sixty restaurants, bars, and clubs, ranging from small ethnic taverns to elegant restaurants. It was within this bustling commercial and entertainment setting that La Casina opened.

 

The Nightclub:

 

A Brief Examination of Its History and Design

 

During the late 1920s and 1930s, the nightclub became a prominent and romantic symbol of New York’s nightlife. While partially based on the reality of the city’s exclusive clubs and restaurants, the nightclub image was largely a fantasy based on Hollywood’s interpretation of these elegant establishments. Nightclubs and restaurants with live shows began to appear in New York City in the late 1920s as the enforcement of Prohibition ebbed. With the end of Prohibition in 1933, nightclubs proliferated." As nightclubs and restaurants with live shows grew in popularity, their designs became increasingly elegant. Clubs and related restaurants such as the Central Park Casino, the Persian Room, the Rainbow Room, El Morocco, the 21 Club, and the Stork, catered to an exclusive clientele. While most New Yorkers could not afford to patronize these establishments, they were well known through newspaper gossip columns, magazines, and other popular media outlets.

 

Movies such as Broadway (1929), Puttin’ on the Ritz (1930), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), and Swing Time (1936) created a romantic image of nightclubs with Modeme and Art Deco decor incorporating streamlined walls and ceilings, glistening mirrored floors, and elegantly appointed revelers. Perhaps in homage to popular Latin dances, many of these clubs, both real and cinematic, were given Spanish- sounding names.

 

Although modest in scale, La Casina was designed to fit the image of the up-to-date night spot. The club and restaurant was provided with a Latin name and its streamlined design echoes, in miniature, the elegant clubs enjoyed vicariously by patrons as they viewed movies at their local movie palaces.

 

La Casina: The Site and the Design of the Building

 

La Casina is located on 160th Street between Jamaica Avenue and 90th Avenue. Located only a few blocks from the center of Jamaica, 160th Street was initially developed with modest frame buildings, most erected as residences but later converted for commercial use. In 1907, the Queens Borough Real Estate Exchange erected a neo-Classical style brick and limestone office building designed by Tuthill & Higgins at 90-33 160th Street.

 

The building was purchased in 1918 by Arnold Behrer, Jr., and Clarence Behrer. On November 1, 1932, the Behrers leased the site to Bernard Levy and La Casino, Inc., for a period of four years (until 1936). According to the lease agreement, the building was "to be used and occupied only as a restaurant, cabaret, beer garden, casino and dance hall." The rent rose from $1,800 a year the first year to $3,000 during the fourth year. All alterations made to the building by the lessee had to be approved by the owner.

 

The La Casino Supper Club opened in 1933. It first appeared in the Queens telephone directory for winter 1933-34. Apparently, the club was only open for a short time since it did not appear in the telephone directory for winter 1934-35. The club reopened by May 1936. Telephone directory listings continued to call the establishment the La Casino Restaurant. However, the weekly La Casina Journal, published by the establishment, spelled the name with an "a" and also referred to the La Casina Restaurant and Supper Club in its text. The work undertaken to create the present streamlined design was an alteration of the original building, but no surviving alteration application has been located that specifically notes the construction of a new front. Several permits for small alterations were issued in 1933, and one of these may have included the new facade.

 

La Casina was designed in the Streamlined Modeme style which became popular in America in the 1930s.' Although it initially appeared on residential buildings, the Streamlined Moderne style was soon adapted for commercial buildings since the dramatic massing and dynamic stripped forms drew attention and, therefore, brought people to the buildings. The style was popular for relatively small-scale public buildings, especially those that were erected for businesses that relied on a large paying clientele.

 

These businesses included hotels, such as those in Miami Beach; theaters, such as the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Hollywood; movie theaters, notably those designed by S. Charles Lee; bus depots, such as the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Washington, D.C.; and roadside structures such as auto showrooms, motels, and diners. Historian Martin Greif characterized the Streamlined Moderne (also sometimes referred to as Depression Modem) as "an art stripped bare of all ornamentation. . . . Ideally, the Depression Modern style was spare . .

 

. without a single detail that could be called extraneous, without any embellishment, without a line that did not seem inevitable."

 

With its smooth planes of stucco, dynamic ziggurat massing, sweeping bands of metal, and its lack of applied ornamentation, the La Casina building fits Greifs description of the ideal streamlined structure. The streamlined mode was an appropriate choice for La Casina, not only providing an up-to-date image for the establishment, but also creating a noticeable form for the small midblock structure, one that would attract attention from busy Jamaica Avenue. This was heightened by the use of a bright projecting vertical neon sign announcing the nightclub’s presence.

 

La Casina: The Restaurant and Nightclub

 

La Casina offered dining, dancing, and entertainment. According to the La Casina Journal, La Casina offered three shows a night performed by the La Casina Adorables and the La Casina Swing Melo-Dears. The club also featured special guests such as Maureen Rio, the Broadway star of Earl Carroll’s Sketch Book? There was no cover charge and the club offered free parking.

 

The Journal noted such special events as "Celebrity Night"; "Democratic Night" and "Republican Night" (at the latter two evenings guests were to meet primary candidates); and "Bowery Night," where guests were to dress in old clothes, men were to arrive unshaven, and all were to be entertained by Diamond L’il, Cuspidor Carrie, Fishface Fanny, Gashouse Gertie, Willie the Gonof, Little Annie Rooney, Champagne Lil, and Limehouse Lou.

 

Later History

 

La Casina (or a facility with a similar name) occupied the building until about 1938; the last entry in the telephone directory is for winter 1937-38. In 1940, Arnold Behrer, Jr., lost the property in a legal proceeding to the mortgagor, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. A tax photograph taken by New York City in 1940 shows "For Rent" signs in the picture windows of the club.

 

In 1942, the building was sold to the Church of God of Greater New York, Inc., although it does not appear to have ever been used as a church (the Church of God was headquartered on 224th Street). The use, if any, of the building in the early 1940s is not known.

 

In 1946, the former nightclub was sold to Polly Foundations, Inc., which converted the building into a factory that manufactured Ladyform bras. In 1952, the building was purchased by the Ellen Howard Corporation which manufactured Roxanne swim suits in the building until c.1987.

 

At some point, probably in the 1960s or 1970s, the galvanized-iron cladding of the ziggurat was covered in aluminum siding. The building was vacated in the late 1980s and deteriorated. In 1989, the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation acquired the former home of La Casina. A restoration was undertaken in 1994-95 under the guidance of the architectural firm of Li-Saltzman.

 

The restoration entailed the removal of the aluminum siding, the replacement of the deteriorated galvanized iron with aluminum that matched the form of the original, the restoration of the stucco at the lower level to its original colors, the removal of historically and stylistically inappropriate glass block windows and their replacement with historically accurate plate-glass windows, and the restoration of the tile flanking the entrance and of the original doors and glass entrance surround. The original vertical sign was conserved and encased within a new sign. The building now houses the Jamaica Business Resource Center.

 

Description

 

La Casina is a one-story symmetrical structure with a two-tiered streamlined facade in the form of a stepped pyramid or ziggurat. The base of the pyramid is set parallel to the sidewalk. This section of the building is faced with stucco.

 

The stuccoed portion of the facade is divided into a lower section that is painted gray and an upper section painted coral (paint studies determined the historical accuracy of these colors). The base is punctuated by a central entrance that is set back from the sidewalk within a five-stepped enframement clad in glazed black tiles at the lower section; the upper section is coral-colored stucco.

 

The entrance contains its original wood and glass double doors with very large vertically-placed bronze handles supported by silver-metal upper and lower stepped brackets. The doors are set within a frame of opaque black glass. The entrance bay is flanked by rectangular windows.

 

During the restoration, glass blocks that were crudely installed, probably when the building became a factory in the 1940s, were removed and replaced with historically accurate undivided plate glass. In addition, a shallow ramp for handicapped access has been added in front of the building.

 

Directly above the entrance is a curving streamlined frontispiece. It is divided into six wide horizontal bands with seven raised narrower bands covering the joints. To either side of this frontispiece is a six-layer stepped ziggurat. The frontispiece and flanking ziggurats were originally clad in smooth galvanized sheet metal attached to a wooden frame. The metal may originally have been painted gray. During the restoration, the deteriorated galvanized metal was replaced with shiny bands of aluminum.

 

Attached to the Building is the original vertical neon sign. This sign, which retains the words "La Casina" (an "o" for "casino" overlaps the "a"), "Ladyform Bras," "Swim Suits," and "Roxanne Swim Suits,” has been encased in a new aluminum sleeve with the "JBRC" initials of the Jamaica Business Resource Center in neon.

 

- From the 1996 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

On a walk around Mona Vale, Fendalton Christchurch October 16, 2014 New Zealand.

 

Mona Vale is an historic property located in the suburb of Fendalton, close to the city centre. The Victorian homestead is surrounded by 5.5 hectares of English-style landscaped gardens on the banks of the Avon River.

 

The homestead in the grounds of Mona Vale was built in 1897 for Frederick Waymouth. Heiress Annie Townend purchased the property in 1905, renaming it "Mona Vale" after her mother’s birthplace in Tasmania. She added the distinctive Fendalton Road Gatehouse, the Bath House and the Fernery. Later owners added the lily pond and plantings of rhododendrons and azaleas.

 

In the 1960s Mona Vale Homestead was to be demolished and the gardens subdivided. However public campaigning saved the property which was purchased for the City.

 

Today, the Christchurch City Council maintains the grounds.

 

Because of earthquake damage the Bath House and the Homestead are still closed and hopefully will get repaired at some time.

 

For more Info: www.ccc.govt.nz/cityleisure/parkswalkways/christchurchbot...

   

Designed by Alister G MacDonald, this was a larger more elaborately decorated sister cinema to the Playhouse, Montrose and the Playhouse, Peebles. All three cinemas, which were built for Caledonian Associated Cinemas, shared decorative and design features. The Elgin Playhouse survives in subdivided form.

Phetchabun is one of the northern provinces ( Changwat ) of Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are Loei, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit and Phitsanulok. Phetchabun is located in the lower northern region of Thailand, in the area between the northern and the central region. The province lies in the broad fertile river valley of the Pa Sak River, with mountains of the Phetchabun mountain range to the east and west. It is surrounded by places of interest, many well known national parks, beautiful waterfalls and great lakes. The province is subdivided in 11 districts ( Amphoe ). These are further subdivided into 117 sub districts ( Tambon ) and 1261 villages ( Muban ).

1. Mueang Phetchabun 2. Chon Daen 3. Lom Sak 4. Lom Kao 5. Wichian Buri 6. Si Thep 7. Nong Phai 8. Bueng Sam Phan 9. Nam Nao 10. Wang Pong 11. Khao Kho

Phetchabun was established by two kingdoms: the Sukhothai Kingdom, and the Ayutthaya Period of the King Narai. In the thesaphiban administrative reforms at the beginning of the 20th century, the province together with Lom Sak Province to the north formed the monthon Phetchabun. As it was the smallest monthon, it was also the first monthon to be dissolved in 1915, after being temporarily administered from Monthon Phitsanulok between 1903 and 1907. Lom Sak Province was abolished and merged into Phetchabun in 1932. During the period between 1968-1982 communist insurgents established bases in the mountains in the province. From hidden locations they fought occasional skirmishes against the Thai Army.

It is the mountains that draw tourists. The rolling peaks of Khao Thor, known as Little Switzerland, were once a battlefield against communist insurgents. Today, its beautiful scenery and cool weather attracts many visitors, to see the mountain-top army base turned into a museum, and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non-hunting areas. The national parks of Phu Hin Rong Kla, with its stunning rock formations, and Nam Nao, whose forests are home to many large animals and birds, are now starting to attract more and more trekkers and eco tourists. Khao Kho The most engaging national park of Phetchabun Province is Khao Kho National Park, about one hour northwest of Phetchabun town. It was designated to be Little Switzerland from many visitors, because of beautiful scenery and cool weather like Switzerland. It was once a battle field against communist insurgents conducted their struggles against the authorities. Its charming scenery and great weather allure tourists to see the mountain – top, army base turned into a museum, a Chedi containing a holy relic and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non – hunting areas.

Phetchabun may be reach by Road No.21 ( Kochasenee Rd.) from Saraburi and 370 kilometres from Bangkok.

How to get there

By Train

There is no railway system to Phetchabun

By Car

Road No.1 from capital city ( Bangkok ) to Saraburi province and then Road No.21 to Phetchabun road No.12 from Khon kaen ( central province of the northeastern region ) to Lom Sak and then Road 21. southward to Phetchabun.

By Bus.

Quite a lot of buses stop at this town on the way to Lom Sak. Here are some services you can find from Mo chit Terminal: www.transport.co.th 0 2936 2852-66

Phet Tour 0 2936 3230

Thin Siam Tour 0 2936 0500Buses are very frequent, like 2 or 3 within an hour. First Class service from Phet Tour cost 263 Baht and takes 4 hour+.

Wat Mahathat Phetchabun, Thailand. on Nikon Bamrung Road in town, houses several ancient Chedi's of Sukhothai style. Situated in Muang Phetchabun municipality. It seemed strange seeing this Temple as there is another Wat Mahathat I visited in Ayutthaya last year in 2010. However this Temple is totally different to that at Ayutthaya as you will see. Within the grounds is a school for the training of Buddhist Monks and many where around the day I visited this fine Temple. This monastery is an ancient temple which HRH Prince Damrong presumed that this monastery might be constructed during Sukhothai period. Wat Mahathat has the important objects of worship such as, Phum Khao Binth styled pagoda has been presumed that it might be constructed about B.E. 1926 ( 1383 ). This pagoda is a place that comprises Buddha's relics, Orrahan's ( saint ) ashes, and small images of Buddha in several styles. Two Buddha images of the U-Thong period whose laps are 36 inches wide. One is housed in the main chapel and the other is housed in the vihara of Wat Mahathat.

