Latest Structures Page 107

Mud River Covered Bridge, Milton West Virginia

Mud River Covered Bridge, Milton West Virginia

Mud River Covered Bridge is patterned after the innovations in the use of iron as a supporting material developed by William Howe, but this bridge uses the added strength of an arch. For a long while the commerce of the central part of Cabell County, West Virginia, depended upon this valuable link across the Mud River. The town of Milton began growing and prospering with the coming of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in the early 1870s. Increased business activity required better means of transportation, so the Cabell County Court let a contract to construct a wooden bridge across the Mud River in late 1874. The local postmaster won at least part of the job of building the structure, and he

Carrolton Covered Bridge, Carrolton West Virginia

Carrolton Covered Bridge, Carrolton West Virginia

Nineteenth-century maps show an M. F. Pike, which crosses the Buchannon River at the present location of the Carrollton bridge. The M. F. Pike is probably the Middle Fork Road, which is mentioned in the 1855 and 1857 Annual Reports of the Virginia Board of Public Works. Included in these reports is reference to a contract for a Buchannon bridge, which was constructed on the Middle Fork Road and spanned the Buchannon River. The bridge's length was the same span (approximately 142 feet) as the present-day Carrollton bridge. Emmett J. and Daniel O'Brien were the contractors for the Buchannon bridge. A native of Beverly, West Virginia, Emmett had been the masonry contractor for the more famous Philippi bridge. The O'Brien brothers

Southern Railway Passenger Depot, Lexington Kentucky

Southern Railway Passenger Depot, Lexington Kentucky

The Southern Railway Passenger Depot is a remarkably intact early twentieth-century Georgian Revival-style railroad station. It has experienced very few architectural changes and is a Lexington landmark with its highly visible location on South Broadway. It has the dubious distinction of being the last major railroad station standing in Central Kentucky. According to a 1906 newspaper article, the building was designed by H. Herrington; it was constructed in 1906-08. As Herrington was not a local architect, it is assumed he was an architect with or under contract to the Queen and Crescent and Southern Railway Company. Paul Anderson, who was a professor of engineering at State College (later the University of Kentucky) was appointed supervising architect and Arthur Giannini was involved

Valentine Schneikert House, Louisville Kentucky

Valentine Schneikert House, Louisville Kentucky

The Valentine Schneikert House is an early example of Italianate-style architecture in the Irish Hill neighborhood. It was built circa 1868 by Valentine Schneikert, a prominent figure in Louisville's brick-making industry, and is one of the earliest extant brick houses constructed in this eastern portion of the city. The Irish Hill neighborhood, as it would later be named, was largely rural in character in the 1860s. During the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the eastern perimeter of the city extended only to the Phoenix Hill and Butchertown neighborhoods. Both were populated primarily by German and Irish working-class immigrants who worked at nearby breweries or meat packing houses. The architecture in these areas reflected the ethnic and social origins of its

Fifth District School, Covington Kentucky

Fifth District School, Covington Kentucky

The first discussion about the construction of a new school for the Peaselburg area came about in 1897. The school board met to discuss the need for 2 new schools in the area; one for the southeastern part of the city, and one for the southwestern section. The growing school-age population in the southwestern part of the city finally led the school board to break ground for the new elementary school on the site at 18^th and Holman streets in 1901. Construction of the building took about a year, and was completed in 1902. Schofield & Rabe, architects from Covington, were chosen to design the school. The firm was only in business for six years, from 1898-1904. There is no apparent

Louis Levey Mansion, Indianapolis Indiana

Louis Levey Mansion, Indianapolis Indiana

Built in 1905 the Louis Levey mansion may have been designed by the Indianapolis firm of Rubush and Hunter, who designed the Levey Brothers Printing Plant, which was also occupied in 1905, and still stands on the north side of the Statehouse. The architects use the same style on the Masonic Temple, the former First Church of Christ Scientist, Old City Hall (now the Indiana State Museum), and the American Central Life Insurance Company Building. The construction of the mansion and the choice of its location were the concrete expression of the commercial success of the second generation of a family of printers. Louis H. Levey, the owner, was born in Madison, Indiana, to William P. Levey, who had engaged in

Montgomery Ward Store Building, Evansville Indiana

Montgomery Ward Store Building, Evansville Indiana

It was not unusual for national corporations to use stock plans for their buildings when Montgomery Ward came to downtown Evansville in 1933. The firm extensively remodeled another building on this site, and distinct similarities can be noted between the Evansville store and stores throughout the Midwest. The significance of the Old Montgomery Ward Building rests upon its association with an important national corporation and its reflection of an important passage in the social history of the country and of Evansville. The 1933 construction of the building in Evansville as part of the Ward retail system followed a pattern of retail shopping and consumerism which had its genesis in the large Eastern department stores of the late 19^th century. The preeminent

