Latest Structures Page 113

Baker Hotel, Mineral Wells Texas

Baker Hotel, Mineral Wells Texas

Opened just three weeks after the great stock market crash of October 29, 1929, The Baker Hotel represents a period of time, place and values that will never again be approached. Built in a town of about 6,000 people, this 450 room hotel had a meeting capacity of over 2,500 people. Its significance as a social and community focal point is even more profound than its physical presence on the townscape. During the era of the big band, few musicians missed a stop at this luxurious outpost. The guest register reads as a virtual Who's Who of social, political, cultural and military elite. At least one president and many also-rans had more than a fleeting knowledge of the Baker's mineral waters.

Carysfort Lighthouse, Key Largo Florida

Carysfort Lighthouse, Key Largo Florida

Completed in 1852, the lighthouse, and the reef on which it is located, is named after the HMS Carysfort, which ran aground at the site in October 1770. Funds for a lighthouse were appropriated by Congress in 1837, but due to the Indian Wars, design was not started until 1848, with completion four years later. The design was started by Captain Howard Stansbury, completed by Major Thomas E. Lannard of the Corps of Engineers. J.W.P. Lewis was the Assistant Engineer, in charge of construction. The well-known Philadelphia iron works of Merrick and Son was awarded the construction contract who fabricated and preassembled the skeleton structure at their yard before shipping it to Key Largo. The original lighting apparatus, a revolving Fresnel

Children's Farm Home School, Corvallis Oregon

Children's Farm Home School, Corvallis Oregon

The Children's Farm Home began as the dream of Mary Powers (later Mary Powers Riley) to provide a home for orphaned and otherwise dependent children in Oregon. It was to be a facility where there was no expectation of adoption, but rather a place where children could live their entire childhoods. Mrs. Powers, who had been an orphan herself, presented her ideas to the Oregon Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) convention in October 1919 in Ashland. The idea was met with favorable response, and the state president asked Mrs. Powers to chair a committee to investigate the need for such a facility. Mrs. Powers selected Mrs. Mary Mallett (Portland), Mrs. Emma Archibald (Tangent), Mr. Alfred C. Schmitt (Albany), Mr. H.C. Seymour

St. Luke's Hospital Complex, Chicago Illinois

St. Luke's Hospital Complex, Chicago Illinois

Reverend Clinton E. Locke founded St. Luke's Hospital in 1864 as one of the charitable activities of the Grace Episcopal parish. The hospital originally occupied a cottage with seven beds. As the city grew and Locke appealed to other Episcopal parishes for contributions, the hospital expanded. In 1871 it moved to the present Indiana Avenue site and occupied an old boarding house with fifty beds. Between 1882 and 1890 St. Luke's constructed five hospital building pavilions designed by Treat & Foltz which gave the hospital beautiful and well arranged buildings, and increased the capacity of the hospital to 152 beds. In 1884 the Vestry of the Grace Episcopal Church passed a resolution of thanks on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Clinton Locke's

Okolona College - Okolona Normal & Industrial School, Okolona Mississippi

Okolona College - Okolona Normal & Industrial School, Okolona Mississippi

The campus played a vital role in the education and vocational training of African Americans in the northeast region of Mississippi during the twentieth century prior to integration of the state's educational facilities. Okolona College (formerly the Okolona Industrial School or Okolona Normal and industrial School) was founded in 1902 by Wallace A. Battle who believed the answer to the problem the African-American population was facing was best found through education. He challenged interested citizens in Okolona to raise $4,000 to begin a school for the African Americans of northeast Mississippi. Mr. Battle also enlisted the assistance of some of the leading white people in Okolona, who were interested in the institution and were able to dissipate animosity from members of

Hollywood Plantation - The Burrus House, Benoit Mississippi

Hollywood Plantation - The Burrus House, Benoit Mississippi

Hollywood is the only structure associated with the locally prominent Burrus family that remains in Bolivar County, Mississippi. It was constructed by John C. Burrus (1818-1879), who was among the first to settle the county after its lands were removed from Indian control by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. Although a native of Huntsville, Alabama, where he practiced law until 1842, Burrus had established a plantation in Bolivar County early enough to appear on that county's first tax roll, taken in 1836. According to the same records for 1840, Burrus's holdings consisted of 913 acres of land, valued at $3,652, and 34 slaves. Burrus continued his absentee ownership until 1842 when, according to family tradition, mistreatment of his

Eaton Elementary School, Hattiesburg Mississippi

Eaton Elementary School, Hattiesburg Mississippi

The city of Hattiesburg was founded by Capt. William H. Hardy in 1882. Hardy was a pioneer in the timber and railroad industries, and Hardy had the foresight to recognize the potential economic benefits the two industries would create. After a slow beginning, Hattiesburg, named for Hardy's wife, became a boom town. The completion of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad in 1897 connected the near virgin yellow pine forests of southwest Mississippi with a deep water port and sparked unprecedented growth that saw a small village grow into the state's fourth largest city in less than twenty-five years. The first decade of the Twentieth Century saw a huge increase in population in Hattiesburg creating the need for a rapid growth