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 858 West End Avenue House is one of an intact group of four residences designed by the architectural firm of Schneider & Herter and built by the firm of Schneider & Company as a speculative venture. 1 The rowhouse group is the sole surviving example of a type of site planning used on several comer plots along West End Avenue in the early 1890s where a group of houses facing the Avenue featured a prominent comer house and an additional house was built facing the side street behind the Avenue-facing houses. Treated as the centerpiece of the rehouse group, the comer house at No. 858 West End Avenue is representative of the many larger comer houses with side entrances and comer towers which once stood on West End Avenue.

 

The group of residences was built in 1892-93 during the first period of intense residential development for the comfortable professional class along the northern portion of West End Avenue where the suburban qualities of landscaped streets, the views of the Hudson River, and the amenities of nearby Riverside Park created a desirable residential area. The 858 West End Avenue House is distinguished by ornament characteristic of the mannerist aesthetic of the firm of Schneider & Herter, the juxtaposition of contrasting textures of rough, smooth-faced, and carved brownstone, and the emphasis on a lively roof line punctuated by a bell-shaped tower and chimneys. The quality and distinctiveness of the Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival style design of the 858 West End Avenue House reflects the desire for individuality in the appearance of houses within rowhouse groups and is representative of the eclectically-styled residential architecture of West End Avenue dating from the 1890s.

 

Development of the Upper West Side

 

Despite its long history beginning soon after the colonial Dutch settlement, the Upper West Side, known as Bloomingdale prior to its urbanization, remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s. In the early eighteenth century, Bloomingdale Road (later renamed the Boulevard and finally Broadway in 1898) was opened through rural Bloomingdale and provided the northern route out of the city which was then concentrated in the southern tip of Manhattan. The Upper West Side was included in the Randel Survey of 1811 (known as the Commissioners' Map) which established a uniform grid of avenues and cross streets in Manhattan as far north as 155th Street, although years elapsed before streets on the Upper West Side were actually laid out, some as late as the 1870s and 1880s, and the land was subdivided into building lots.

 

The city grew rapidly northward during the nineteenth century, but it was not until after Central Park (a designated New York City Scenic landmark) was laid out in 1857 that development began around the perimeter of the Park, setting off the first wave of real estate speculation on the Upper West Side.

 

Improved public transportation to the area contributed to the growth and sustained development of the Upper West Side. By 1880 the horse car line on Eighth Avenue had been replaced by street rail service up to 125th Street and the Elevated Railway on Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890) had been completed. However, the biggest boost to the development of the West End (the area west of Broadway) was the creation, between 1876 and 1900, of Riverside Drive and Park (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark) located north of 72nd Street along the Hudson River. The presence of the park and drive, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was an important factor in making this area desirable for high-quality residential development.

 

Development of the Wast End began slowly, due, to a large degree, to the hesitation of would-be residents, but by 1885 it had emerged as the area in the city experiencing the most intense real estate speculation. The expectation that the blocks along Riverside Drive and West End Avenue would be lined with mansions kept the value of these lots, as well as adjacent land, consistently higher and developers were willing to wait to realize profits from the potentially valuable sites. The real estate developers, including the West End Association, founded in 1884 by the prominent developer, W.E.D. Stokes, ultimately stimulated the demand for houses in the West End. Real estate brochures and the local press drew attention to the area, emphasizing the scenic quality of the setting, the nearness of parks, and the availability of public transportation.

 

West End Avenue (formerly Eleventh Avenue) was opened in 1880 from 72nd Street to 106th street and was paved with asphalt by 1893. West End Association members set twenty-year restrictive covenants governing West End Avenue which closed the avenue to commercial traffic and initially limited development to single-family houses, thus enhancing the desirability of the residential area. By 1890 the character of the avenue had emerged as completely residential and was promoted as a suburban-like setting with such amenities as grass plots and trees along the sidewalks. The absence of flats and apartment houses on the avenue provided the opportunity for various treatments of the comers with rowhouses and larger attached residences.

 

In the mid-1880s the most attractive areas for development along West End Avenue were located near the El stations and along the higher elevations of the hilly avenue. Construction of mid-size rowhouses, rather than the more grand type of mansions originally projected for West End Avenue, began in 1885 near 104th Street which was convenient to a Ninth Avenue El station and by 1895 the high plateau between West 99th and 104th Streets had been built up with three- and four-story rowhouses. The architectural tone of these private residences was set by the presence of costly mansions such as the W.F. Foster residence at 102th Street and Riverside Drive and the Bacon residence at 104th Street and Riverside Drive.

 

The Schneider & Company's Houses

 

The site at the northeast corner of West 102nd Street and West End Avenue appears to have been first sold for development purposes in 1881 and at that time an open-ended restrictive covenant was initiated which prevented the construction of a variety of commercial and industrial buildings. The property changed hands several times before Hannah O'Brien filed plans in 1890 to build five three-story limestone-fronted houses designed by Andrew Spence; within a year O'Brien lost control of the property and this project was abandoned.

 

Two New York architects, Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter, along with two partners — John Fish, a previous client, and Eugene Schultz— acquired the property and soon after filed plans for the construction of a group of four three-story residences with raised basements. Beside the comer house, facing West End Avenue, are two narrow houses, nearly identical in design. Situated across the rear of the three West End Avenue houses, facing West 102nd Street and enclosing the yard area, the fourth house has a freestanding side facade. The houses, built between May, 1892, and April, 1893, were appropriately finished on the interior with decorative mantels, hardwood trim, and horseshoe openings ornamented with fretwork dividing the music rooms from the parlors, as well as up-to-date plumbing and utility areas. The placement of the stairhall in the center of each house permitted large full-width front rooms on the upper floors.

 

The first house to be sold in the rowhouse group was No. 856 West End Avenue. In 1895 the remaining houses were divided among the investors and Schneider & Herter acquired title to No. 858 West End Avenue. The house was sold in 1897 but title reverted to Schneider & Herter in 1898; they soon resold the house. No. 854 West End Avenue had been sold in 1895 and the West 102nd Street House was sold in 1896.

 

The Schneider & Company development venture is the sole surviving example of a site development pattern that emerged on West End Avenue in which large comer parcels were purchased for the construction of rowhouse groups. By decreasing the depth of the avenue-facing houses, an additional house could be built on the plot facing the side street; the plan worked to the advantage of the developer who sought a maximum return on the expensive West End Avenue lots. Slightly larger and more prestigious comer houses, with highly visible design features such as comer towers, were characteristic of this site development plan. This scheme was particularly favored in the early 1890s when the area between 99th and 104th streets was developed. Rowhouse groups facing West End Avenue, with a side street-facing house (or houses) across the rear of these lots, were built at the southeast comers of West End Avenue and 99th, 100th, 102nd, and 103rd Streets; all of the groups except the Schneider & Company group have been demolished.

 

The rowhouse group at the southeast comer of 103rd Street and West End Avenue, designed by M.V.B. Ferdon in 1891, included five houses facing West End Avenue and one facing 103rd Street; only the house facing West 103rd Street remains standing. Another group of houses designed by M.V.B. Ferdon and built by Increase Grenell in 1892 at the northwest comer of West End Avenue and 104th Street (demolished) included a comer house very similar to the Schneider & Company house, featuring the entrance near the center of the 104th Street facade.

 

Picturesque Architecture on West End Avenue

 

Curing the intense period of rowhouse development on the Upper West Side, from 1885 to 1900, residential design was dominated by a reaction to the conformity and homogeneity of older Italianate style brownstone rowhouses found elsewhere in the city. The first wave of development along West End Avenue in the period between 1885 and 1895 produced a number of individually-designed houses and speculatively-built, yet distinctive, rowhouse groups which, along with houses in the West End as a whole, represent the culmination of single-family house construction in Manhattan. Many of the most prominent architects working in New York City designed these residences, often for speculative developers who invested in the area. The residences designed for West End Avenue were characteristic of the picturesque eclecticism of late-nineteenth-century architecture, drawing from a wide variety of stylistic sources and expressing the desire of architects and clients for originality, variety, and novelty in residential architecture.

 

There was a movement away from smooth brownstone as a facing material and a new emphasis on the sculptural and textural qualities of surfaces, as well as on the mixture of colors and materials.

 

Unusual, picturesque house design on West End Avenue had been initiated by the construction of two groups of houses with a "Dutch" flavor in 1885-86, designed by Frederick B. White and McKim, Mead & White. Clarence True and other architects continued to design residences for West End Avenue in unusual and picturesque revival styles which were executed with a high-degree of artistic experimentation. Strong rhythmic patterns, asymmetrical massing, and a lively streetscape were created by the profusion of bowfronts, bay and oriel windows, gables, turrets, chimneys, dormers, cornices, stoops, and ornamentation associated with the popular Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles as well as more exotic revival styles. These later rowhouses on West End Avenue, and throughout the Upper West Side, unlike their Italianate brownstone predecessors from earlier in the nineteenth century, were purposely designed to be distinguished from one another, while together forming visually coherent ensembles.

 

The houses designed by Schneider & Herter are representative of this picturesque design movement, and although based on the common hybrid of the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles they are enlivened by unusual carved ornament. The treatment of each of the four houses individually within the easily recognizable group provided the architects with the opportunity to create variations on a theme. The high degree of modulation in the plane of the facades, through the use of recessed entrances as well as projecting bay windows and balconies (which afforded views of the river and park) adds depth and grandeur to the rowhouse designs. Schneider & Herter explored the range of surface effects achievable from smooth-faced and rough-cut brownstone, and incorporated both geometric and figural carving of the material.

 

The repetition of several ornamental elements unites the houses, including paired stringcourses, gridded panels of rough-faced stone, chamfered window surrounds in the smooth-faced facades, sheet-metal panels at the roofline, and elements of the carved stone program. The two smaller West End Avenue houses are identical except for the shape and detailing of the window openings. No. 858 West End Avenue has recessed balconies at the parlor and second stories that relate the comer house to the West End Avenue houses, while the longer West 102nd Street frontage is visually linked to the house at 254 West 102nd Street through the repetition of unusual columns flanking the entrances and the carved panels at the roofline. The round comer tower with a bell-shaped roof serves as the centerpiece of the group.

 

The design of picturesque rowhouses in New York was influenced by trends in the design of architectural ornament in the later nineteenth century, a time when ornament was treated by many architects as an opportunity for creative experimentation. European theorists such as Owen Jones, James K. Collings, and Christopher Dresser encouraged an abstract interpretation of vegetation executed with an emphasis on geometricized form and their publications influenced designers in the United States. At the same time, technological change also influenced the design of ornament. The availability of steam-powered tools encouraged the use of bold, machine-cut ornament while the growing use of terra cotta prompted the design of intricate ornament that could be easily reproduced.

 

The popularity of several revival styles, and the inventive blending of these styles, encouraged the architect/designer to adopt an individualized aesthetic in the design of architectural ornament. This trend can be seen in the abstracted naturalistic ornament developed by such recognized American innovators as Frank Fumess and Louis H. Sullivan, as well as in the pioneering work of architects like Henry Hobson Richardson, who developed a highly personal style drawing on Romanesque sources. Many architects working in New York City also developed identifiable personal styles, such as clarence True with his interpretation of the "Elizabethan Renaissance Revival" style.

 

Schneider & Herter developed a somewhat idiosyncratic and mannerist aesthetic characterized by a lack of reverence for the traditional placement of ornament, an unexpected combining of architectural styles, and asymmetry in the composition of facades and their detailing; these characteristics appear in the firm's early designs for tenements, rowhouses and synagogues. In the ornamental programs of several buildings, including the 858 West End Avenue House, Schneider & Herter combined incised, machine-cut ornament— recalling the earlier Neo-Grec style of incised ornament — with both abstracted naturalistic designs and romantic figurative carving. An uncommon approach to the composition and placement of ornament appears in the design of the entrance where the architects combined pilasters with the projecting balcony above to suggest an entrance portico.

 

Two flattened engaged baluster forms, with incised horizontal bands and necks at the bottom, are topped by capitals with carved shell forms above inscribed circles; animal masks extend from the upper portion of plain blocks above the capitals that support the projecting balcony. Framing the door to the east is a variation on this form, a cylindrical baluster with a capital, different from the flanking ones, of stalky acanthus leaves above which an elongated console bracket supports the balcony. A more subtle example of Schneider & Herter's unusual ornamental treatment appears in the placement of carved stones in the upper courses of the rusticated basement to cap undefined piers.

 

The Corner House on West End Avenue

 

The corner house type evolved on West End Avenue in response to the restrictive covenants that limited construction on this avenue to single-family dwellings, a departure from the development pattern found throughout much of the Upper West Side where flats or tenements were built on Avenue frontage and rowhouses were reserved for the side streets. Architects took advantage of the comer sites to punctuate the West End Avenue streetscape with slightly larger and often taller residences at the ends of blocks, which were often designed with comer towers or curved comer bays, whether built as "centerpieces" of rowhouse groups or as individual buildings. While a tower enhanced the presence of the comer residence, the house was often designed with an entrance near the center of the side street facade rather than a grand Avenue-facing entrance.

 

This was done for interior planning considerations, facilitating the placement of the stairhall near the center of the house which permitted full-width rooms at the front of the house.

