Historic Structures

Alligator Oil Clothing Company Building, St. Louis Missouri

Alligator Oil Clothing Company Building, St. Louis Missouri

With burgeoning rail access to southern and southwestern cotton markets, St. Louis thrived as a center of garment manufacturing after the Civil War. By the early twentieth century, the city had a diversified garment industry that included manufacturers of dresses, suits, coats, and uniforms as well as related shoe and millinery concerns. Yet among the producers of garments, none in St. Louis specialized in rain-repellent outerwear until the Ferguson Waterproof Company was incorporated before 1911. The company was located on the riverfront at Second and Trudeau Streets. Waterproof clothing was a relatively new item of mass production. In 1877, Norwegian Captain Helly Juell Hansen first soaked coarse linen in linseed oil to produce waterproof clothing suitable for maritime work. Hansen's invention

Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Designed by Scottish architect John Notman in 1836, Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery constitutes the second major rural cemetery in the United States and Notman's first known commission. The project launched Notman's career as a nationally renowned architect and landscape gardener who contributed to the professionalization of both occupations. In later years, civil engineer James C. Sidney found work at Laurel Hill similarly rewarding; his later projects included some of the great public and semi-public landscapes of Pennsylvania and New York. Laurel Hill founder John Jay Smith was a third beneficiary of the venture's success. Having personally guided the cemetery's planting and promotion, he became a national figure in cemetery management and horticulture. Part of Laurel Hill's significance clearly derives from the

McDonald's Drive-in, Cleveland Ohio

McDonald's Drive-in, Cleveland Ohio

The McDonald's drive-in at 988 E. 152 Street in Cleveland, Ohio was one of the country's few remaining examples of the original style McDonald's hamburger stand which was the corporate image from 1953 to 1968. The earliest remaining example of this style is located in Downey, California, Los Angeles County. When it closed in 1991, the Cleveland McDonald's was still operating under the original self-service, fast-food concept created by the McDonald brothers and developed by Ray Kroc. The McDonald's fast-food system established a standard for an auto-oriented American dining style that was prevalent from the 1950s into the 1970s. It represents a society concerned with speed and efficiency. The hamburger stands' architectural styling reflects the technological optimism and automobile fascination of

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station, Oakland Maryland

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station, Oakland Maryland

The Oakland Railroad Station is the finest building in the town. Its prominence indicates the importance of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the town. Its presence made possible the development of Oakland and Garrett County as a resort area. In 1878 after their venture with the Queen City Hotel in Cumberland had proved successful, the B & O erected a resort hotel in Oakland. The present station was built six years after the hotel, providing an impressive depot for visitors to the resort town. In addition to its part in the growth of the region, the Oakland Railroad Station is one of the finest remaining examples of a Queen Anne style railroad station. Probably built by the Baltimore architectural firm

Hutzler Brothers Palace Building, Baltimore Maryland

Hutzler Brothers Palace Building, Baltimore Maryland

Designed by Baldwin and Pennington, one of Maryland's most important architectural firms of the period, the Hutzler Brothers Palace Building was upon its completion in 1888 the largest and most elegant department store structure in Baltimore's retail center. With its richly ornamented facade of carved limestone and pressed copper, the building presents an outstanding example of Romanesque eclectic design, and no finer example of this late 19th-century style exists in Baltimore. Reflecting the growing importance of the Hutzler firm to the commercial community of Baltimore, the south bay was added in 1924 as a compatible expansion of the retail sales space, and the ground floor facade was redesigned in 1931 to conform with the Art Moderne detailing of a new facility

Lindsay Cemetery, Due West South Carolina

Lindsay Cemetery, Due West South Carolina

Lindsay Cemetery, established ca. 1820, is the first cemetery in the Due West vicinity of what was then Abbeville District, and is associated with seventeen prominent early families of Abbeville District (later Abbeville County), from the early through the late nineteenth centuries. It is an excellent intact example of an early-nineteenth through early-twentieth-century cemetery reflecting typical burial customs and gravestones of the period. Lindsay Cemetery, long associated with the Lindsay family of Abbeville District though there are no marked graves of Lindsay family members in it, has been called Lindsay Cemetery, Lindsay Graveyard, or Lindsay Burying Ground since the mid-nineteenth century. The first marked grave in the cemetery is that of John Murphy, Sr. (1746-1820), a native of Tyrone, Ireland. The

Stewart's Department Store, Baltimore Maryland

Stewart's Department Store, Baltimore Maryland

Stewart's Department Store, designed in 1899 by noted Baltimore architect Charles E. Cassell, was constructed as a department store for Samuel Posner. Purchased by Louis Stewart in 1904, the ornate Italian renaissance revival building then became the flagship store for Stewart's Baltimore operations. Along with Hutzler's Palace Building (1888-89) and Hochschild Kohn (1897; demolished), the former Posner Building anchored Baltimore's premier downtown retail location at Lexington and Howard Streets. The evolution of the Posner Building into Stewart's Department Store embodies the development of urban retailing in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. For much of the 19^th century, dry goods merchants in urban areas typically operated from storehouses and shops in small two to three story commercial storefront buildings that

