New Post at Roman Patina

Take a look at the Capitoline Hill at Roman Patina.

The University That Ate Foggy Bottom

Foggy Bottom in Washington, DC used to be a blue collar neighborhood just to the west of the White House, complete with lumber yards and gas storage tanks. Modest rowhouses lined the streets, and it was a relatively inexpensive tract of land, until George Washington University moved in.Ironically, the university moved because the expensive neighborhood of Columbia Heights, the university's original home, caused the school to look for cheaper digs, thus the move to Foggy Bottom.Ironically, Foggy Bottom skyrocketed in value due to its close proximity to downtown, while Columbia Heights shrank into obscurity.The Washington Post gave GW the moniker "The University That Ate Foggy Bottom" in recognition of the enormous amounts of land acquired by GW.Much of what is left in Foggy Bottom has now been bought by the university, or it has its eyes on it.Here is a wonderful Italianate mansion that is now the headquarters of campus police. Below is a surviving intact alleyhouse, which was very common in the neighborhood.The building below was owned by a mentally unstable old woman, who passed away a few years back; the university snatched it up and restored it as offices.The white building at the end of the block is the Jefferson Lee, a flop house where they periodically had to remove bodies from. Don't get me wrong, Foggy Bottom is now an expensive neighborhood, but traces of its gritty past remain.This picture shows the headquarters of my Master's program, but when I went to GW it was in another building.Foggy Bottom is strange mix of the past, ugly new highrises built by GW, and a little bit of everything in between.

Washington Circle, Foggy Bottom and the West End, Washington, DC

Washington Circle sits at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue and K Street in the heart of downtown. It was once lined with rowhouses, but now only one block still retains its original appearance.K Street is carried under the circle in viaduct, where speeds often reach 65 mph in a posted zone of 35 mph.But oh how wonderfully the rowhouses that are left still retain their original appearance. Built as really one large building, they avoided the wrecking ball and constitute a 100% intact block of rowhouses.

Eastern Market, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

Eastern Market is an anchor of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and after suffering a devastating fire a couple of years ago, the mayor was out front the next day promising to rebuild.To be honest, I bought a lot of fruit that looked good the day I bought it there, and the next day it would be rotten. And while it's a traditional market so desired by urbanists, much of the produce was trucked in from other countries.The new Eastern Market is nice and clean, and overpriced. I am sure residents of Capitol Hill still either love or hate their local institution.Here is the interior, completely restored to its previous appearance, with a lot of the grime gone.

Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

Modernist Church, Washington, IL

Pumpkins, Washington Road

Family Farm at Sunset

I snapped these pictures coming down the road from the north to my family's farm. The sun was setting and the whole countryside looked beautiful, in many ways unchanged for almost two centuries of settlement.

Harvest is underway, very late in the season. This combine is working on a field nearby and not at my family's farm.

Pleasantview School, Washington Township, Illinois

I came across this abandoned school, left to rot in 1994. Family friends actually attended this school when they were young, and when consolidation occurred, the school was abandoned.There are two parts: the 1949 original building, and the 1960's addition. It's funny to see a modern school building in the midst of Italianate farmsteads.Apparently some guy bought the school for his business and then committed suicide in it several years later.There's no money to tear it down, and no money to fix it up. The road supervisor had to come by and cut the underbrush, which had gotten out of control the last time I drove by.

Abandoned Farmhouse, Washington Township, Illinois

The abandoned farmhouse outside of Washington continues to sit undisturbed, its boards becoming more and more weathered every time I pass.

Pleasantview Road, Washington Township, Illinois

We had rediscovered Pleasantview Road, north of our family farm, on the last trip we took to Washington-Deer Creek area. I went back and snapped some pictures of the farmhouses along the road. Below, off in the distance is the grain elevator at Cooper Station, which is rapidly filling with grain as the harvest proceeds in earnest, in between bouts of rain.This farm is impressive in the number of intact buildings left from the 19th Century.Even more fascinating is this wonderful find at the end of a long alley of trees. This beautiful Italianate farmhouse probably dates from the 1870's.

Cleaning Out Shed, Family Farm, November 2009

My forefathers are known for having a real problem with cleaning up after themselves. Which is funny, as I am obsessed with organization and carefully storing away things. I guess it figures that I work in an art museum now. But nonetheless, my father, the renters' son Sam and I had to clean up Naffziger Brownfield Site #1, a collapsing shed, this Saturday, and many hands make quick work.Thankfully, most of the mortar buckets were empty, but several were filled with an unknown liquid. My dad ingeniously poured it out on top of the mound of hay that Sam and I scooped out of the piles of hay stuck to the floor. Logically, the liquid will help the hay burn on the "burn pile" that all farmers have if it was not simply water. I remarked to my father that it was a good thing the EPA was not around. I also found a bag of purple stuff that fell out of a rotten bag. My father, a chemist, could not identify it, which rarely happens.Weirdly, buried under a pile of straw were some jugs, with those Japanese beatles clinging to it like some sort of underground cult worship center. I got them all over me.

Coming into Union Station, Washington, DC

Lone Tower, Midtown

What is the deal with this building on Lindell? Is this one of the remaining buildings from Laclede Town?

Inside the Cathedral

The Cathedral Basilica

Despite the controversy surrounding the San Luis and its destruction for more parking at the Cathedral, it still really is a wonderful, unique building.What is interesting is that the capitals on the columns and other small sculptural details appear to have been left uncarved. As has been common for millenia, sculptors often left the fine carving until the stone was in situ to protect against damage in transport of delicate stonework. It looks like they never got around to carving many of the stones at the cathedral.The late autumn light on the front was wonderful last Saturday.

Lake St. Louis, Central West End

I guess it's probably been too wet to get anything done, but still, the San Luis site is looking awful, with a couple outer walls still standing.

Old North St. Louis Revisited

The northern part of Old North St. Louis has some incredible abandoned buildings that could be great rehabs.
I also wandered into the southern portion of Old North, an area that is deeply isolated by heavy brush and the train trestle that goes across the Merchant's Bridge, I think.

Fourth Baptist, Still in Ruins

Over a year later, after fire wracked the semi-abandoned Fourth Baptist Church in Old North St. Louis, little has changed.

Leaving Baltimore