Harvard School, Cleveland Ohio

Harvard School, Cleveland Ohio

Abandoned for 20 Years, this School Building was Converted into Apartments in 2002

The Harvard School is in a working-class neighborhood of Cleveland known today as Slavic Village. Located nearly five miles southeast of downtown Cleveland's Public Square, the neighborhood around the school became home to many immigrants of Slavic background who arrived in Cleveland from eastern and southern Europe in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The city's rapid industrialization during this period meant many opportunities for low- and semi-skilled jobs, particularly in the numerous steel mills and factories located both to the south and west in the Flats area of the Cuyahoga River valley, and to the northeast in an industrial corridor located north of Broadway and east of East 79^th Street. Today the Harvard School is surrounded by modest working-class

Park Building, Cleveland Ohio

Park Building, Cleveland Ohio

The Park Building is a large, prominently sited and highly intact example of the style and form of commercial buildings that were being erected in the larger cities of the United States in the years shortly following the turn of the century. The building utilizes steel frame construction and features a symmetrical exterior clad in brick with cast stone trim. Stylistically, the building has elements of Neoclassical and Tudor Revival forms that relate to Chicago skyscrapers of an earlier decade. Its restrained exterior is a sharp departure from the buildings of downtown Cleveland erected around this same time and reflects the desire of the building's developers to achieve a highly functional building that provided a large amount of light and display

Caxton Office Building, Cleveland Ohio

Caxton Office Building, Cleveland Ohio

The building was constructed in 1901-1903. The president of the Caxton Building Company was Ambrose Swasey (1846-1939), founder of Warner and Swasey and a great promoter of the benefits of engineering to mankind. The Caxton Company was a commercial printing and graphic arts business. The building has been devoted to occupants in the graphic arts trades. It was named after William Caxton, the first British printer in the fifteenth century. In 1905 it was occupied by the business of Alfred Cahen which subsequently became the World Publishing Company. The architect was Frank S. Barnum, official public school architect beginning in 1895, who initiated a new era in functional, fireproof, utilitarian school construction. He also designed the Park Building of 1904, called

George Stoudt House - Octagon House, Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania

George Stoudt House - Octagon House, Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania

This octagonal house was a local landmark and conversation piece from the day construction was completed. Local residents still marvel at this radically different way of planning a farmhouse. The original owners of the house, George and Adam Stoudt, were known to be the type of strong-minded individuals that would be willing to make a sharp break with long-standing local building traditions. The eight sided home, writes John Maass in The Victorian Home in America, defiant among its foursquare neighbors, was always the choice of an individualist. The circumstances surrounding the construction of the house are also noteworthy. Under the terms which George Stoudt purchased the property in 1865, he was obligated to pay Lydia Dundor $50 per year and allow

Philippi Covered Bridge, Philippi West Virginia

Philippi Covered Bridge, Philippi West Virginia

The wooden, two-lane covered bridge, crossing the Tygart's Valley River, at Philippi, Barbour County, West Virginia was built in 1852. It is one of only six remaining two-lane covered bridges in the United States. It is the only wooden bridge to accommodate busy federal highway traffic, U. S. 250. The bridge was constructed in 1851-52 to facilitate the 1848 Beverly and Fairmont Road, which had been built to stimulate the use of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, an important link with Richmond and Norfolk. The Beverly and Fairmont Road ended at Fairmont on the Monongahela River, a terminal on the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Clarksburg Democrat printed a request for bids for the bridge at Philippi in May 1850. Contracts were

Chesapeake Beach Railroad Engine House, Seat Pleasant Maryland

Chesapeake Beach Railroad Engine House, Seat Pleasant Maryland

Otto Mears (developer of Colorado's Rio Grande Southern Railroad, among others), the Russian-born Colorado-based entrepreneur known as the pathfinder of the San Juan was the principal promoter of the Chesapeake Beach Railway. Mears had planned that his direct link to Chesapeake Bay would be a high speed line, 28 miles long, run by electric power from a third rail system. Notably, once the engine house was completed and steam locomotives were fully 1n service, Mears resigned as General Manager of the Chesapeake Beach Railway. David Moffat, the richest man in Colorado by 1900 (President, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and president, Denver National Bank), was the major sponsor before 1902, when the engine house was completed. The work accomplished during the

Blithewold Mansion, Bristol Rhode Island

Blithewold Mansion, Bristol Rhode Island

Ground was broken for Blithewold in 1895, but the house was destroyed by fire only eleven years later in 1906. The present house dates from 1907. The property which became Blithewold has a long history of social gatherings. It was first developed as a summer retreat in the mid-nineteenth century by John Rogers Gardner, a prominent New York banker. While Mr. and Mrs. Gardner owned the property, it was the setting for visits and (following Mr. Gardner's death), rentals by numerous native and foreign luminaries, M. de Struvee, the Russian Minister to the United States, General Burnside, and Nelson W. Aldrich among others. Coal baron Augustus Stout VanWickle, of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, purchased the property in 1894, having been impressed with Bristol