 

Most of the comer houses built on West End Avenue were demolished during the redevelopment of the Avenue with apartment houses. Surviving examples of comer houses with side street entrances include the individually-designed and -built 520 West End Avenue (Leech) Residence (1892, a designated New York City landmark), the 858 West End Avenue House, the 560 West End Avenue House (1889-90, in the Riverside-West End Historic District), and several houses in the West End-Collegiate Historic District near the southern end of West End Avenue.

 

The 858 West End Avenue House has characteristics similar to many of these comer houses. The curved comer bay, topped with a bell-shaped roof and originally, a tall finial, extends a story above the other houses in the rowhouse group and serves as a focal point for the group. The roofline, highly visible in the avenue streetscape, features several tall chimneys, pinnacles, and a carved panel. The house is slightly longer than the adjacent houses, although the rear portion of the house is only two stories in height and forms a terrace at the rear, replicating the characteristic form of a rowhouse with a rear extension; a recessed porch with a service entrance at the end bay serves as an extension of the adjacent yard area. The presence of the entrance bay in the long street facade is enhanced by pilasters which frame the entrance, the recessed balcony at the second story, and the window group. A decorative panel extending above the roofline further provides a vertical counterpoint to the long facade.

 

Schneider & Herter

 

Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter began an architectural partnership in New York City around 1887; within a very short time they had a thriving business designing tenements, flats, and industrial buildings, primarily on the Lower East Side. Schneider & Herter worked repeatedly for a group of German-Jewish clients with ethnic backgrounds similar to theirs, the most prominent of whom were the real estate developers Jonas Weil and Bernard Mayer for whom the architects designed a number of multiple dwellings. This association led to the firm's commission for the Park East Synagogue, 163 East 67th Street (1889-90, a designated New York City Landmark), which Weil financed and led as president of the congregation. Schneider & Herter also designed Congregation Kol Israel Arshi at 20-22 Forsyth Street (1892, now owned by the Hellenic Orthodox Community).

 

The firm of Schneider & Herter had acted as architect-developers prior to its venture on the Upper West Side as Schneider & Co., designing and building a pair of French flats at 731-735 East 5th Street in 1890-91 and a French flat at 233-35 Delancey Street in 1891-92; the firm began a warehouse project at 141 West Broadway in 1893. Schneider & Herter later erected a five-story apartment building at 79-81 Perry Street in 1895 (in addition to designing several other buildings now within the Greenwich Village Historic District) and a pair of flats buildings at 309 and 317 West 93rd Street in 1901-02 (within the Riverside-West End Historic District).

 

The West End Avenue-102nd Street project was a departure from Schneider & Herter's usual work designing multiple dwellings, and was among the firm's first projects on the Upper West Side. Many of the firm's more than 100 multiple dwellings in Manhattan no longer stand, but those remaining exhibit the firm's individualistic approach to the use of ornament and facade compositions often featuring round-arched windows characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style.

 

Description

 

The comer house of the group of the four houses built by Schneider & Company, with the address of 858 West End Avenue, has a narrow seventeen-foot vide West End Avenue facade and a seventy-two-foot long 102nd Street facade. The house has three stories above a basement and is of brick construction with a brownstone veneer, rusticated at the basement and smooth-faced on the stories above. Dominating the design is an engaged cylindrical comer tower, which rises an additional story and is capped by a bell-shaped roof. The entrance bay, located in the center of the West 102nd Street facade, is emphasized by the use of a box stoop leading to the parlor-story entrance which is recessed behind engaged pilasters and surmounted by a shallow bow-fronted balcony.

 

A recessed balcony at the second story, an arched window group at the third story, and a carved panel with a lion head, which rises above the cornice and conceals the termination of the mansard portion of the roof, make this bay an important vertical counterpoint to the horizontal composition of the house that is accentuated by paired stringcourses. Rock-faced gridded panels in the upper portion of the third story, just below the classically-detailed cornice, add to the picturesque quality of the roof line; the mansard portion of the roof is covered with patterned sheet metal and the sheet-metal cornice is ornamented with sunflower motifs. The carved detailing of the house repeats forms used on other houses in the group, furthering the ensemble quality.

 

The first and second stories are extended in an additional curved bay at the eastern end of the 102nd Street facade, creating an open balcony at the third story. A short column and an implied pier with a carved impost block support the segmental arch (with a wrought iron gate) of the recessed service porch under this bay. A similar gate under an arch spans the entry to the rear yards between the comer house and No. 254 West 102nd Street. Beyond the curved return of the extension, the eastern elevation of the house is faced with brick, as is the eastern wall of the third story.

 

Alterations include the replacement of the original double-hung wood sash with aluminum sash and the panning of the original frames; the circular window next to the main entrance and the elliptical windows flanking the door in the bay above the main entrance remain unchanged. Two tall chimneys, pinnacles, and an elongated finial from the tower roof have been removed. The basement-level window grilles and the cast-iron fence on the areaway wall appear to have been added at an early date.

 

- From the 1990 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Former Ralphs 5200 Stockdale Hwy Bakersfield, CA. Was sold to Save Mart with 2 other locations in Bakersfield but they never reopened this location. Currently subdivided with Sports chalet on the left but the right side is vacant but was Fresh & Easy

Former Winn-Dixie located at 143 East Harwood Rd. in Hurst,TX. The building is currnetly subdivided bike store operating under the name Trek Bicycle Outlet and an amusement center under the name WhirlyBall of HEB.

Note Winn-Dixie opened this store on April 30th 1986 and operated until May 2002.

Phetchabun is one of the northern provinces ( Changwat ) of Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are Loei, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit and Phitsanulok. Phetchabun is located in the lower northern region of Thailand, in the area between the northern and the central region. The province lies in the broad fertile river valley of the Pa Sak River, with mountains of the Phetchabun mountain range to the east and west. It is surrounded by places of interest, many well known national parks, beautiful waterfalls and great lakes. The province is subdivided in 11 districts ( Amphoe ). These are further subdivided into 117 sub districts ( Tambon ) and 1261 villages ( Muban ).

1. Mueang Phetchabun 2. Chon Daen 3. Lom Sak 4. Lom Kao 5. Wichian Buri 6. Si Thep 7. Nong Phai 8. Bueng Sam Phan 9. Nam Nao 10. Wang Pong 11. Khao Kho

Phetchabun was established by two kingdoms: the Sukhothai Kingdom, and the Ayutthaya Period of the King Narai. In the thesaphiban administrative reforms at the beginning of the 20th century, the province together with Lom Sak Province to the north formed the monthon Phetchabun. As it was the smallest monthon, it was also the first monthon to be dissolved in 1915, after being temporarily administered from Monthon Phitsanulok between 1903 and 1907. Lom Sak Province was abolished and merged into Phetchabun in 1932. During the period between 1968-1982 communist insurgents established bases in the mountains in the province. From hidden locations they fought occasional skirmishes against the Thai Army.

It is the mountains that draw tourists. The rolling peaks of Khao Thor, known as Little Switzerland, were once a battlefield against communist insurgents. Today, its beautiful scenery and cool weather attracts many visitors, to see the mountain-top army base turned into a museum, and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non-hunting areas. The national parks of Phu Hin Rong Kla, with its stunning rock formations, and Nam Nao, whose forests are home to many large animals and birds, are now starting to attract more and more trekkers and eco tourists. Khao Kho The most engaging national park of Phetchabun Province is Khao Kho National Park, about one hour northwest of Phetchabun town. It was designated to be Little Switzerland from many visitors, because of beautiful scenery and cool weather like Switzerland. It was once a battle field against communist insurgents conducted their struggles against the authorities. Its charming scenery and great weather allure tourists to see the mountain – top, army base turned into a museum, a Chedi containing a holy relic and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non – hunting areas.

Phetchabun may be reach by Road No.21 ( Kochasenee Rd.) from Saraburi and 370 kilometres from Bangkok.

How to get there

By Train

There is no railway system to Phetchabun

By Car

Road No.1 from capital city ( Bangkok ) to Saraburi province and then Road No.21 to Phetchabun road No.12 from Khon kaen ( central province of the northeastern region ) to Lom Sak and then Road 21. southward to Phetchabun.

By Bus.

Quite a lot of buses stop at this town on the way to Lom Sak. Here are some services you can find from Mo chit Terminal: www.transport.co.th 0 2936 2852-66

Phet Tour 0 2936 3230

Thin Siam Tour 0 2936 0500Buses are very frequent, like 2 or 3 within an hour. First Class service from Phet Tour cost 263 Baht and takes 4 hour+.

Wat Mahathat Phetchabun, Thailand. on Nikon Bamrung Road in town, houses several ancient Chedi's of Sukhothai style. Situated in Muang Phetchabun municipality. It seemed strange seeing this Temple as there is another Wat Mahathat I visited in Ayutthaya last year in 2010. However this Temple is totally different to that at Ayutthaya as you will see. Within the grounds is a school for the training of Buddhist Monks and many where around the day I visited this fine Temple. This monastery is an ancient temple which HRH Prince Damrong presumed that this monastery might be constructed during Sukhothai period. Wat Mahathat has the important objects of worship such as, Phum Khao Binth styled pagoda has been presumed that it might be constructed about B.E. 1926 ( 1383 ). This pagoda is a place that comprises Buddha's relics, Orrahan's ( saint ) ashes, and small images of Buddha in several styles. Two Buddha images of the U-Thong period whose laps are 36 inches wide. One is housed in the main chapel and the other is housed in the vihara of Wat Mahathat.

This is a sign being placed around Little Forest Hills (Dallas, Texas) protesting of all the new development that's going on. A lot of the old houses are being bought up by developers and then torn down, making way for new houses that many feel are destroying the character of the neighborhood - a character which is indeed "funky" in the best sense of the word.

 

One of the developers reportedly said that by the time the neighborhood got it together to fight the new development, it would "all be over" and the area would already be transformed.

 

The issue is presented in my film Subdivided www.subdivided.net

These six terrace houses were designed and built in the mid 1850's. They were built on land that was first sold at auction in 1838 and subdivided the following year. The design by architect Charles Laing is unusual only for the fact that there are two three-storey houses acting as pavilions at both ends, flanking four two-storey houses.

Originally the block had single storey verandahs. Over the years subsequent alterations have been made. The first addition was made to the Brunswick Street facade on the corner terrace in 1863. This part of the building was occupied by doctors and surgeons continually from 1858 to 1900 so a ground floor waiting room was added and also an enclosed structure above. In about 1868 all houses were extended to the rear boundary and in 1882 balconies and wing walls were added to the first floor level.

Few major alterations have been made to the terraces since. Additional parapet balustrading was added to the top and two front verandahs on ground level have been enclosed, with the first floor enclosure of the corner terrace also modified. As with a lot of buildings in Fitzroy these six terrace houses are heritage listed.

 

Photo: Davies & Co. (State Library of Victoria) - Robert Smith (2014)

Source: Heritage Victoria - Australian Dictionary of Biography (J. E. Senyard)

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 856 West End Avenue House is one of an intact group of four residences designed by the architectural firm of Schneider & Herter and built by the firm of Schneider & Company as a speculative venture. 1 The rowhouse group is the sole surviving example of a type of site planning used on several comer plots along West End Avenue in the early 1890s where a group of houses facing the Avenue featured a prominent comer house and an additional house was built facing the side street behind the Avenue-facing houses. The group of residences was built in 1892-93 during the first period of intense residential development for the comfortable professional class along the northern portion of West End Avenue where the suburban qualities of landscaped streets, the views of the Hudson River, and the amenities of nearby Riverside Park created a desirable residential area. The quality and distinctiveness of the Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival style design of the 856 West End Avenue House reflects the desire for individuality in the appearance of houses within rowhouse groups and is representative of the eclectically-styled residential architecture of West End Avenue dating from the 1890s. No. 856 West End Avenue is distinguished by ornament characteristic of the mannerist aesthetic of the firm of Schneider & Herter, the juxtaposition of contrasting textures of rough, smooth-faced, and carved brownstone, and the emphasis on a lively roof line punctuated by gables and a chimney.

 

Development of the Upper West Side

 

Despite its long history beginning soon after the colonial Dutch settlement, the Upper West Side, known as Bloomingdale prior to its urbanization, remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s. In the early eighteenth century, Bloomingdale Road (later renamed the Boulevard and finally Broadway in 1898) was opened through rural Bloomingdale and provided the northern route out of the city which was then concentrated in the southern tip of Manhattan. The Upper West Side was included in the Randel Survey of 1811 (known as the Commissioners' Map) which established a uniform grid of avenues and cross streets in Manhattan as far north as 155th Street, although years elapsed before streets on the Upper West Side were actually laid out, some as late as the 1870s and 1880s, and the land was subdivided into building lots.

 

The city grew rapidly northward during the nineteenth century, but it was not until after Central Park (a designated New York City Scenic landmark) was laid out in 1857 that development began around the perimeter of the Park, setting off the first wave of real estate speculation on the Upper West Side.

 

Improved public transportation to the area contributed to the growth and sustained development of the Upper West Side. By 1880 the horse car line on Eighth Avenue had been replaced by street rail service up to 125th Street and the Elevated Railway on Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890) had been completed. However, the biggest boost to the development of the West End (the area west of Broadway) was the creation, between 1876 and 1900, of Riverside Drive and Park (a designated New York City Scenic landmark) located north of 72nd Street along the Hudson River. The presence of the park and drive, designed by Frederick law Olmsted, was an important factor in making this area desirable for high-quality residential development.