Captain Charles Schreiner Mansion, Kerrville Texas

Captain Charles Schreiner Mansion, Kerrville Texas

The Captain Charles Schreiner Mansion at 216 Earl Garrett Street in Kerrville, Texas, is an unusual example of a combination of the Romanesque and Chateauesque styles. Designed by the famous Texas architect of the nineteenth century, Alfred Giles, the house was originally constructed in 1879 of native limestone. Unusual as it may seem since limestone was so readily available for building construction, the house was the first limestone structure built in Kerr County. Captain Schreiner, an immigrant from France, built one of the greatest mercantile-banking empires in the Southwest for which his palatial home was symbolic. Charles Schreiner's father, Gustave Adolph Schreiner, was a French nobleman, having been born in the family castle Reichenstein at Riguewihr in the Vosges Mountains, upper

Schneider Hotel - Pampa Hotel, Pampa Texas

Schneider Hotel - Pampa Hotel, Pampa Texas

The Schneider Hotel is one of several buildings in downtown Pampa which mark the city's first era of growth and prosperity. Built during the Panhandle oil boom of the late 1920s, the large hotel anchors the south end of Million Dollar Row. This series of structures, built between 1927 and 1930, includes the Schneider Hotel, the Pampa Fire Department, the Pampa City Hall, the Combs-Worley Building, and the Gray County Courthouse. This assemblage of structures dominates downtown Pampa and symbolizes its leap forward from a sleepy farm town to a bustling oil and gas center, county seat, and twentieth-century boom town. As one of the largest private ventures undertaken in Pampa in the 1920s, and as the social center of the

Chicago and Northwestern Train Depot, Redfield South Dakota

Chicago and Northwestern Train Depot, Redfield South Dakota

The Redfield Depot is an example of the work of Charles Frost of Frost and Granger of Chicago, the major architectural firm retained by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. It is also an example of the Gothic Revival as it evolved in the Midwest by the onset of World War I. As a station, the design is one of the most refined of the small stations along the Chicago Northwestern line in South Dakota. The depot design is distinguished by the use of Gothic ornament on the transept, which marks the entrance lobby and agent's office. In this period, the Gothic Revival was used predominantly for institutional buildings and is is rarely found on commercial buildings. Several bold and stylized details

Stratford Point Lighthouse, Stratford Connecticut

Stratford Point Lighthouse, Stratford Connecticut

Stratford Point Lighthouse, erected in 1881, is significant as the earliest example in Connecticut of the cone-shaped, pre-fabricated cast-iron lighthouses one of the earliest such lighthouses in the nation. Its construction and architectural details include characteristics which represent the earliest phase of development. Later the type became more standardized and was utilized on land and water sites in many varied locations. The site represents the fourth oldest lighthouse station in Connecticut still under Coast Guard jurisdiction. Established in 1822 by the federal government to mark the mouth of the Housatonick River, the light station at Stratford Point has made a significant contribution to the history of the aids to navigation in Long Island Sound. In addition, Stratford Point is significant as

Silk Covered Bridge - Robinson Bridge, Bennington Vermont

Silk Covered Bridge - Robinson Bridge, Bennington Vermont

Although its builder and date have not been documented, the Silk Covered Bridge was probably constructed by Benjamin F. Sears, member of a locally prominent family of bridge builders, about 1840. It is one of two bridges built by that family among three covered bridges that survive in Bennington township. The three bridges cross the same river within two miles of one another. The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred bridges still stand in the state, the greatest concentration by area of covered bridges in the country. The Silk Covered Bridge consists of a single span supported by two flanking timber Town lattice trusses. Additional floor beams have been placed in

Hawkeye Valley Mill, Wessington Springs South Dakota

Hawkeye Valley Mill, Wessington Springs South Dakota

The Hawkeye Valley Mill was built in 1894 by Elwood C. Lyle. It is located south of Wessington Springs, in the Hawkeye Valley of the Wessington Hills, just west of Firesteel Creek. The mill is a rare surviving example of small feed mills that used power windmills to perform tasks like shelling corn, grinding feed, and operating machines like saws for the owner's and neighbors' farming operations. It was built by an early township settler in a period of economic downturn and drought. The symbolic power of tall windmills on the prairie landscape, combined with the need to recognize the different scales of operations that supported the agricultural history of South Dakota, makes this mill able to tell a significant story.

