Historic Structures

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge Massachusetts

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge Massachusetts

Mount Auburn initiated the great age of American cemetery-building with its establishment in 1831. Its gentlemen founders guided its original design following their intensive study of European landscape examples adapted to American social goals and didactic intents. It was organized as a non-profit corporation, and its design marked a major shift in the way Americans buried their dead. It inspired great progeny, other cemeteries, the first public parks, and the first designed suburbs in the nineteenth century. Shaped by intellectual endeavor, emotional aspirations, dreams, and fundamental human needs, its well-preserved cultural landscape represents a distinct American design. As the country's first large-scale designed landscape open to the public, Mount Auburn is a place of national significance. Mount Auburn had a profound

Clifton School, Baltimore Maryland

Clifton School, Baltimore Maryland

Near the turn of the eighteenth century, William Patterson, a significant figure in Baltimore's early commercial history, purchased land bounded roughly by Gorsuch Avenue, Harford Avenue, North Avenue, and York Roads. He informally named this estate Cold Stream, and built a country house on it variously called Cold Stream, Exeter Hall, and Homestead. The Homestead name seems to have been the most popular and became the name of one of Baltimore's earliest planned subdivisions, created by developers of Patterson's estate after his death. It was the easternmost of a belt of communities north of Baltimore City. An advertisement in Matchett's 1853-1854 Baltimore City Directory stated, the situation is one of the most beautiful, most healthy, and most convenient of access in

South Salem Covered Bridge, South Salem Ohio

South Salem Covered Bridge, South Salem Ohio

The South Salem or Buckskin Covered Bridge has been serving the community of South Salem for over a century now. Bids for a bridge at Caldwell's Crossing of Buckskin Creek were let on June 25, 1873, and there were 5 bidders. The lowest bid was submitted by the Smith Bridge Company at $18.75 per linear foot. The abutments were built by Robert Matthews at $5.75 per perch. It is said that even after the bridge was built, many people continued to use the old ford. The name Buckskin by which this bridge is sometimes known, comes from an old legend to the effect that a party of white hunters came upon a band of Indians on the bank of a small

Hotel Laube, Bellingham Washington

Hotel Laube, Bellingham Washington

The Hotel Laube was of the finer of those built at the turn of the century in Bellingham, and no expense was spared on its furnishings. On February 3, 1904, the day the hotel opened, the Daily Reveille reported that the new Hotel Laube was one of the best-equipped hotels on the Sound, and was up-to-date in furnishing and arrangement. The proprietors, Messrs. Hadley and Griffith, were said to have accomplished their purpose of making it a model of comfort and convenience. Hadley and Griffith were well-known hoteliers and had conducted Bellingham's Hotel Byron for five years. The total cost to furnish the hotel was estimated at approximately $12,000, with the hotel furniture being crafted of the best solid quarter-sawed oak,

Cecil Apartments - Jackson Towers, Baltimore Maryland

Cecil Apartments - Jackson Towers, Baltimore Maryland

The Cecil Apartment House is one of the first important apartment buildings in Baltimore. Built in the newly fashionable Beaux-Arts style at the edge of Baltimore's most elite downtown neighborhood, it offered an important alternative to the suburban houses of Roland Park. Dating from the very beginning of the twentieth century, the Cecil provided house-sized units with all of the amenities of fashionable residences while adding new features that linked it to elite in-town housing in other cities, including a centralized kitchen that made it possible to reduce household staff. These ideas helped introduce the idea of apartment living in the city. As the first apartment building to be built in the elite neighborhood of Bolton Hill, the Cecil began the

Bennett Schoolhouse Road Covered Bridge, Minford Ohio

Bennett Schoolhouse Road Covered Bridge, Minford Ohio

The Bennett School House Covered Bridge, also known as Tuttleville Bridge, is one of the very few double multiple king post trusses remaining in Ohio. Built at Harrison's Mill in the Tuttleville community, it was an important east-west link in the transportation between South Webster and Minford, Ohio, and a north-south link between northeastern Scioto County and the town of Portsmouth. It is one of two remaining such structures in Scioto County. Its builder, Van Buren Farney, was born on February 21^st, 1836, near Charleston (West) Virginia. He moved to Sciotoville, Scioto County, Ohio with his parents at the age of four. He had a common school education. He was employed at the age of seventeen by Robert S. Wynn, a

Hotel Blanche, Lake City Florida

Hotel Blanche, Lake City Florida

Lake City's growing prosperity at the turn of the century encouraged David W. Brown, a local landowner, to secure the services of Frank Pierce Milburn, the architect of Lake City's new courthouse and the state capitol's 1902 additions, to design the largest and most substantial brick building in town, the Hotel Blanche. On April 29, 1901, he purchased a block just north of the town square, on the diagonal, for his new hotel. He paid $5,000 for the land. The Hotel Blanche was under construction by the spring of 1902. Henry W. Otis, the contractor who built the new courthouse was also the contractor for the Blanche. Upon completion, it was the only three-story building on North Marion Street, and presented