Pioneer Cemetery, Sidney New York

Pioneer Cemetery, Sidney New York

The Pioneer Cemetery tells us about the early settlement and development of Sidney. The earliest European American settlement of the village, which is located in the northwest corner of Delaware County, predates the Revolutionary War, when the Rev. William Johnston purchased land in the Wallace Patent, and permanent settlement occurred in the decades immediately following the war. The cemetery is Sidney's oldest burial ground, with the first interments occurring in the 1780s and 90s. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the small parcel on the banks of the Susquehanna was acknowledged and set aside as the settlement's common burial ground. There were more than forty interments by 1840 and approximately seventy were added in the decades before the Civil War.

Bagby Furniture Company Building, Baltimore Maryland

Bagby Furniture Company Building, Baltimore Maryland

Charles T. Bagby and A.D. Rivers founded the firm of Bagby & Rivers in 1879. Bagby & Rivers were manufacturers and wholesalers who shipped their merchandise to southern and mid-Atlantic states. Around 1896 Charles T. Bagby and his associates bought out A.D. Rivers and in 1897 the concern was incorporated as the Bagby Furniture Company. The company was originally located at 624-632 West Pratt Street. From 1897 until 1902 it was situated at the corner of Biddle and Chester Streets, moving to its present location in 1902. The showrooms were located at 108 South Eutaw. The Bagby Furniture Company's 1902-1907 plant on Exeter Street, which had 73,000 sq. ft. of floor space, was designed specifically for furniture manufacture. When Charles T.

American Ice Company Baltimore Plant No. 2, Baltimore Maryland

American Ice Company Baltimore Plant No. 2, Baltimore Maryland

Ice was a necessary commodity from the mid-nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century for both businesses and households to keep foods from spoiling. Comparable to the use of coal for heating in the winter, ice was needed on a daily basis during hot summers. The artificial ice manufacturing industry came to prominence after the failure of ice harvests in the north at the turn of the twentieth century. With the technological ability to produce ice artificially, ice companies built plants in Baltimore and throughout the United States around the turn of the twentieth century. With the rapid growth of household refrigeration after World War II, the industry faded and most ice manufacturing plants were razed. This plant is one of the

Old City Cemetery, McMinnville Tennessee

Old City Cemetery, McMinnville Tennessee

McMinnville, located 100 miles east of Nashville, Tennessee, was founded in 1810 and the first courthouse was completed in 1811. Like many rural county seats at that time, the town was a small trade center with government business at the new courthouse attracting customers. McMinnville was large enough, however, to have the only school of any consequence in Warren County, established in 1809. Local officials established the City Cemetery in 1813, the year that it received its first interment. It remained the town's only cemetery until the Civil War. Thus, the City Cemetery contains the graves of the earliest builders of the community of McMinnville, who were the first to buy lots around the courthouse, construct substantial brick buildings, open stores,

Mayfair Theater - Auditorium Theatre, Baltimore Maryland

Mayfair Theater - Auditorium Theatre, Baltimore Maryland

The Mayfair Theater (earlier the Natatorium, the Howard Auditorium, and the Auditorium) has served as an entertainment facility on its present site since 1870. The Mayfair Theatre is one of the two remaining buildings of the original three in the Kernan hotel-theater complex which included the Hotel Kernan (Congress Hotel), the Maryland Theatre (demolished 1951), and the Auditorium Theatre, which was renamed the Mayfair in 1941. The complex was the largest entertainment grouping in early 20th-century Baltimore. The architecture of the group was a florid Beaux-Arts-influenced French Renaissance style which is still mostly unchanged in the upper facade of the Mayfair. The theater is also one of the three remaining downtown movie palaces; the others are the Hippodrome and the Town

Gompers School - Eastern High School, Baltimore Maryland

Gompers School - Eastern High School, Baltimore Maryland

At the turn of the century, public education in Baltimore City began to reflect the goals and values of the nationwide 'Progressive Movement.' Educational progressivism in particular stood as an attempt to better the lives of the people by increasing the efficiency and expanding the roles of the schools. The reform of Baltimore's City Charter in 1899 resulted in the appointment of its first Board of Education separate from the pressures of local ward politics. Under the new system headed by forward-looking James H. Van Sickle as school superintendent, the professional standards of teachers and principals were raised, a progressive curriculum was introduced and the city began to move its schools from the crowded and poor environment of rented spaces in

Cedar Hill Cemetery - Green Hill Cemetery, Suffolk Virginia

Cedar Hill Cemetery - Green Hill Cemetery, Suffolk Virginia

Cedar Hill Cemetery was developed in 1802 as a public cemetery in the city of Suffolk. The cemetery originally served the Union Church, a non-denominational church constructed by the city of Suffolk. The Union Church was removed from the cemetery grounds in 1872 and the cemetery was expanded through the 19^th Century to its current size in 1910. The cemetery has a grid plan and lies on an elevated landmass planted with cedar trees north of the downtown. The funerary markers located within the cemetery reflect varying types of mausoleums, tombstones, and tombs found during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. It is the final resting place for Suffolk's prominent citizens and continues to be used as burying ground for Suffolk's citizens.