 

Development of the West End began slowly, due, to a large degree, to the hesitation of would-be residents, but by 1885 it had emerged as the area in the city experiencing the most intense real estate speculation. The expectation that the blocks along Riverside Drive and West End Avenue would be lined with mansions kept the value of these lots, as well as adjacent land, consistently higher and developers were willing to wait to realize profits from the potentially valuable sites. The real estate developers, including the West End Association, founded in 1884 by the prominent developer, W.E.D. Stokes, ultimately stimulated the demand for houses in the West End. Real estate brochures and the local press drew attention to the area, emphasizing the scenic quality of the setting, the nearness of parks, and the availability of public transportation.

 

West End Avenue (formerly Eleventh Avenue) was opened in 1880 from 72nd Street to 106th street and was paved with asphalt by 1893. West End Association members set twenty-year restrictive covenants governing West End Avenue which closed the avenue to commercial traffic and initially limited development to single-family houses, thus enhancing the desirability of the residential area. By 1890 the character of the avenue had emerged as completely residential and was promoted as a suburban-like setting with such amenities as grass plots and trees along the sidewalks. The absence of flats and apartment houses on the avenue provided the opportunity for various treatments of the comers with rowhouses and larger attached residences.

 

In the mid-1880s the most attractive areas for development along West End Avenue were located near the El stations and along the higher elevations of the hilly avenue. Construction of mid-size rowhouses, rather than the more grand type of mansions originally projected for West End Avenue, began in 1885 near 104th Street which was convenient to a Ninth Avenue El station and by 1895 the high plateau between West 99th and 104th Streets had been built up with three- and four-story rowhouses. The architectural tone of these private residences was set by the presence of costly mansions such as the W.F. Foster residence at 102th Street and Riverside Drive and the Bacon residence at 104th Street and Riverside Drive.

 

The Schneider & Company's Houses

 

The site at the northeast comer of West 102nd Street and West End Avenue appears to have been first sold for development purposes in 1881 and at that time an open-ended restrictive covenant was initiated which prevented the construction of a variety of commercial and industrial buildings. The property changed hands several times before Hannah O'Brien filed plans in 1890 to build five three-story limes tone-fronted houses designed by Andrew Spence; within a year O'Brien lost control of the property and this project was abandoned.

 

Two New York architects, Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter, along with two partners — John Fish, a previous client, and Eugene Schultz — acquired the property and soon after filed plans for the construction of a group of four residences. The centerpiece of the group of three-story houses with raised basements is the comer house which has a cylindrical tower with an additional story and an entrance near the center of its long West 102nd Street facade. Beside this house facing West End Avenue are two narrow houses, nearly identical in design, the southernmost one being No. 854 West End Avenue. Situated across the rear of the three West End Avenue houses and facing West 102nd Street and enclosing the yard area, the fourth house has a freestanding side facade. The houses, built between May, 1892, and April, 1893, were appropriately finished on the interior with decorative mantels, hardwood trim, and horseshoe openings ornamented with fretwork dividing the music rooms from the parlors, as well as up-to-date plumbing and utility areas.

 

The placement of the stairhall in the center of each house permitted large full-width front rooms on the upper floors.

 

The house at 856 West End Avenue, the first of the group of residences to be sold, was purchased by Lavinia Katz in 1893. In 1895 the remaining houses were divided among the investors. The house at 854 West End Avenue was sold in 1895 and the house on 102nd Street house was sold in 1896. The comer house was sold in 1897; after title reverted to the developers in 1898, they were able to resell it that same year. A similar situation developed with 854 West End Avenue when title was regained by the investors in 1899; the house was resold again the following year.

 

The Schneider & Company development venture is the sole surviving example of a site development pattern that emerged on West End Avenue in which large comer parcels were purchased for the construction of rowhouse groups. By decreasing the depth of the avenue-facing houses, an additional house could be built on the plot facing the side street; the plan worked to the advantage of the developer who sought a maximum return on the expensive West End Avenue lots. Slightly larger and more prestigious comer houses, with highly visible design features such as corner towers, were characteristic of this site development plan. This scheme was particularly favored in the early 1890s when the area between 99th and 104th streets was developed. Rowhouse groups facing West End Avenue, with a side street-facing house (or houses) across the rear of these lots, were built at the southeast comers of West End Avenue and 99th, 100th, 102nd, and 103rd Streets; all of the groups except the Schneider & Company group have been demolished.

 

The rowhouse group at the southeast comer of 103rd Street and West End Avenue, designed by M.V.B. Ferdon in 1891, included five houses facing West End Avenue and one facing 103rd Street; only the house facing West 103rd Street remains standing. Another group of houses designed by M.V.B. Ferdon and built by Increase Grenell in 1892 at the northwest comer of West End Avenue and 104th Street (demolished) included a comer house very similar to the Schneider & Company house, featuring the entrance near the center of the 104 th Street facade. 5

 

Picturesque Architecture on West End Avenue

 

Curing the intense period of rowhouse development on the Upper West Side, from 1885 to 1900, residential design was dominated by a reaction to the conformity and homogeneity of older Italianate style brownstone rowhouses found elsewhere in the city. The first wave of development along West End Avenue in the period between 1885 and 1895 produced a number of individually-designed houses and speculatively-built, yet distinctive, rowhouse groups which, along with houses in the West End as a whole, represent the culmination of single-family house construction in Manhattan. Many of the most prominent architects working in New York City designed these residences, often for speculative developers who invested in the area. The residences designed for West End Avenue were characteristic of the picturesque eclecticism of late-nineteenth-century architecture, drawing from a wide variety of stylistic sources and expressing the desire of architects and clients for originality, variety, and novelty in residential architecture.

 

There was a movement away from smooth brownstone as a facing material and a new emphasis on the sculptural and textural qualities of surfaces, as well as on the mixture of colors and materials.

 

Unusual, picturesque house design on West End Avenue had been initiated by the construction of two groups of houses with a "Dutch" flavor in 1885-86, designed by Frederick B. White and McKim, Mead & White. Clarence True and other architects continued to design residences for West End Avenue in unusual and picturesque revival styles which were executed with a high-degree of artistic experimentation. Strong rhythmic patterns, asymmetrical massing, and a lively streetscape were created by the profusion of bowfronts, bay ami oriel windows, gables, turrets, chimneys, dormers, cornices, stoops, and ornamentation associated with the popular Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles as well as more exotic revival styles. These later rowhouses on West End Avenue, and throughout the Upper West Side, unlike their Italianate brownstone predecessors from earlier in the nineteenth century, were purposely designed to be distinguished from one another, while together forming visually coherent ensembles. Along West End Avenue in particular, there emerged a characteristic treatment in the design of cowhouse groups. A larger comer house served to terminate a row of houses or became the focal point in a rowhouse group that turned a comer; the design of these comer houses frequently included an entrance in the longer, street-facing facade, a curved comer bay and tower, and a lively roofline.

 

The houses designed by Schneider & Herter are representative of this picturesque design movement, and although based on the common hybrid of the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles they are enlivened by unusual carved ornament. The treatment of each of the four houses individually within the easily recognizable group provided the architects with the opportunity to create variations on a theme. The high degree of modulation in the plane of the facades through the use of recessed entrances and balconies (which afforded views of the river and park) adds depth and grandeur to the rowhouse designs. Schneider & Herter explored the range of surface effects achievable from smooth-faced and rough-cut brownstone, and incorporated both geometric and augural carving of the material.

 

The repetition of several ornamental elements unites the houses, including paired stringcourses, gridded panels of rough-faced stone, chamfered window surrounds in the smooth-faced facades, sheet-metal panels at the roofline, and elements of the carved stone program. The two smaller West End Avenue houses are identical except for the shape and detailing of the window openings where the rock-faced semi-elliptical-arched window surrounds of the 856 West End Avenue House contrast with the trabeated pilaster scheme with chamfered window heads of the 854 West End Avenue House.

 

The design of picturesque rowhouses in New York was influenced by trends in the design of architectural ornament in the later nineteenth century, a time when ornament was treated by many architects as an opportunity for creative experimentation. European theorists such as Owen Jones, James K. Collings, and Christopher Dresser encouraged an abstract interpretation of vegetation executed with an emphasis on geometricized form and their publications influenced designers in the United States. At the same time, technological change also influenced the design of ornament. The availability of steam-powered tools encouraged the use of bold, machine-cut ornament while the growing use of terra cotta prompted the design of intricate ornament that could be easily reproduced.

 

The popularity of several revival styles, and the inventive blending of these styles, encouraged the architect/designer to adopt an individualized aesthetic in the design of architectural ornament. This trend can be seen in the abstracted naturalistic ornament developed by such recognized American innovators as Frank Fumess and Louis H. Sullivan, as well as in the pioneering work of architects like Henry Hobson Richardson, who as architects working in New York City also developed identifiable personal styles, such as Clarence True with his interpretation of the "Elizabethan Renaissance Revival" style.

 

Schneider & Herter developed a somewhat idiosyncratic and mannerist aesthetic characterized by a lack of reverence for the established usage of ornament, an unexpected combining of architectural styles, and asymmetry in the composition of facades and their detailing; these characteristics appear in the firm's early designs for tenements, rowhouses and synagogues. In the ornamental programs of several buildings, including the 854 West End Avenue House, Schneider & Herter combined incised, machine-cut ornament— recalling the earlier Neo-Grec style of incised ornament — with both abstracted naturalistic designs and romantic figurative carving which included a female mask above and entrance door and lion newel posts at the stoop (no longer intact), identical to those at the 254 West 102nd Street House.

 

An uncommon approach to the composition and placement of ornament appears in the use of unmatched abstracted designs for the capitals of the pilasters that frame the former entrance and in the projecting balcony above that suggests an entrance portico. The placement of the capitals at the height of the window transoms required the insertion of paneled blocks above the capitals and creates compound vertical forms that depart from the traditional relationship of pilaster and horizontal member above. In contrast, the pilaster capitals at the second story, executed in another series of abstracted foliate designs, support the weighty horizontal member below the setback of the fourth story.

 

Schneider & Herter

 

Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter began an architectural partnership in New York City around 1887; within a very short time they had a thriving business designing tenements, flats, and industrial buildings, primarily on the Lower East Side. Schneider & Herter worked repeatedly for a group of German-Jewish clients with ethnic backgrounds similar to theirs, the most prominent of whom were the real estate developers Jonas Weil and Bernard Mayer for whom the architects designed a number of multiple dwellings. This association led to the firm's commission for the Park East Synagogue, 163 East 67th Street (1889-90, a designated New York City Landmark), which Weil financed and led as president of the congregation. Schneider & Herter also designed Congregation Kol Israel Arshi at 20-22 Forsyth Street (1892, now owned by the Hellenic Orthodox Community) .

 

The firm of Schneider & Herter had acted as architect-developers prior to its venture on the Upper West Side, designing and building a pair of French flats at 731-735 East 5th Street in 1890-91 and a French flat at 233-35 Delancey Street in 1891-92; the firm began a warehouse project at 141 West Broadway in 1893. Schneider & Herter later erected a five-story apartment building at 79-81 Perry Street in 1895 (in addition to designing several other buildings now within the Greenwich Village Historic District) and a pair of flats buildings at 309 and 317 West 93rd Street in 1901-02 (within the Riverside-West End Historic District). first projects on the Upper West Side. Many of the firm's more than 100 multiple dwellings in Manhattan no longer stand, but those remaining exhibit the firm's individualistic approach to the use of ornament and facade compositions often featuring round-arched windows characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style.

 

Description

 

No. 856 West End Avenue is the central house in the West End Avenue frontage of the group of houses built by Schneider & Company. The seventeen-foot wide rowhouse has three stories above a raised basement and features a brownstone facade two bays wide. In the southern bay of the parlor story the recessed entrance, at which the original door remains, is surmounted by a recessed balcony with a shallow curved balustrade at the second story supported by a lion head. Paired one-over-one double-hung wood windows in semi-elliptical-arched openings light the main rooms of these stories; the parlor-story windows have carved wood mull ions and stained-glass transoms. The third story is recessed slightly, allowing room for a balcony in the northern bay which is accessed through a door in a window group with carved wood mull ions in a semi-elliptical opening. Pilasters at the parlor and second stories have carved capitals executed in a variety of abstracted foliate designs.

 

Rough-faced brownstone used in the spandrels of the parlor and third stories and narrow rough-faced courses on the gable and chimney adds to the picturesque quality of the roofline, further enhanced by a peaked gable and a tall chimney above the northern bay and a small blind dormer extending from the patterned sheet-metal sheathed mansard roof. Originally, a pinnacle extended from the buttress-like form next to the gable. The box stoop which led to the parlor story entrance has been removed and the raised basement has been refaced with concrete stucco.

 

- From the 1990 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

The second floor has been subdivided, each chamber containing a fireplace and being well provided with garderobes (the outlet from one of which can be seen at the base of the right-hand wall) and mural cupboards. The third floor is very similar. Above that there was a garret floor within the parapet.

Still image from the documentary film "Subdivided" by Dean Terry. www.subdivided.net

 

While I was interviewing him in Addison Circle, Andres Duany looked at these structures and said "it couldn't have taken more than 15 minutes to design the whole facade."

 

Pretty generous of him, I thought.