Seybold Baking Company Factory, Daytona Beach Florida

Seybold Baking Company Factory, Daytona Beach Florida

In June of 1926, the company purchased four lots in the Daytona Gardens Subdivision. In late July, Tipton, C.J. Bramlett, the Southern Baking Company's general manager, and J. Edwin Hopkins, an engineer and architect from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, visited the site and announced that construction would be forthcoming and the bakery would begin production in November. Hopkins' design for the plant called for the erection of a large two-story edifice with a Mediterranean-Revival style design that featured elaborate terra-cotta ornament. It was to be constructed with a brick and steel I-beam structural system. The bake oven was to measure eighty-two feet in length and be capable of producing 108,000 pounds of bread daily. Bids for the construction of the plant were let

Union Depot and Atlantic Coast Line Freight Station, Live Oak Florida

Union Depot and Atlantic Coast Line Freight Station, Live Oak Florida

Railroads were responsible for the founding and development of the town of Live Oak, Florida. The community was established as the junction of north/south and east/west systems in the later 19^th century and became an important center for the shipping of lumber, turpentine, and other agricultural products. This activity reached its peak during the first decades of the 20^th century. The first rail line to come through the area was the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad. It was incorporated on January 8, 1853, and authorized to construct a line from Pensacola in west Florida to the Georgia line north of Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast. Another company, the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central, began construction in the same year on a route

Lippincott Mansion - Melrose Hall, Ormond Beach Florida

Lippincott Mansion - Melrose Hall, Ormond Beach Florida

The Lippincott Mansion is located in Ormond Beach, Florida, a community whose origins date from the British Period. Its early development is associated with James Ormond I, a British planter who became a Spanish subject and received a land grant in the vicinity of Tomoka State Park during the first years of the 19^th century. On his grant, Ormond established Damietto, a plantation typical of those established in the vicinity of Ormond during the Second Spanish Period (1784-1821) and the early years of the United States Territorial Period (1821-1845). The plantation economy of the Ormond Beach area and other areas of East Florida was largely destroyed during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). Settlement and the economic development of the area was

Home of the Friendless, Baltimore Maryland

Home of the Friendless, Baltimore Maryland

Built in 1870 for the Home of the Friendless, a private organization, 1313 Druid Hill Avenue provided a home for orphaned and deserted children for six decades. It was part of a three-building complex that housed from 100 to 200 children each year, representing an era when large numbers of unwanted children were institutionalized rather than raised in a home environment. 1313 Druid Hill Avenue was built as a home for orphan boys in 1870. It was the second of three buildings built by the Home of the Friendless on Druid Hill Avenue south of Lafayette Avenue. A nearly identical home for girls had been completed ten years earlier just to the north. Later, in 1900, a third building housing a

Beaver Island Light Station, St. James Michigan

Beaver Island Light Station, St. James Michigan

The Beaver Island Light Station was built in 1851. It is probably the third oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes. Its construction and initial operation took place during an era of turmoil on Beaver Island. On July 8th, 1850, James Jesse Strang, a Mormon follower of Joseph Smith, was coronated King and claimed Beaver Island as his Kingdom. The Mormons abandoned the island six years later. The site overlooks a large expanse of Lake Michigan and focuses on the major shipping lanes. Since the eighteenth century maritime traffic has funneled past Beaver Head as it approaches the Straits of Mackinac. The U.S. Lighthouse Service operated the lighthouse from 1851 until 1938. At this time the U.S. Coast Guard assumed operation until

Central School, Iron River Michigan

Central School, Iron River Michigan

Central School was Iron River's largest public school building, from its initial construction in 1904-05 until a new high school was completed in 1928. The school initially served as the high school for the entire school district, which served all of Iron River Township, including the village, and also as the primary school, grades K through 8, for two of the district's four subdistricts within the village. Following the completion of the high school, the building served grades K through 8 and then later as a middle school until its closing at the end of the 1979-80 school year. The school building, enlarged in 1910-11 to its present size and form, is an architecturally distinguished example of early twentieth-century public school

Lookaway Hall, North Augusta South Carolina

Lookaway Hall, North Augusta South Carolina

Lookaway Hall was built from 1895 to 1898 for Mr. Walter M. Jackson who, with his brother James U. Jackson, formed the North Augusta Land Company in 1890 in order to develop those beautiful hills across the river from Augusta. They purchased approximately 5,600 acres from the Robert Butler estate for One hundred thousand dollars. James Jackson developed a town plan for a community and resort area, and the Land Company built a bridge spanning the Savannah River from Thirteenth Street in Augusta to Georgia Avenue in North Augusta. This main street for the new community ran up the hill and split to create a triangular property for a city park. Beyond this park Walter Jackson sited his house, making it