Commodore Perry Hotel, Toledo Ohio

Commodore Perry Hotel, Toledo Ohio

Following in the tradition of the Oliver House, the Boody House Hotel (demolished), and the Secor Hotel, the Commodore Perry Hotel is the fourth in a series of large-scale, architect designed, luxury hotels constructed in Toledo between 1859 and 1930. These hotels were developed with the intention of improving amenities while expanding the city's travel and convention business. Daniel Boorstin, writing about hotels as social centers has called them Palaces of the Public. In the period of most rapid urban growth, it was not by churches or government buildings but by hotels that cities judged themselves and expected others to judge them. President Herbert Hoover, in dedicating the Waldorf-Astoria in 1931 stated that Our hotels have become community institutions. They are

Herrick Grain Elevator, Herrick South Dakota

Herrick Grain Elevator, Herrick South Dakota

The Herrick Elevator is located in Herrick, Gregory County South Dakota. For over seventy years, it served the local farmers as a principal buying and transportation station for their grain crops. As a rural elevator, it was the initial link in the network of moving raw grains from producer to large processing and marketing centers. The elevator was constructed in 1907 by Caspary and Simons. The first grain buying centers in South Dakota were simple flat roof buildings which were used for storage and distribution of sacked grain. Railroad companies found it much easier to handle bulk grain and generally insisted on receiving shipments from facilities where grain could be elevated into bins and from there, poured through spouts into railroad

Halpin Covered Bridge, Middlebury Vermont

Halpin Covered Bridge, Middlebury Vermont

The Halpin Covered Bridge, although one of the shorter covered wood bridges in Vermont, is the highest in the State. It crosses a gorge of the Muddy Branch of the New Haven River about 41 feet above the stream. Standing near the end of a rural road, the bridge carries very little traffic and remains essentially unaltered from its original condition. The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred bridges still stand in the state, the greatest concentration by area of covered bridges in the country. Many of these bridges are integral parts of unique architectural environments whose physical setting and cultural context have been little altered until recently. However, extensive highway

St. Mary's School, Elkton South Dakota

St. Mary's School, Elkton South Dakota

A four-story convent, boarding, and day school was built in 1899 for $7,000. In 1917, the Presentation Sisters built, St. Mary's School, costing $42,000 to supplement the older structure. It was dedicated in 1918. St. Mary's continued the tradition of Catholic education in the community that had begun in 1890 and opened its doors to children of all creeds (Mother Gertrude's 1939 Reminisces). The school taught children of grade school ages and in late 1918 also had high school courses accredited by the State Department of Education. St. Mary's was the first parochial school in South Dakota to be accredited. The grand opening of St. Mary's in 1918 featured a Ladies Guild sale of fancy articles, a community feast, and a

Cedar Swamp Covered Bridge, West Salisbury Vermont

Cedar Swamp Covered Bridge, West Salisbury Vermont

The Cedar Swamp covered bridge is the only covered wood bridge remaining in the towns of Salisbury and Cornwall. The bridge is one of three in Vermont which straddle town boundaries along the channels of streams. (In such cases both towns share the ownership and maintenance of the bridge.) Until 1969 when a central supporting pier was built, the Cedar Swamp bridge had one of the longest wood clear spans in Vermont. The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred bridges still stand in the State, the greatest concentration by area of covered bridges in the country. Many of these bridges are integral parts of unique architectural environments whose physical setting and

Lockhart Vocational High School - Carver High School, Lockhart Texas

Lockhart Vocational High School - Carver High School, Lockhart Texas

Lockhart Vocational High (LVH) is the last extant example of two six-teacher type schools constructed in Texas in 1923 with funds from the Julius Rosenwald School Building Program. The Rosenwald Fund was established in 1917 for the advancement of African American education through the erection of modern schoolhouses in the rural South. There were 527 Rosenwald buildings constructed in Texas and over 5000 school buildings constructed throughout the South. Lockhart Vocational High School is a six-teacher Rosenwald School. According to local lore, LVH was constructed in 1923 from the salvaged materials of Ross Institute, the old school for Lockhart's white children. The total cost of construction was $22,000. The school is one of 32 rare masonry-type Rosenwald schools documented in Texas.

Santa Fe Railroad Station, Brownwood Texas

Santa Fe Railroad Station, Brownwood Texas

The Santa Fe Railroad Passenger Station in Brownwood, Texas, is one of the few large depots remaining intact in the state. Built at a time when rail travel was at its peak in the Southwest, the station represents an outstanding example of the Prairie style from the first decade of the twentieth century. Despite its present deteriorated condition, the building represents excellent adaptive use potential which could alleviate a socially declining neighborhood as well as restore a vital link with the Santa Fe Railroad's illustrious past in Brownwood. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad initiated passenger service to Brownwood on December 31, 1885. Crowds lined the tracks as engine No. 27 pulled a string of wooden coaches into town. This

Book Title Abandoned America: Dismantling The Dream

Abandoned America: Dismantling The Dream

Book Title The Atlas of Abandoned Places: A Journey Through The World's Forgotten Wonders

The Atlas of Abandoned Places: A Journey Through The World's Forgotten Wonders

Book Title Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind

Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind

Book Title Abandoned Palaces (Abandoned Places)

Abandoned Palaces (Abandoned Places)

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