 

Farmers started taking up land around Aldinga in the early 1840s. One of the earliest settlers was George Lovelock and family who settled at Aldinga in 1844. Aldinga was laid out as a small town in 1857 by a farmer who subdivided part of his land. He was Lewis Fidge who created the private town of Aldinga. The town was on the coaching route from Adelaide to Willunga. The first public building that was erected was the Free Presbyterian Church which opened in 1856 just before the town was created. Sadly the church was not well built and due to the cost of repairs needed it closed in 1880 and soon weathered into a pile of rubble. The first school opened in Aldinga in 1856 but it was demolished in 1980 by the SA government. The town had a large flourmill from 1848 to 1905. The Wesleyan Methodist Church was opened in 1863 and still stands. Fund raising for the construction of the church began as early as 1854. The Anglican Church opened in 1865 and still stands cross the main south road. The former Temperance Hotel was built in 1868 and was added to later. It was known as Harts Hotel as a Mr Hart ran the business from 1890 to 1920. It is now a restaurant bar and clothing shop. In its heyday Aldinga had a general store, butcher, bootmaker, undertaker and blacksmith, etc.

 

The land near Port Willunga was one of the first regions surveyed by Colonel William Light and then sold to farmers from 1839 onwards. Port Willunga was established to provide port facilities for the shipping of wheat and grain from the Willunga Plains and later slate from the Willunga quarries. A local farmer Thomas Martin surveyed and established a private town in 1851. The first government jetty was erected in 1853 and then extended in 1857 and again in 1867 when a new and longer jetty was constructed. Port Willunga grew quickly as a major port. By 1863 it was the fifth biggest port in South Australia in terms of value of goods exported to other colonies. In that year it export over £15,000 worth of goods which were mainly flour and wheat. The port had a harbourmaster and a Sub Collector of Customs. In 1863 the ports bigger than Port Willunga were Port Adelaide, Port Wakefield, Port Augusta and Robe. As an indication of its importance as a port the government commissioned a feasibility study into a horse tramway from Willunga to the port and to Noarlunga in 1858 but that never eventuated. As the town grew fashionable stone houses and cottages were built by the mid-1850s and in 1856 the Lewis Arms Hotel opened. The original stone building was added to as the port grew and business thrived. In 1884 the Lewis Arms Hotel was relicensed as the Seaview Hotel which can still be seen today. Around 1899 the Seaview Hotel became a temperance hotel mainly providing accommodation for holiday makers.

 

The beach here is also known for the Star of Greece shipwreck of July 1888 when 18 men were drowned. Eleven were buried in the Aldinga Wesleyan Methodist Church cemetery. Then in the early 20th century the port rapidly declined. Its death knoll was the penning of the railway line from Adelaide to Willunga in 1915. In 1916 when a violent storm hit the coast the jetty was destroyed and a few remains of this jetty are still to be seen at low tide. The slate quarries of Willunga began operations around 1842. Much of the slate was shipped to Melbourne for roofing tiles. In its heyday Port Willunga also had a chapel in addition to a general store and a blacksmith.

 

Bedford Park, Bronx

  

In 1869, Jerome sold the 25-acre Bedford Park tract to George Caulfield who, just three years later, resold the land to partners Horace B. Claflin (a dry goods merchant), Daniel R. Kendall (a realtor), and Charles L. Anthony. Following Anthony’s death in 1874, his share of the development passed to his partners who established a corporation, the Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Association, whose purpose was to subdivide the lots for resale. During the 1870s, streets were laid out, maple and elm trees planted, gas and water lines secured, and blocks partitioned for the development of single-family homes. Southern Boulevard, the grandiose thoroughfare that bordered the tract to the south, was opened in 1882 and extended from Jerome Avenue near Jerome Park to the Harlem River Bridge (now Third Avenue Bridge), which crosses into Manhattan.

 

Soon thereafter, Bedford Park’s first structures, about a dozen free-standing homes, were erected. Developers next persuaded the New York & Harlem River Railroad Company to run a few commuter trains each day to the Jerome Park railroad station, which was located just west of the subdivision.

 

In 1884, newspaper accounts extolled the virtues of the new development that had been named Bedford Park after the renowned London suburb. The Bronx development was intended for “New Yorkers of moderate means” who would be given a “chance to become owners of comfortable homes on easy terms.” Like its English counterpart, Bedford Park was built up with “pretty cottages” in the Queen Anne style, planned to be “convenient and comfortable” as well as “unique” in design. The houses ranged in size from cottages of seven or eight rooms to much bigger mansion-esque structures. They were generally located on large lots that provided ample space for gardens. Near the railroad station, shops, built low and set apart from the residences so as not to mar “the villa effect,” provided such “immediate domestic necessities as those from butcher and druggist.” The neighborhood was billed as “healthful and attractive” where the “charms of the country and advantages of a great city” could be enjoyed.

 

Skillful marketing and the promise of additional amenities, such as the ground breaking for the Bedford Park Congregational Church (2988 Bainbridge Avenue, aka 301 East 201st Street, a designated New York City Landmark) in 1890, and the opening of the nearby New York Botanical Garden in 1891, helped make Bedford Park successful. By 1890, the development had about 560 residents, mostly families.

 

Transportation to Bedford Park continued to improve during the 1890s, with advertisers boasting the neighborhood as only 18 minutes by express train from the Grand Central Depot. By 1896, both the Suburban Elevated and the Harlem Division of the New York Central Railroad were providing electric trolley service to Bedford Park from Tremont Avenue. The extension of the Suburban Rapid Transit system’s elevated line to Fordham Road in 1900 and to Bedford Park in 1902 finally provided direct service from Manhattan to the neighborhood. In 1903, construction of the Mosholu Parkway began, linking nearby Bronx Park and the New York Botanical Garden with Van Cortlandt Park and further contributing to the neighborhood’s desirability. Large villas began to be constructed along the Parkway and Bedford Park was soon a fashionable neighborhood touting such esteemed residents as William J. Fox, movie producer and founder of the Fox Film Corporation.

 

By the first decade of the 20th century, the boundaries of Bedford Park had expanded and the population had grown to approximately 2,000 people.

 

The Buildings of Perry Avenue

 

Perry Avenue is a relatively short street that runs from Bedford Park Boulevard (aka East 200th Street, formerly Southern Boulevard) to the southern boundary of Woodlawn Cemetery at East 211th Street. The road was initially planned in the late 1870s to be laid across the farms of the Valentine and Brigg’s families, and was named, like many of the roads in Bedford Park, to recall the War of 1812. The portion of the road between Southern Boulevard and Brook Street (now East Mosholu Parkway), along which the Perry Avenue Historic District is located, does not appear to have been opened until after 1893.

 

Fire insurance maps from that date indicate that development of the land surrounding the future roadway was limited to a scattering of freestanding homes fronting the existing, legally opened streets which bounded the block, including Hull Avenue (now Marion Avenue), East 201st Street (formerly Suburban Street, Gambril Street), and at least one structure along Bainbridge Avenue (formerly Second Avenue, Williamsbridge Avenue).

 

The Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Association was still active in the early 1890s, selling, for example, 155 Bedford Park lots in a single auction in 1892. By 1895, however, the company had been voluntarily dissolved. Among those who had purchased lots from the Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Association was John A. Amundson, an attorney with a specialty in large estates, who had previously speculated on land in this and other parts of the region. In apparent support of his speculative ventures in Bedford Park and its surrounding communities, Amundson was active in organizations that were working to ensure the growth of the 24th Ward, such as the Railroad Extension and Rapid Transit Committee of the North Side Board of Trade. By the time of his death in 1909, Amundson does not appear to have ever acted on his Bedford Park investments. Following his death, the executors of his sizable estate sold the still undeveloped Perry Avenue lots.

 

In 1910, the Third Avenue “El” and the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue line of the New York City subway were extended to areas of the Bronx north of Fordham Road. That same year, George D. Kingston, a Bronx developer, purchased three ample, unimproved lots on the northwest side of Perry Avenue between Bedford Park Boulevard (aka East 200th Street, formerly Southern Boulevard) and East 201st Street (formerly Suburban Street, Gambril Street) from the Amundson estate. Kingston, who was an active developer within Bedford Park, subdivided the three lots into ten narrower parcels of approximately 25 feet by 107 to 111 feet and hired Bronx-based architect Charles S. Clark to design some homes. Clark had done previous work for the developer in the area, collaborating with Kingston on several two-story, single-family residences between 1903 and 1909.

 

Kingston was also actively developing other Bedford Park parcels into “high class” homes around this same time, including several two-family homes near 199th Street and Decatur Avenue.

 

Clark designed a series of three-story Queen Anne-style homes for Kingston’s Perry Avenue lots. The homes that now comprise the Perry Avenue Historic District are characterized by alternating facades of orange and red brick and feature unifying details such as masonry quoining, splayed lintels, modillioned iron cornices, hipped-roof dormers and sloping, imbricated-slate roofs. The prominent three-sided porches of nos. 2971 through 2977 and the projecting porticos of nos. 2979 through 2987 are supported on slender Ionic columns which further unify the row. Plans filed with the buildings department on April 26, 1910 indicate that the homes were originally intended to be constructed as ten fully-attached houses, but only nos. 2979 through 2987 were erected as such. Only four more houses, nos. 2971 through 2977, were constructed in the months that followed as close, but free-standing, structures.

 

Distinguishing the homes from more typical row house construction is their setting, which finds them elevated above fieldstone walls enclosing small front yards. This picturesque siting of the structures lends even the attached homes of the row a markedly suburban feel.

 

Construction of the nine houses of the Perry Avenue Historic District, which cost an estimated $6,500 apiece, was completed on April 30, 1912. The homes are constructed on stone and brick foundations with brick upper walls supported on iron girders. Each of the single-family houses appears to have originally contained a dining room, parlor and kitchen on the first story, and two large bedrooms and a bathroom on each of the second and third stories. The homes also boasted full cellars, wash basins and laundry areas at attached one-story rear pavilions, and a small chamber of approximately seven by 11 feet on the third story that probably served as a servant’s quarter. The interior dimensions of each house varied slightly in accordance with variations in the size of each lot. Early owners of the house at no. 2973 replaced much of their front yard with a garage in 1915, imitated shortly thereafter in 1922 by the owners of no. 2983. Both of the garage structures remain today.

 

While many of the homes continue as single family residences, nos. 2975, 2979, 2981 and 2985 were later converted to multiple dwellings. The conversions generally resulted in a configuration of one six-room apartment consisting of the first and second stories of the house and a second three-room apartment consisting of the third story, or a configuration consisting of one three-room apartment per story, made possible by the installation of additional kitchens and bathrooms.

 

Many of the early households were middle-class families headed by couples who had emigrated from Germany as children or as young adults. William Wulp, the earliest owner of no. 2975, immigrated to New York in 1886 at the age of approximately 11 years. His wife, Augusta, and the couple’s children, however, were born in New York. According to U.S. Census records, Wulp worked as an export merchant. Similarly, John Eggers, a real estate agent and early owner of no. 2973, immigrated to New York in 1873 at approximately 15 years of age. Egger’s wife Maria, also born in Germany, came to New York in 1885 at the approximate age of 17. The family moved to their new home on Perry Avenue from East 140th Street in the older Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven. Louis Cohn of no. 2979 (a clothing merchant), Louis Schene (a tailor) and his wife Juliane of no. 2981, and Alfred Bornstedt (a business manager) of no. 2983, were also immigrants from Germany. Bertha Stemmler of no. 2985 was born in New York, though to German parents.

 

Bornstedt’s wife Mary was also born in New York. In contrast, Thomas Stanyon, the original owner of no. 2987, his wife Carrie, and three of their five children, were born in England, and appear to have immigrated to the United States via Canada. Stanyon was an officer with the Salvation Army, where several of the couple’s children were later also employed. Julia Cohn, wife of Louis Cohn of no. 2979, was also born in England.

 

Charles Spencer Clark

 

Charles Spencer Clark (1864-1933) was born in the Bronx to Charles and Imogene (Drake) Clark. A prolific architect, Clark received his early education at the old West Farms Public School and later apprenticed for his father and uncle, H. & C. Clark, carpenters and builders in the Bronx. Clark attended night school courses in architecture at the Cooper Union Institute while working as an apprentice and, in 1888, set out to begin his own practice in the field. The firm was located in the Bronx and occupied various Tremont Avenue addresses over time. Among the more notable buildings attributed to Clark are the neo-Classical style Tremont Temple Synagogue (now First Union Baptist Church) at 2064 Grand Concourse (1906) and the Edison Studios at Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place (1907, demolished). Clark was also responsible for the design of 381 East 165th Street, a neo-Renaissance style house commissioned in 1906 by hardware merchant Francis Keil, the only single-family residence within the Clay Avenue Historic District.

 

The houses of the Perry Avenue Historic District were not the first collaboration between Clark and builder George D. Kingston. From about 1903 to 1909, Clark designed several two-story, single-family residences for the builder, also within Bedford Park. Clark also designed numerous projects for other builders within the vicinity of the historic district, including the row houses lining both sides of East 198th Street between Decatur and Marion Avenues (1908), just a few blocks south of the Perry Avenue Historic District. The houses on the northeast side of the block, designed in the Queen Anne style, recall many of the features Clark would later utilize in his design for the Perry Avenue houses, including projecting brick bays, modillioned iron cornices, masonry quoins, and sloped roofs with dormers, but are not raised on fieldstone walls.

 

The eight single-family residences Clark designed at 762-782 Hewitt Place for C. Bull (1908) also exhibit similar features to the Perry Avenue row and are designated as part of the Longwood Historic District. Later in his career, Clark became particularly well known for the designs of several large Art Deco-style apartment houses completed between 1927 and 1930 near the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

 

Over the course of his long career, Clark’s practice included industrial, institutional, commercial and residential work. Although his practice appears to have primarily focused on residential projects in the Bronx, with the 1927 edition of The Bronx and Its People noting Clark as responsible for the designs of “some of the most beautiful buildings” in that borough, Clark designed buildings in other areas as well. One of Clark’s earliest known works, dating to 1892, is the five-story, Renaissance Revival style store-and-loft building at 464 Greenwich Street, now designated as part of the Tribeca North Historic District. Between about 1919 and 1928, Clark designed several large apartment houses in the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, including the imposing six-story brick structure still standing at 501 West 184th Street. The 1927 edition of The Bronx and Its People further noted Clark as the second oldest architect living in the Bronx at that time, and, at the age of 63, the oldest still practicing the profession.