Scranton Lace Company, Scranton Pennsylvania

Scranton Lace Company, Scranton Pennsylvania

Located in Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, the Scranton Lace Company is a historic factory complex that was initially constructed in 1891, and evolved from a small manufacturing plant of five buildings to a significant plant of 32 interrelated buildings by 1946. The complex was one of the largest Nottingham lace manufacturing complexes in the Lackawanna Valley and in Pennsylvania during the mid-twentieth century. The Scranton Lace Company produced quality lace affordable for all Americans through its use of Jardine looms, an ambitious marketing system, and diversified product lines. It is the area's largest surviving example of an early to mid-twentieth-century industrial facility that evolved to adapt to changing trends and market demands. The buildings retain their overall form and industrial character-defining

Colden Mansion Ruins, Montgomery New York

Colden Mansion Ruins, Montgomery New York

The Colden Mansion Ruins consist of a grouping of related archaeological features associated with the former Coldenham estate, established in this region of the Hudson Valley by former New York State Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden in the first quarter of the 18^th Century, and brought to its fullest development by his son and namesake Cadwallader Colden Jr. The architectural centerpiece of the Colden holdings was the Colden Mansion, erected for Colden Jr., the main block representing two phases of construction, c. 1767 and c. 1775-85. The Colden Mansion was a substantial Georgian pile of stone masonry construction, covered by a double-hipped roof, with a characteristic center hall plan and high-style interior woodwork; today it remains but a shell, with only partial

Henry L. Wolfner Memorial Library for the Blind, St. Louis Missouri

Henry L. Wolfner Memorial Library for the Blind, St. Louis Missouri

Originally built as a telephone exchange in 1899 and in 1904 for the Bell Telephone Company (later Southwestern Bell) by the architectural firms of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge and successors Mauran, Russell & Garden, the building became the first home of the Henry L. Wolfner Memorial Library for the Blind. When the library opened in 1938, it was the first of its kind in the United States; there was no other library for the blind situated in its own building with the facilities organized purposely for the convenience of its patrons. The annual report of the Library of Congress for 1940 showed that Wolfner distributed more Braille and talking books than any other library in the United States (after the Library

Maryland Hotel - Mark Twain Hotel, St. Louis Missouri

Maryland Hotel - Mark Twain Hotel, St. Louis Missouri

Designed in 1907 by prominent St. Louis architect A. B. Groves, the Maryland Hotel is one of downtown St. Louis' few remaining historic hotels. The Classical Revival design, featuring outstanding Winkle Terra Cotta Co. ornament, is a noteworthy example of an academic style popular in St. Louis commercial architecture of the early twentieth century. On March 29, 1907, a St. Louis Globe-Democrat caption, Important Lease Signed, announced the initial plans for the new hotel. The 99-year land lease from the George D. Hall Real Estate Co. to Rajaw Realty stipulated that Rajaw construct a fireproof building costing not less than $300,000. Conditions of the lease required Rajaw, a subsidiary of Kilgen-Rule Real Estate Co., to begin construction by September 1, 1907,

Mercer House, Natchez Mississippi

Mercer House, Natchez Mississippi

The Mercer House has characteristics that are typical of Natchez ca. 1820 and for those which are unique for Natchez of that period. Quite common to the first wave of fine local residences in the Federal style is the elegant detailing of the woodwork and the use of elliptical arches on interior doors and cased openings. Without any existing parallel today, however, is the plan and the resulting massing of the garden end of the building. Although reminiscent of contemporary Georgia coastal houses with projecting bays and round or octagonal-ended rooms, the Mercer House plan is rendered much more sophisticated and livable by the location of a square room at the back center of the building overlooking the garden, rather than

Detroit Cornice and Slate Company Building, Detroit Michigan

Detroit Cornice and Slate Company Building, Detroit Michigan

Frank A. Hesse and James L. Creswell founded the Detroit Cornice & Slate Company about 1888. Their first location was 22 Clinton, and in 1897 the business moved to 733 St. Antoine. The new shop was designed by architect Harry J. Rill. It was continuously occupied by the Detroit Cornice & Slate Company until 1972 and has remained essentially unaltered. The architectural significance of the building is in its galvanized steel facade which faces St. Antoine Street and partly the alley on the south. This painted metal facade was fabricated inside the shop during construction by the Cornice & Slate Company. The use of galvanized steel evolved out of the cast iron tradition. The virtues of cast iron construction to simulate

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