Poplar Point Lighthouse, North Kingstown Rhode Island

Poplar Point Lighthouse, North Kingstown Rhode Island

Established in 1831 at the entrance to Wickford Harbor on the site of a Revolutionary War battle, Poplar Point Light is significant as the oldest surviving lighthouse in Rhode Island on its original site. Earlier lights were established at eight other locations, but only one of these structures survives. It, however, is not on its original site and was disassembled during the move. Although the Poplar Point lantern is not original and the dwelling has been altered and added to since the light's active period, the oldest section is a good early example of a keeper's dwelling with an attached tower. The tower and dwelling were constructed in 1831 by Charles Allen of Kingston at a cost of $1,888. In 1869

Bank of Surrency - Post Office, Surrency Georgia

Bank of Surrency - Post Office, Surrency Georgia

Located on the corner of Hart and Main streets in the small, rural town of Surrency in Appling County, Georgia, the Bank of Surrency is the only remaining historic commercial building in the downtown and service first as a bank and later as a post office. Constructed in 1911 to house the local branch of the Baxley Banking Company, the building is a good example of a small-town bank, which anchored the once-thriving community of Surrency. It was the only bank in town until 1921. The Baxley Banking Company closed in 1922, and the building was sold to F.D. Kennedy and J.M. Kennedy. The building served as a post office from 1926 to 1960. A new post office was constructed in

Eleventh District School, Covington Kentucky

Eleventh District School, Covington Kentucky

The former 11^th District School building is one of the chief landmarks of the small (population about 2,000) community of West Covington, an area annexed by the city of Covington in 1916. Set near the top of a ridge surrounded by the hills of Northern Kentucky to the south and by the Ohio River Valley to the north, the building, a restrained Tudor Revival design typical of the post-World War I era, is highly visible from many directions. It was built in 1920-22 to extend the benefits of the traditionally excellent Covington public school system to the newly annexed community, which is geographically somewhat separate from the 19th-century city, located around a bend of the hills in the adjacent Licking River

Lima Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Depot, Lima Ohio

Lima Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Depot, Lima Ohio

The land on which the depot is located is part of McHenry's (first) addition. William McHenry and his wife Malvina obtained the addition as part of a larger portion, the east lot of the northwest quarter section of section 31, township 3 south, range 7 of the Piqua Land District from Joseph Edwards and his wife Comfort in 1845 for the sum of $600. The property was approximately 29 acres. On July 13th, 1853, Dr. McHenry's 29 acres were subdivided into a rectilinear grid system of streets, blocks, lots, and alleys continuing the original Lima town plan pattern. It became part of the McHenry's Addition surveyed by John P. Haller. More than a year later, on November 27th, 1854, he sold

Samuel M. Nickerson House - American College of Surgeons, Chicago Illinois

Samuel M. Nickerson House - American College of Surgeons, Chicago Illinois

The house was designed in 1883 by one of Chicago's earliest architects, Edward Burling, for Samuel M. Nickerson, a wealthy banker. Nickerson spared no expense in creating his Marble Palace, so-called because of its elegant interior which was finished in marbles, rare woods, and other rich materials. The original character of this spectacular home is beautifully preserved to this day. The Nickerson Mansion was one of the most expensive and lavish homes built in Chicago before the turn of the century. Nickerson's Marble Palace as it was widely known, was the showplace home of Samuel M. Nickerson, a prominent Chicago banker and one of the wealthiest men of his time. Nickerson was born in Massachusetts and came to Chicago in 1858

Fisher Building, Chicago Illinois

Fisher Building, Chicago Illinois

A very thorough account of the construction of the Fisher Building and a complete description with photographs are found in the article The Fisher Building, Chicago--A Building without Walls, Inland Architect, (May, 1896), pp. 41-48. Below is a synopsis of the article: The writer states: But here, for what we believe to be the first time in human experience, one of the highest commercial buildings in the world has been erected almost without any bricks. It fronts on three streets, and on the remaining side adjoins other property. The fronts are covered with cellular terra cotta on the outside, not in imitation of a wall, but following upward the steel supporting members, and closing in the transoms between the windows, leaving

Book Title Abandoned America: Dismantling The Dream

Abandoned America: Dismantling The Dream

Book Title Abandoned Train Stations (Abandoned Places)

Abandoned Train Stations (Abandoned Places)

Book Title Abandoned Industrial Places: Factories, laboratories, mills and mines that the world left behind (Abandoned Places)

Abandoned Industrial Places: Factories, laboratories, mills and mines that the world left behind (Abandoned Places)

Book Title Abandoned Palaces (Abandoned Places)

Abandoned Palaces (Abandoned Places)

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