 

Beyond architecture, Clark was cited for being active in local civic affairs and for supporting movements that focused on the “welfare and advancement of his community.”

 

Subsequent History

 

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Bedford Park underwent a major transformation with the construction of the large apartment houses that now principally characterize the neighborhood. Subway construction between the years of 1915 and 1930 continued to open up previously inaccessible areas of the Bronx to residential construction. The population of the borough is estimated to have grown between 200 and 600 percent during this time, primarily along new subway routes including the Jerome Avenue, Broadway, White Plains Road and Pelham lines. The 1918 opening of the Jerome Avenue subway and expansion of the Third Avenue “El” to 200th Street, in particular, helped spark a building boom within Bedford Park. The resultant housing included a few of the single-family frame homes typical of earlier years of growth, but also introduced brick flats and large apartment houses to the neighborhood.

 

The new apartment houses soon enveloped, if they did not outright replace, older residential rows like that of the Perry Avenue Historic District. Today, large six-story apartment houses surround the historic district on all sides, including the seven-story elevator apartment building at 314 East 201st Street (1935-6), situated merely ten feet to the northeast of the district.

 

Despite significant changes to the built fabric of the Bedford Park neighborhood, the Perry Avenue Historic District has remained remarkably intact. The homes continue to retain the vibrant architectural details and distinctive suburban character that defined them nearly a century ago. Consequently, the Perry Avenue Historic District survives as a potent visual reminder of the picturesque origins of this Bronx neighborhood.

 

- From the 2009 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Badian is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Cebu, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 37,699 people. The Municipality of Badian is located 97.6 km southwest of Cebu City. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Moalboal; on the south by the municipality of Alegria; on the east by the municipalities of Dalaguete and Argao; and on the west by Tanon Strait.

Badian is administratively subdivided into 29 barangays.

Alawijao Balhaan Banhigan Basak Basiao Bato Bugas Calangcang Candiis Dagatan Dobdob

Ginablan Lambug Malbago Malhiao Manduyong Matutinao Patong Poblacion Sanlagan

Santicon Sohoton Sulsugan Talayong Taytay Tigbao Tiguib Tubod Zaragosa

The Kawasan Falls is a three-layered waterfall series located in the Municipality of Badian, Cebu, which has become a huge attraction with foreign and local tourists throughout the years. The first waterfall is the largest and highest of the three falls, while the two falls uphill are smaller.

Kawasan Falls is located in Barangay Matutinao in Badian, Cebu. To get to Badian from Cebu City you can take a bus at the South Bus Terminal for a three hour ride that will directly take you to Badian. From there, you can take a tricycle that will take you to Barangay Matutinao.

If you are taking a private vehicle, drive past the Municipality of Carcar, and upon reaching the Municipality of Badian through the picturesque mountain road, then drive to Matutinao village. You can always ask for directions from people along the way if it is your first time to go to Kawasan Falls, so you won’t get lost.

When you reach the main road leading to Kawasan Falls, there is a main entrance to the waterfalls area and an entrance fee of 10 peso’s per person. From there, you start on a 20 to 30 minute walk on a trail that will lead you to the first waterfall.

You will then have to trek a further 10 to 15 minutes uphill to get to the second waterfall, and another 15 minute trek to the third waterfalls. There is a resort with restaurant at the area of the first waterfalls. There are small cottages and tables for rent at 300 peso’s each table as at September 2012 ( on top of the menu prices ) and several rooms for rent for those who want to stay overnight. A popular attraction is a bamboo raft ride leading to a shower under the cool falling waters of the first and second waterfall.

The Mactan International Airport is located in Mactan, Cebu; it is served by major airlines like Cebu Pacific Air and Philippine Airlines. You can also fly from Metro Manila to Cebu. There are many domestic flights and sometimes it is economical because many airlines offer a cheaper airfare. Check also for any available promo. If you arrived earlier in Cebu, you can leave straight to Badian providing you already arranged your accommodation there before your arrival or you can stay for a night in Cebu City and have your trip to Badian the next day.

Your choices to come from Cebu City to Badian are: from the airport you can take a taxi to South Bus Terminal look for Ceres Bus Liner via Barili, you can also take Librando Trans. There are buses leaving Cebu City to Badian every 30 minutes or one hour. It will take 2-3 hours or more bus travel to reach Badian from Cebu City depending on the number of stops. You can also hire a taxi at the airport or at the city to Badian, it is more comfortable and faster. Make sure the driver knows where Badian is. The fare is about Php 1500.00 - Php 3000.00 and be prepare for some bartering and some hidden costs

The capital barangay of Badian town is Poblacion. It is located in the centre of the town. This is where the local high school is located called Badian National High School ( BNHS ) is one of the two high schools in the town of Badian. This is also the largest of the two and many students from the neighbouring town just like Moalboal, Alcantara and Ronda come to study in this high school. The lower educational facility in Badian is the Badian Central Elementary School where all the younger children go to school for the simple fact that it is completely free and the only elementary school and the biggest one in town. One more very important institution that is located in Poblacion is the Town Hospital where everyone from every other barangay goes to in the time of sickness.

The facility has been better than the past management they have more improvements to the hospitals than anything else which is the best thing they could have done because this is where most Badianganons run to in the time of need. This is also the location where the town church is located ~ the church of Santiago Apostol, which celebrates its Festival on the 25th of July every year. Together with the Feast of Santiago Apostle is the Banig Festival which was started about three years ago. Poblacion is also where the Municipal Hall is located in sitio sawang. Thus, I believe that the municipality should ought to have more funding's in the Hospital Facility more so that the roads that they are trying to fix every single year Poblacion has many sitios which is the little corners of Poblacion which is residential or commercial properties. Some of these sitios are; Syma, Walog, Sawang, Highway, and many more. This is the only urban place in Badian compared to any other barangays that surround the town. Poblacion is also the most populated barangay in all Badian. Which has 3854 population as of 2007 Census. Poblacion is where the marketplace is located. Thus, most of the trading is here. Many vendors from all over town will show up mostly on Saturdays and Sundays for the trading.

Between fields 3 and 4. We used to have only 2 fields here but we subdivided them into 3 fields. The rows are shorter.

 

Foreground: tomatoes

 

Background: kale, then lettuce.

 

To the left: flowers (garlic in the left background)

 

To the right: beets, scallions, chard, and sunflowers (more garlic in the right background).

Located in what now is the heart of the Garden District, between Washington, Sixth, Prytania, and Coliseum streets, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest of the seven municipal, city-operated cemeteries in New Orleans. It is a non-segregated, non-denominational cemetery. There are immigrants from over 25 different countries and natives of 26 states as identified on the closure tablets.

 

The developers commissioned City surveyor Benjamin Buisson to develop a plan. The plan, dated March 5, 1832, subdivided the area between First Street and Toledano. The cemetery was laid out with two center aisles, a cruciform (cross) pattern, lined with trees giving it a park or garden-like appearance, and divided the cemetery into four sections. The intersecting avenues were built to accommodate funeral processions and originally paved with shells.

 

The cemetery was named for the City of Lafayette, which was annexed to the City of New Orleans as the Fourth District. The area of New Orleans that once was the city of Lafayette consists of two designated historical districts, the Irish Channel and the Garden District. The residents of the Irish Channel were first-generation immigrants many from Ireland and Germany, the two largest groups of immigrants to settle in New Orleans in the two decades before the Civil War. It was known as a working-class poor neighborhood, a rough and tough riverfront area. The Garden District, on the other hand, represented the new wealth of immigrants from Great Britain and the North who came and made their fortunes as cotton factors, brokers, and merchants after the Louisiana Purchase. They are often called “Southern Yankees.”

 

In the cemetery, there are almost 500 wall vaults on Washington Avenue which have been sealed. Only a few of the plaques are engraved.

 

In Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, there are society tombs for several volunteer fireman organizations (now extinct), the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, German Presbyterian Community, Home For Destitute Orphan Boys, Poydras Orphans Home, YMCA, and the New Orleans Home for Incurables.

 

Individual family tombs in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 feature Judge Ferguson of the Plessy vs. Ferguson “separate-but-equal” case. Also buried in the cemetery is Brigadier General Harry T. Hays who led the 1st Louisiana Brigade. The Brunie family, buried here, were notable jazz musicians who were associated with Papa Laine and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

 

Perhaps the most famous residents of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 are fictional. The tomb for the Mayfair witches, created by Anne Rice, in The Witching Hour, fits a combination of the Lafayette and Jefferson fireman tombs. Rice also staged a jazz funeral where she rode in a glass enclosed coffin down the aisle of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 to introduce her book Memnoch the Devil. The vampire Lestat’s tomb, made from Styrofoam for the movie, Interview with a Vampire, was possibly modeled from the cast iron tomb. Many other movies have been filmed in the cemetery, including Double Jeopardy in 1999 and Dracula 2000 in 2000. Other filming has taken place in the cemetery, such as music videos by acts such as LeAnn Rimes and the New Kids on the Block.

 

There are about 1,100 family tombs and more than 7,000 people buried in Lafayette I, a single city block.

Phetchabun is one of the northern provinces ( Changwat ) of Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are Loei, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit and Phitsanulok. Phetchabun is located in the lower northern region of Thailand, in the area between the northern and the central region. The province lies in the broad fertile river valley of the Pa Sak River, with mountains of the Phetchabun mountain range to the east and west. It is surrounded by places of interest, many well known national parks, beautiful waterfalls and great lakes. The province is subdivided in 11 districts ( Amphoe ). These are further subdivided into 117 sub districts ( Tambon ) and 1261 villages ( Muban ).

1. Mueang Phetchabun 2. Chon Daen 3. Lom Sak 4. Lom Kao 5. Wichian Buri 6. Si Thep 7. Nong Phai 8. Bueng Sam Phan 9. Nam Nao 10. Wang Pong 11. Khao Kho

Phetchabun was established by two kingdoms: the Sukhothai Kingdom, and the Ayutthaya Period of the King Narai. In the thesaphiban administrative reforms at the beginning of the 20th century, the province together with Lom Sak Province to the north formed the monthon Phetchabun. As it was the smallest monthon, it was also the first monthon to be dissolved in 1915, after being temporarily administered from Monthon Phitsanulok between 1903 and 1907. Lom Sak Province was abolished and merged into Phetchabun in 1932. During the period between 1968-1982 communist insurgents established bases in the mountains in the province. From hidden locations they fought occasional skirmishes against the Thai Army.

It is the mountains that draw tourists. The rolling peaks of Khao Thor, known as Little Switzerland, were once a battlefield against communist insurgents. Today, its beautiful scenery and cool weather attracts many visitors, to see the mountain-top army base turned into a museum, and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non-hunting areas. The national parks of Phu Hin Rong Kla, with its stunning rock formations, and Nam Nao, whose forests are home to many large animals and birds, are now starting to attract more and more trekkers and eco tourists. Khao Kho The most engaging national park of Phetchabun Province is Khao Kho National Park, about one hour northwest of Phetchabun town. It was designated to be Little Switzerland from many visitors, because of beautiful scenery and cool weather like Switzerland. It was once a battle field against communist insurgents conducted their struggles against the authorities. Its charming scenery and great weather allure tourists to see the mountain – top, army base turned into a museum, a Chedi containing a holy relic and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non – hunting areas.

Phetchabun may be reach by Road No.21 ( Kochasenee Rd.) from Saraburi and 370 kilometres from Bangkok.

How to get there

By Train

There is no railway system to Phetchabun

By Car

Road No.1 from capital city ( Bangkok ) to Saraburi province and then Road No.21 to Phetchabun road No.12 from Khon kaen ( central province of the northeastern region ) to Lom Sak and then Road 21. southward to Phetchabun.

By Bus.

Quite a lot of buses stop at this town on the way to Lom Sak. Here are some services you can find from Mo chit Terminal: www.transport.co.th 0 2936 2852-66

Phet Tour 0 2936 3230

Thin Siam Tour 0 2936 0500Buses are very frequent, like 2 or 3 within an hour. First Class service from Phet Tour cost 263 Baht and takes 4 hour+.

Wat Mahathat Phetchabun, Thailand. on Nikon Bamrung Road in town, houses several ancient Chedi's of Sukhothai style. Situated in Muang Phetchabun municipality. It seemed strange seeing this Temple as there is another Wat Mahathat I visited in Ayutthaya last year in 2010. However this Temple is totally different to that at Ayutthaya as you will see. Within the grounds is a school for the training of Buddhist Monks and many where around the day I visited this fine Temple. This monastery is an ancient temple which HRH Prince Damrong presumed that this monastery might be constructed during Sukhothai period. Wat Mahathat has the important objects of worship such as, Phum Khao Binth styled pagoda has been presumed that it might be constructed about B.E. 1926 ( 1383 ). This pagoda is a place that comprises Buddha's relics, Orrahan's ( saint ) ashes, and small images of Buddha in several styles. Two Buddha images of the U-Thong period whose laps are 36 inches wide. One is housed in the main chapel and the other is housed in the vihara of Wat Mahathat.