Louisa May Alcott School, Baltimore Maryland

Louisa May Alcott School, Baltimore Maryland

Louisa May Alcott School, originally known as School No. 59, was completed in 1910 and is associated with the progressive movement which dominated public education in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The reform of Baltimore's City Charter in 1899 resulted in the appointment of a Board of Education free from ward politics and an Architectural Commission to promote harmony in the design of Baltimore's public buildings. Under these changes the professional standards of teachers and principals were raised, a progressive curriculum was introduced, and the city began to move its schools from the crowded and poor environments of rented spaces in warehouse structures to new school buildings that reflected a far more complex program and were conceived as monuments

Congress Hotel - Hotel Kernan, Baltimore Maryland

Congress Hotel - Hotel Kernan, Baltimore Maryland

The Hotel Kernan, constructed in 1903 for theater impresario James Lawrence Addie Kernan (1838-1912), is an example of lavish hotels of the period. Designed by Philadelphia architect John Allen, the hotel was constructed as part of Kernan's Million Dollar Triple Enterprise, which also included the Maryland Theater (now gone) and the Auditorium Theater now Mayfair Theater). Kernan, a noted Baltimore philanthropist who founded the J.L. Kernan Hospital and Industrial School at Radnor Park, lived at the hotel until his death in 1912. The Kernan interests sold the hotel in the 1920s. The establishment, which was renamed the Congress Hotel in 1932, was owned and operated by the Firey family from 1938 to 1977. By the 1970s, Kernan's deluxe establishment had declined

Coffin Point Plantation, Frogmore South Carolina

Coffin Point Plantation, Frogmore South Carolina

Coffin Point, once a prosperous Sea Island plantation, was also a center of activity during the Port Royal experiment in the early years of the War Between the States. The exact date of construction for the Coffin Point Plantation house is not known; however, Coffin Point Plantation diaries held by the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston date back to 1800. An entry dated October (1801) notes an agreement to employ a Mr. Wade and additional carpenters to work on St. Helena in the erecting a dwelling house, stable, Negro Houses. As there is no signature and several entries are missing, the diary's author is not identified; however, it is a Coffin Point Plantation Book and is believed to have belonged

The Forks of Cypress Plantation House, Florence Alabama

The Forks of Cypress Plantation House, Florence Alabama

The character of James Jackson provided a raison d'etre for the Forks of Cypress. Jackson, an ambitious Irish-born venturer of capital, probably moved to Lauderdale County, Alabama, shortly after his 1818 purchase of the land on which the Forks would be built. Jackson had initially immigrated to Philadelphia in about 1799, where he went into business with his brothers. In 1801, Jackson relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he continued to act as a merchant and also pursued surveying. Heavy investment in lands in Lauderdale County as a prominent part of the Cypress Creek Land Company no doubt precipitated his removal to Alabama in the late 1810s. He is considered a founder of the town of Florence. James Jackson was a friend

Moravia Union Cemetery - Dry Creek Cemetery, Moravia New York

Moravia Union Cemetery - Dry Creek Cemetery, Moravia New York

The Moravia Union Cemetery is Moravia's earliest community burial ground and contains the graves of many of the village's first settlers and leading citizens. The cemetery is distinguished by its relatively great age and its isolated, rural setting. The settlement of Moravia began in 1789 with the arrival of John Stoyell from Connecticut. Stoyell was followed in the 1790s and 1800s by additional settlers from Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and Vermont. The First Congregational Church Society was organized in 1806 and became the first religious institution established in Moravia. The transplanted New England church exerted considerable influence in the early affairs of the village. In 1806, the church society purchased land for a cemetery from Moses Little at a site approximately one-half

Shea Terrace Elementary School, Portsmouth Virginia

Shea Terrace Elementary School, Portsmouth Virginia

Shea Terrace Elementary School opened in September 1925 as the Sixth Avenue School in Portsmouth, Virginia. Located in the residential neighborhood of Shea Terrace, it was built to replace the Glasgow Street School. The Shea Terrace neighborhood is located on one of the fingers of land created by the various creeks and bays of the Elizabeth River with Port Norfolk to its west and Park View to its east. Shea Terrace Elementary School was built to replace an outmoded school during a period of growth in public school construction throughout the state of Virginia. It was part of an effort to improve educational facilities in the City of Portsmouth and its level of architectural sophistication is indicative of the increased importance

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