A= Palestinian Authority

B= Joint Control

C= Israeli Authority

 

The Oslo II Accord divided the West Bank into three administrative divisions: the Areas A, B and C. The distinct areas were given a different status, according to their governance pending a final status accord: Area A is exclusively administered by the Palestinian Authority, Area B are administered by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel, and Area C, which contains the Israeli settlements is administered by Israel. Areas A and B were chosen in such a way as to just contain Palestinians, by drawing lines around Palestinian population centers at the time the Agreement was signed; all areas surrounding the Areas A and B were defined as Area C.

 

Area A comprises approximately 18% of the West Bank and Area B about 22%, together home to some 2.8 million Palestinians. As of 2015, Area C is home to 150,000 Palestinians in 532 residential areas. It also is home to 389,250 Israelis, in 135 settlements, as well as 100 outposts unrecognized by the Israeli government. Area C forms a contiguous territory, administered via the Judea and Samaria Area administration. In contrast, under the Oslo Accords the Areas A and B were subdivided into 165 separate units of land that have no territorial contiguity.

 

Divisions

The Oslo II Accord stipulated that "during the first phase of redeployment" the jurisdiction over the Areas A and B would be transferred to the Palestinian Council. Article XI.2.a reads:

 

"Land in populated areas (Areas A and B), including government and Al Waqf land, will come under the jurisdiction of the Council during the first phase of redeployment."

 

The populated areas were defined by delineations on a map attached to the document. Area C comprised the areas of the West Bank outside Areas A and B.

 

Area A

 

Redeployment of the City of Hebron. H1 makes up as Area A and H2 makes up Area C.

Area A (full civil and security control by the Palestinian Authority): initially, circa 3% of the West Bank, exclusive East Jerusalem (first phase, 1995). As of 2013, Area A formally comprised about 18% of the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces, however, abolished the prohibition against entering Area A during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and enters the area regularly, mostly at night, to conduct raids to arrest suspected militants.This area includes eight Palestinian cities and their surrounding areas (Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and 80 percent of Hebron), with no Israeli settlements. Entry into this area is forbidden to all Israeli citizens.

 

Area B

Area B (Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control): initially, circa 23–25% (first phase, 1995). As of 2013, Area B formally comprised about 22% of the West Bank.This area includes some 440 Palestinian villages and their surrounding lands, and no Israeli settlements.

 

Area C

 

Area C with Israeli settlements and Israeli military checkpoints, where the access is closed and restricted to Palestinians.

Area C (full Israeli civil and security control): initially, circa 72–74% (first phase, 1995).Under the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, Israel would further withdraw from some additional 13% from Area C to Area B, which officially reduced Area C to circa 61% of the West Bank. Israel, however, withdrew from only 2%,and during Operation Defensive Shield, it reoccupied all territory. As of 2013, Area C formally comprised about 63% of the West Bank, including settlements, outposts and declared "state land". Including or excluding annexed East Jerusalem, no-man's land and the Palestinian part of the Dead Sea also determines the percentage. John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State stated that Area C "is effectively restricted for any Palestinian development, and that in 2014, his office had noted only one building permit had been granted to Palestinian residents of the area.

 

All Israeli settlements, including those in and around East Jerusalem, are located in Area C. Oslo II, Article XII, for example, states: "For the purpose of this Agreement, 'the Settlements' means, in the West Bank the settlements in Area C; and in the Gaza Strip ..."

  

Settler population by year in the Israeli-occupied territories from 1972 to 2007

In 1972, there were 1,000 Israeli settlers living in what is now Area C. By 1993, their population had increased to 110,000. As of 2013, an estimated 350,000 Jewish settlers lived in Area C in Israeli settlements and outposts. In 2013, some 300,000 Palestinians lived in Area C, scattered over 532 residential locations.

 

Oslo definition of Area C

Oslo II defines Area C as follows:

 

″"Area C" means areas of the West Bank outside Areas A and B, which, except for the issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations, will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction in accordance with this Agreement″.

 

The issues that will be negotiated, according to Article XVII, are ″Jerusalem, settlements, specified military locations, Palestinian refugees, borders, foreign relations and Israelis; and … powers and responsibilities not transferred to the Council″.Parts of Area C are military area closed for Palestinians.

 

Transfer of Area C

Part of Area C was intended to be handed to Palestinians by the end of 1999. Israel promised to redeploy its troops from Areas A and B before the elections. After the inauguration of an elected Palestinian parliament, the Israeli Civil Administration would be dissolved and the Israeli military government be withdrawn. The Council would get some powers and responsibilities.

 

Within 18 months from the date of inauguration, Israel would further redeploy military forces from Area C in three phases, however, without transfer of any sovereignty to the Palestinians:

 

″The Council will assume powers and responsibilities for civil affairs, as well as for public order and internal security, according to this Agreement″.

 

″1. Israel shall transfer powers and responsibilities as specified in this Agreement from the Israeli military government and its Civil Administration to the Council in accordance with this Agreement. Israel shall continue to exercise powers and responsibilities not so transferred.″

″5. After the inauguration of the Council, the Civil Administration in the West Bank will be dissolved, and the Israeli military government shall be withdrawn. The withdrawal of the military government shall not prevent it from exercising the powers and responsibilities not transferred to the Council.″

 

The military forces would be redeployed in "specified military locations" in the West Bank, to be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations within 18 months. The Legislative Council was elected in January 1996.

 

Use of Area C

More than 99% of Area C is heavily restricted or off-limits to Palestinian development, with 68% reserved for Israeli settlements, approximately 21% for closed military zones, and about 9% for nature reserves. Construction permits for residential or economic purposes are, according to World Bank, "virtually impossible" for Palestinians to obtain.

Area C, 99% of which is excluded from Palestinian use, contains most of the West Bank’s natural resources and open spaces, access to which, according to the World Bank, would enable the Palestinians to halve their budget deficit and lead to an expansion of their economy by a third.According to Danny Rubinstein: "Much land in Area C is undeveloped. Israel, however, does not permit Palestinian construction for residential, commercial or industrial purposes."

 

70 percent of the area is defined as within settler municipal boundaries, where permits for development are denied to Palestinians. The World Bank estimates that the effect has been to cause a potential loss of $14 billion of revenue for the Palestinian economy.

 

According to a 2013 EU report, Israeli policies have undermined the Palestinian presence in Area C, with a deterioration in basic services such as water supplies, education and shelter. Nearly 70% of the Palestinian villages are not connected to the water network that serves settlers, which accounts for the fact that Palestinians in the zone use only a quarter to a third of the pro capita consumption of settlers.

 

Palestinians cannot build in Area C without an army permit; however, building applications are expensive and have a 5% approval rate. As a result, most Palestinians who build there do so illegally. Israel demolishes about 200 buildings per year in Area C.

 

Israel has made over 14,000 demolition orders against Palestinian-owned structures in Area C since 1988. As of January 2015, almost 20% of the demolition orders issued had been executed and more than 11,000 of these still outstanding, affecting an estimated 17,000 structures.

 

Israeli planning in Area C allocates 13 times more space to Israeli settlers than to Palestinians there, according to the United Nations. Israeli settlers have been allocated about 790 square meters per capita, whereas Palestinians have been allocated about 60 square meters per capita.

 

During the period 1988–2014, the Israeli Civil Administration issued 6,948 demolition orders against structures in settlements located in Area C. As of January 2015, 12% of these were classified as executed, 2% were cancelled, another 2% "ready for execution" and 2% on hold due to legal proceedings. More than one-third of the orders were classified as "in process", while the current status of about 45% of the demolition orders against settlement structures was unknown.

From a construction site of new cookie cutter homes in Collin County Texas.

 

Research photo from the film Subdivided. More at www.subdivided.net

"The London deep-level shelters are eight deep-level air-raid shelters that were built under London Underground stations during World War II.

 

"Each shelter consists of a pair of parallel tunnels 16 feet 6 inches (5.03 m) in diameter and 1,200 feet (370 m) long. Each tunnel is subdivided into two decks, and each shelter was designed to hold up to 8,000 people. It was planned that after the war the shelters would be used as part of new express tube lines paralleling parts of the existing Northern and Central lines. Existing tube lines typically had 11-foot-8.25-inch (3.56 m) diameter running tunnels and about 21 feet (6.4 m) at stations; thus the shelter tunnels would not have been suitable as platform tunnels and were constructed at stations the new lines would have bypassed. However, they would have been suitable as running tunnels for main-line size trains.

 

"Ten shelters were originally planned, holding 100,000 people — 10,000 in each shelter. However the final capacity was around 8,000 people in each shelter, and only eight were completed: at Chancery Lane station on the Central line and Belsize Park, Camden Town, Goodge Street, Stockwell, Clapham North, Clapham Common, and Clapham South on the Northern line.

 

"The shelters were started in 1940 during the Blitz in response to public demand to shelter in the London Underground stations. However, they were not completed until 1942 after the Blitz was over, so they were initially all used by the government, but as bombing intensified five of them were opened to the public in 1944: Stockwell, Clapham North, Camden Town, Belsize Park and Clapham South.

 

"In 1948 the Clapham South shelter was used to house 200 of the first immigrants from the West Indies who had arrived on the MV Empire Windrush for 4 weeks until they found their own accommodation. In 1951, it became the Festival Hotel providing cheap stay for visitors to the Festival of Britain, but was closed after the Goodge Street fire. The shelter was used for archival storage for some years, but is now a Grade II listed building with pre-booked tours arranged by the London Transport Museum."

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

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Phetchabun is one of the northern provinces ( Changwat ) of Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are Loei, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit and Phitsanulok. Phetchabun is located in the lower northern region of Thailand, in the area between the northern and the central region. The province lies in the broad fertile river valley of the Pa Sak River, with mountains of the Phetchabun mountain range to the east and west. It is surrounded by places of interest, many well known national parks, beautiful waterfalls and great lakes. The province is subdivided in 11 districts ( Amphoe ). These are further subdivided into 117 sub districts ( Tambon ) and 1261 villages ( Muban ).

1. Mueang Phetchabun 2. Chon Daen 3. Lom Sak 4. Lom Kao 5. Wichian Buri 6. Si Thep 7. Nong Phai 8. Bueng Sam Phan 9. Nam Nao 10. Wang Pong 11. Khao Kho

Phetchabun was established by two kingdoms: the Sukhothai Kingdom, and the Ayutthaya Period of the King Narai. In the thesaphiban administrative reforms at the beginning of the 20th century, the province together with Lom Sak Province to the north formed the monthon Phetchabun. As it was the smallest monthon, it was also the first monthon to be dissolved in 1915, after being temporarily administered from Monthon Phitsanulok between 1903 and 1907. Lom Sak Province was abolished and merged into Phetchabun in 1932. During the period between 1968-1982 communist insurgents established bases in the mountains in the province. From hidden locations they fought occasional skirmishes against the Thai Army.

It is the mountains that draw tourists. The rolling peaks of Khao Thor, known as Little Switzerland, were once a battlefield against communist insurgents. Today, its beautiful scenery and cool weather attracts many visitors, to see the mountain-top army base turned into a museum, and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non-hunting areas. The national parks of Phu Hin Rong Kla, with its stunning rock formations, and Nam Nao, whose forests are home to many large animals and birds, are now starting to attract more and more trekkers and eco tourists. Khao Kho The most engaging national park of Phetchabun Province is Khao Kho National Park, about one hour northwest of Phetchabun town. It was designated to be Little Switzerland from many visitors, because of beautiful scenery and cool weather like Switzerland. It was once a battle field against communist insurgents conducted their struggles against the authorities. Its charming scenery and great weather allure tourists to see the mountain – top, army base turned into a museum, a Chedi containing a holy relic and enjoy trekking in the open zoo and non – hunting areas.

Phetchabun may be reach by Road No.21 ( Kochasenee Rd.) from Saraburi and 370 kilometres from Bangkok.

How to get there

By Train

There is no railway system to Phetchabun

By Car

Road No.1 from capital city ( Bangkok ) to Saraburi province and then Road No.21 to Phetchabun road No.12 from Khon kaen ( central province of the northeastern region ) to Lom Sak and then Road 21. southward to Phetchabun.

By Bus.

Quite a lot of buses stop at this town on the way to Lom Sak. Here are some services you can find from Mo chit Terminal: www.transport.co.th 0 2936 2852-66

Phet Tour 0 2936 3230

Thin Siam Tour 0 2936 0500Buses are very frequent, like 2 or 3 within an hour. First Class service from Phet Tour cost 263 Baht and takes 4 hour+.

Wat Mahathat Phetchabun, Thailand. on Nikon Bamrung Road in town, houses several ancient Chedi's of Sukhothai style. Situated in Muang Phetchabun municipality. It seemed strange seeing this Temple as there is another Wat Mahathat I visited in Ayutthaya last year in 2010. However this Temple is totally different to that at Ayutthaya as you will see. Within the grounds is a school for the training of Buddhist Monks and many where around the day I visited this fine Temple. This monastery is an ancient temple which HRH Prince Damrong presumed that this monastery might be constructed during Sukhothai period. Wat Mahathat has the important objects of worship such as, Phum Khao Binth styled pagoda has been presumed that it might be constructed about B.E. 1926 ( 1383 ). This pagoda is a place that comprises Buddha's relics, Orrahan's ( saint ) ashes, and small images of Buddha in several styles. Two Buddha images of the U-Thong period whose laps are 36 inches wide. One is housed in the main chapel and the other is housed in the vihara of Wat Mahathat.

Bedford Park, Bronx

  

In 1869, Jerome sold the 25-acre Bedford Park tract to George Caulfield who, just three years later, resold the land to partners Horace B. Claflin (a dry goods merchant), Daniel R. Kendall (a realtor), and Charles L. Anthony. Following Anthony’s death in 1874, his share of the development passed to his partners who established a corporation, the Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Association, whose purpose was to subdivide the lots for resale. During the 1870s, streets were laid out, maple and elm trees planted, gas and water lines secured, and blocks partitioned for the development of single-family homes. Southern Boulevard, the grandiose thoroughfare that bordered the tract to the south, was opened in 1882 and extended from Jerome Avenue near Jerome Park to the Harlem River Bridge (now Third Avenue Bridge), which crosses into Manhattan.

 

Soon thereafter, Bedford Park’s first structures, about a dozen free-standing homes, were erected. Developers next persuaded the New York & Harlem River Railroad Company to run a few commuter trains each day to the Jerome Park railroad station, which was located just west of the subdivision.

 

In 1884, newspaper accounts extolled the virtues of the new development that had been named Bedford Park after the renowned London suburb. The Bronx development was intended for “New Yorkers of moderate means” who would be given a “chance to become owners of comfortable homes on easy terms.” Like its English counterpart, Bedford Park was built up with “pretty cottages” in the Queen Anne style, planned to be “convenient and comfortable” as well as “unique” in design. The houses ranged in size from cottages of seven or eight rooms to much bigger mansion-esque structures. They were generally located on large lots that provided ample space for gardens. Near the railroad station, shops, built low and set apart from the residences so as not to mar “the villa effect,” provided such “immediate domestic necessities as those from butcher and druggist.” The neighborhood was billed as “healthful and attractive” where the “charms of the country and advantages of a great city” could be enjoyed.

 

Skillful marketing and the promise of additional amenities, such as the ground breaking for the Bedford Park Congregational Church (2988 Bainbridge Avenue, aka 301 East 201st Street, a designated New York City Landmark) in 1890, and the opening of the nearby New York Botanical Garden in 1891, helped make Bedford Park successful. By 1890, the development had about 560 residents, mostly families.

 

Transportation to Bedford Park continued to improve during the 1890s, with advertisers boasting the neighborhood as only 18 minutes by express train from the Grand Central Depot. By 1896, both the Suburban Elevated and the Harlem Division of the New York Central Railroad were providing electric trolley service to Bedford Park from Tremont Avenue. The extension of the Suburban Rapid Transit system’s elevated line to Fordham Road in 1900 and to Bedford Park in 1902 finally provided direct service from Manhattan to the neighborhood. In 1903, construction of the Mosholu Parkway began, linking nearby Bronx Park and the New York Botanical Garden with Van Cortlandt Park and further contributing to the neighborhood’s desirability. Large villas began to be constructed along the Parkway and Bedford Park was soon a fashionable neighborhood touting such esteemed residents as William J. Fox, movie producer and founder of the Fox Film Corporation.

 

By the first decade of the 20th century, the boundaries of Bedford Park had expanded and the population had grown to approximately 2,000 people.

 

The Buildings of Perry Avenue

 

Perry Avenue is a relatively short street that runs from Bedford Park Boulevard (aka East 200th Street, formerly Southern Boulevard) to the southern boundary of Woodlawn Cemetery at East 211th Street. The road was initially planned in the late 1870s to be laid across the farms of the Valentine and Brigg’s families, and was named, like many of the roads in Bedford Park, to recall the War of 1812. The portion of the road between Southern Boulevard and Brook Street (now East Mosholu Parkway), along which the Perry Avenue Historic District is located, does not appear to have been opened until after 1893.

 

Fire insurance maps from that date indicate that development of the land surrounding the future roadway was limited to a scattering of freestanding homes fronting the existing, legally opened streets which bounded the block, including Hull Avenue (now Marion Avenue), East 201st Street (formerly Suburban Street, Gambril Street), and at least one structure along Bainbridge Avenue (formerly Second Avenue, Williamsbridge Avenue).

 

The Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Association was still active in the early 1890s, selling, for example, 155 Bedford Park lots in a single auction in 1892. By 1895, however, the company had been voluntarily dissolved. Among those who had purchased lots from the Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Association was John A. Amundson, an attorney with a specialty in large estates, who had previously speculated on land in this and other parts of the region. In apparent support of his speculative ventures in Bedford Park and its surrounding communities, Amundson was active in organizations that were working to ensure the growth of the 24th Ward, such as the Railroad Extension and Rapid Transit Committee of the North Side Board of Trade. By the time of his death in 1909, Amundson does not appear to have ever acted on his Bedford Park investments. Following his death, the executors of his sizable estate sold the still undeveloped Perry Avenue lots.

 

In 1910, the Third Avenue “El” and the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue line of the New York City subway were extended to areas of the Bronx north of Fordham Road. That same year, George D. Kingston, a Bronx developer, purchased three ample, unimproved lots on the northwest side of Perry Avenue between Bedford Park Boulevard (aka East 200th Street, formerly Southern Boulevard) and East 201st Street (formerly Suburban Street, Gambril Street) from the Amundson estate. Kingston, who was an active developer within Bedford Park, subdivided the three lots into ten narrower parcels of approximately 25 feet by 107 to 111 feet and hired Bronx-based architect Charles S. Clark to design some homes. Clark had done previous work for the developer in the area, collaborating with Kingston on several two-story, single-family residences between 1903 and 1909.

 

Kingston was also actively developing other Bedford Park parcels into “high class” homes around this same time, including several two-family homes near 199th Street and Decatur Avenue.

 

Clark designed a series of three-story Queen Anne-style homes for Kingston’s Perry Avenue lots. The homes that now comprise the Perry Avenue Historic District are characterized by alternating facades of orange and red brick and feature unifying details such as masonry quoining, splayed lintels, modillioned iron cornices, hipped-roof dormers and sloping, imbricated-slate roofs. The prominent three-sided porches of nos. 2971 through 2977 and the projecting porticos of nos. 2979 through 2987 are supported on slender Ionic columns which further unify the row. Plans filed with the buildings department on April 26, 1910 indicate that the homes were originally intended to be constructed as ten fully-attached houses, but only nos. 2979 through 2987 were erected as such. Only four more houses, nos. 2971 through 2977, were constructed in the months that followed as close, but free-standing, structures.

 

Distinguishing the homes from more typical row house construction is their setting, which finds them elevated above fieldstone walls enclosing small front yards. This picturesque siting of the structures lends even the attached homes of the row a markedly suburban feel.

 

Construction of the nine houses of the Perry Avenue Historic District, which cost an estimated $6,500 apiece, was completed on April 30, 1912. The homes are constructed on stone and brick foundations with brick upper walls supported on iron girders. Each of the single-family houses appears to have originally contained a dining room, parlor and kitchen on the first story, and two large bedrooms and a bathroom on each of the second and third stories. The homes also boasted full cellars, wash basins and laundry areas at attached one-story rear pavilions, and a small chamber of approximately seven by 11 feet on the third story that probably served as a servant’s quarter. The interior dimensions of each house varied slightly in accordance with variations in the size of each lot. Early owners of the house at no. 2973 replaced much of their front yard with a garage in 1915, imitated shortly thereafter in 1922 by the owners of no. 2983. Both of the garage structures remain today.

 

While many of the homes continue as single family residences, nos. 2975, 2979, 2981 and 2985 were later converted to multiple dwellings. The conversions generally resulted in a configuration of one six-room apartment consisting of the first and second stories of the house and a second three-room apartment consisting of the third story, or a configuration consisting of one three-room apartment per story, made possible by the installation of additional kitchens and bathrooms.

 

Many of the early households were middle-class families headed by couples who had emigrated from Germany as children or as young adults. William Wulp, the earliest owner of no. 2975, immigrated to New York in 1886 at the age of approximately 11 years. His wife, Augusta, and the couple’s children, however, were born in New York. According to U.S. Census records, Wulp worked as an export merchant. Similarly, John Eggers, a real estate agent and early owner of no. 2973, immigrated to New York in 1873 at approximately 15 years of age. Egger’s wife Maria, also born in Germany, came to New York in 1885 at the approximate age of 17. The family moved to their new home on Perry Avenue from East 140th Street in the older Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven. Louis Cohn of no. 2979 (a clothing merchant), Louis Schene (a tailor) and his wife Juliane of no. 2981, and Alfred Bornstedt (a business manager) of no. 2983, were also immigrants from Germany. Bertha Stemmler of no. 2985 was born in New York, though to German parents.

 

Bornstedt’s wife Mary was also born in New York. In contrast, Thomas Stanyon, the original owner of no. 2987, his wife Carrie, and three of their five children, were born in England, and appear to have immigrated to the United States via Canada. Stanyon was an officer with the Salvation Army, where several of the couple’s children were later also employed. Julia Cohn, wife of Louis Cohn of no. 2979, was also born in England.

 

Charles Spencer Clark

 

Charles Spencer Clark (1864-1933) was born in the Bronx to Charles and Imogene (Drake) Clark. A prolific architect, Clark received his early education at the old West Farms Public School and later apprenticed for his father and uncle, H. & C. Clark, carpenters and builders in the Bronx. Clark attended night school courses in architecture at the Cooper Union Institute while working as an apprentice and, in 1888, set out to begin his own practice in the field. The firm was located in the Bronx and occupied various Tremont Avenue addresses over time. Among the more notable buildings attributed to Clark are the neo-Classical style Tremont Temple Synagogue (now First Union Baptist Church) at 2064 Grand Concourse (1906) and the Edison Studios at Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place (1907, demolished). Clark was also responsible for the design of 381 East 165th Street, a neo-Renaissance style house commissioned in 1906 by hardware merchant Francis Keil, the only single-family residence within the Clay Avenue Historic District.

 

The houses of the Perry Avenue Historic District were not the first collaboration between Clark and builder George D. Kingston. From about 1903 to 1909, Clark designed several two-story, single-family residences for the builder, also within Bedford Park. Clark also designed numerous projects for other builders within the vicinity of the historic district, including the row houses lining both sides of East 198th Street between Decatur and Marion Avenues (1908), just a few blocks south of the Perry Avenue Historic District. The houses on the northeast side of the block, designed in the Queen Anne style, recall many of the features Clark would later utilize in his design for the Perry Avenue houses, including projecting brick bays, modillioned iron cornices, masonry quoins, and sloped roofs with dormers, but are not raised on fieldstone walls.

 

The eight single-family residences Clark designed at 762-782 Hewitt Place for C. Bull (1908) also exhibit similar features to the Perry Avenue row and are designated as part of the Longwood Historic District. Later in his career, Clark became particularly well known for the designs of several large Art Deco-style apartment houses completed between 1927 and 1930 near the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

 

Over the course of his long career, Clark’s practice included industrial, institutional, commercial and residential work. Although his practice appears to have primarily focused on residential projects in the Bronx, with the 1927 edition of The Bronx and Its People noting Clark as responsible for the designs of “some of the most beautiful buildings” in that borough, Clark designed buildings in other areas as well. One of Clark’s earliest known works, dating to 1892, is the five-story, Renaissance Revival style store-and-loft building at 464 Greenwich Street, now designated as part of the Tribeca North Historic District. Between about 1919 and 1928, Clark designed several large apartment houses in the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, including the imposing six-story brick structure still standing at 501 West 184th Street. The 1927 edition of The Bronx and Its People further noted Clark as the second oldest architect living in the Bronx at that time, and, at the age of 63, the oldest still practicing the profession.

 

Beyond architecture, Clark was cited for being active in local civic affairs and for supporting movements that focused on the “welfare and advancement of his community.”

 

Subsequent History

 

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Bedford Park underwent a major transformation with the construction of the large apartment houses that now principally characterize the neighborhood. Subway construction between the years of 1915 and 1930 continued to open up previously inaccessible areas of the Bronx to residential construction. The population of the borough is estimated to have grown between 200 and 600 percent during this time, primarily along new subway routes including the Jerome Avenue, Broadway, White Plains Road and Pelham lines. The 1918 opening of the Jerome Avenue subway and expansion of the Third Avenue “El” to 200th Street, in particular, helped spark a building boom within Bedford Park. The resultant housing included a few of the single-family frame homes typical of earlier years of growth, but also introduced brick flats and large apartment houses to the neighborhood.

 

The new apartment houses soon enveloped, if they did not outright replace, older residential rows like that of the Perry Avenue Historic District. Today, large six-story apartment houses surround the historic district on all sides, including the seven-story elevator apartment building at 314 East 201st Street (1935-6), situated merely ten feet to the northeast of the district.

 

Despite significant changes to the built fabric of the Bedford Park neighborhood, the Perry Avenue Historic District has remained remarkably intact. The homes continue to retain the vibrant architectural details and distinctive suburban character that defined them nearly a century ago. Consequently, the Perry Avenue Historic District survives as a potent visual reminder of the picturesque origins of this Bronx neighborhood.

 

- From the 2009 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

175 Rock Rd; a Grand Union that closed in 2001. Became CVS #1072 in the early 00s, relocated from the same address across the parking lot. Some of the store has also been subdivided.

A "Level 2" Menger sponge. I purposely subdivided the blocks of the sponge to slightly less than 1/3 (3/10 instead of 3/9) to create the gaps between sub-blocks.

 

The recursion was purposely stopped at 3 iterations (yes, a "Level 2") to keep the object count down. This image has 8,000 objects (20^3), but at 4 iterations, that balloons to 160,000 objects!

 

Modeled in Structure Synth and rendered in sunflow. I'm also trying a different lighting model in sunflow for this one to cast even more photo-realistic lighting [a spherical light source, plus ambient occlusion global illumination, with diffuse shaders for the object and the ground plane].

 

©2009 David C. Pearson, M.D.