Latest Structures Page 125

Tennessee River Railroad Bridge, Florence Alabama

Tennessee River Railroad Bridge, Florence Alabama

A ferry was in existence at this location in 1832, probably having been licensed by county authorities sometime between 1818 and 1832 in accordance with an Alabama Act approved on December 12^th, 1827, which gave county courts such authority. Alabama Act approved on January 12^th, 1832 covered the incorporation of the Florence Bridge Company and authorized a bridge to be built, without any description of its nature being given. Tolls were not to exceed ferry rates then current. The stock subscription was to be $60,000, plus $35,000 stock which was to be given to the Ferry Company for the value of its investment in ferry landings and ferry equipment. Alabama Act approved December 23^rd, 1837 amended the 1832 Act by allowing

Palm Beach Building, Newport Kentucky

Palm Beach Building, Newport Kentucky

This industrial building was constructed for the Dueber Watch Case Manufacturing Company in 1883 to house a watch manufacturing business established by local businessman, John C. Dueber. He founded the business in 1873 and for the first few years was located in downtown Cincinnati at the corner of Race and 4^th Streets. In 1877, the business was moved to a location in Newport at the southeast corner of of Jefferson and Washington Streets. This location is one block south of the current location. Within a few short years the business expanded at such a rate that an additional facility was required to meet the demand for watches. A new plant, one block north was constructed in 1883. In subsequent years, the

Covered Bridge, Cynthiana Kentucky

Covered Bridge, Cynthiana Kentucky

An early Order Book in the Harrison County Court House at Cynthiana, Kentucky, records the following: in January, 1807, Samuel McMillain, James Finley, Wm. Stephenson, Wm. Moore and Josephus Perrin, were appointed Commissioners to draft a plan for a Bridge across the South Fork of Licking, opposite the Town of Cynthiana, to fix on the eligible place for said bridge to cross said fork, for the materials of which it shall be made, and to open subscriptions to raise money to defray a part or the whole of the expense of erecting said Bridge. In July, 1807, a report was made showing subscriptions amounting to $500 to help defray expenses. Letting of the building of the bridge was advertised in the

Plains High School, Plains Georgia

Plains High School, Plains Georgia

The first Plains school was a two-story frame structure facing Bond Street on the west side of the current school property. Plains citizens raised $1,800 to erect this building which was first opened to students in 1900. Julia Coleman, who would later be cited by Jimmy Carter as one of the major influences in his life, began teaching English at the school in 1912. In the late 1910s, there was an effort throughout Sumter County to consolidate many of the one-teacher school houses into larger, better-equipped schools. At his time, the Mossy Dell School and Planters Academy both merged with the Plains School. With the consolidation came new school buildings in the towns of Union and New Era, and on August

Wise Sanatorium No. 2 - Plains Convalescent Home, Plains Georgia

Wise Sanatorium No. 2 - Plains Convalescent Home, Plains Georgia

The Wise Sanitarium was founded by three brothers from one of Plains' prominent families. Dr. Burr Thaddeus Wise (1882-1950), son of Plains' first mayor, Burr Thomas Wise, was the first of the brothers to become a doctor. Upon graduating from medical school at Tulane University in 1908, he began to practice in Plains with a case of supplies and a folding operating table. In 1911, his brother, Sam (1884-1943), also earned his medical degree at Tulane and, in 1912, the two men established the first hospital in Plains on the second floor of the Plains Pharmacy; it could accommodate ten to fifteen patients. In 1914, the youngest brother, Bowman J. (1888-1951), returned home from Tulane with a medical degree and joined

Wise Sanatorium No. 1 - A.C. Wellons Building, Plains Georgia

Wise Sanatorium No. 1 - A.C. Wellons Building, Plains Georgia

According to the 1916 article Wellons Building Store at Plains, in the Americus Daily Times Recorder:
It is said the building was first intended for a hotel, but has been changed for Wise's sanatorium and that when ready for occupancy will be used for this purpose. . . The Wellons Building will have eighteen or more rooms on the second floor and when finished will not only be one of the prettiest in the thriving little city of Plains, but would be a credit to a much larger city. The Wise Hospital did occupy the second floor of the building until it burned, just before the completion of the new Wise Sanitarium on Hospital Street. Ruth Godwin recalled having her

Billy Carter Gas Service Station, Plains Georgia

Billy Carter Gas Service Station, Plains Georgia

During Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in 1975-76, much attention was lavished on this service station, then owned by his colorful and outspoken younger brother, Billy. He considered his station a social rather than a business venture and it served as a hangout for his down home fraternity, where men would gather to drink beer and shoot the breeze after work. The media capitalized on the service station as a symbol of Jimmy's rural southern upbringing. The building was maintained in its run-down, informal state and became a stronghold for the local residents who were disenchanted with the drastic changes taking place in Plains with Carter's ascendancy to the White House. Billy used it as the headquarters for his unsuccessful campaign as

Shawnee Fire Watch Tower, New Straitsville Ohio

Shawnee Fire Watch Tower, New Straitsville Ohio

Constructed in 1937, the Shawnee Tower was one of several projects completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Wayne National Forest during the mid to late 1930s. The lookout tower served as a fire observation platform, occupied during the leaf-on and leaf-off periods from the late 1930s until the early 1970s. Initiated for emergency relief aid, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) came into existence in 1933 and grew to be the most popular New Deal program devised by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC employed approximately three million young men between the ages of 17 and 25. Selection policy, determined by an Advisory Council, limited enrollment primarily to single men whose families were on public relief rolls,

Santa Fe Railroad Grain Elevator, Chicago Illinois

Santa Fe Railroad Grain Elevator, Chicago Illinois

This large grain processing complex was built in 1906 with a 400,000 bushel capacity and accommodation for 360 railroad cars. After a fire in 1932, the site was rebuilt with reinforced concrete silos. The John S. Metcalf Company, consulting engineers, designed and built this facility for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in 1906. The original complex included a powerhouse, elevator with temporary storage and processing silos, and thirty-five grain storage silos. With a 400,000 bushel capacity, this complex could accommodate sixty railroad cars at the elevator and 300 railroad cars at a yard a short distance away. Equipment at the site included two driers, bleachers, oat clippers, cleaners, scourers and dust packers. Using filtered water from the adjacent South

Rock Castle, Hendersonville Tennessee

Rock Castle, Hendersonville Tennessee

Although evidence is insufficient on the establishment of the house's construction dates, the approximate dates are 1784-1797. Construction proceeded slowly because of problems with Indians, lack of skilled workmen, and a scarcity of readily available and usable building materials. By 1793 work had progressed somewhat. Mrs. Smith wrote to her husband on July 20, 1793, that Captain Smith Hansborough had stopped sawing wood for the interior, and that Indians were still making trouble. On the same day, Hansborough himself wrote to Smith and reported that the walls were about one foot above the window sills, the frames for the first floor were already in, and he was working on assorted joists, lintels, and window frames. He mentioned also that he would

Granada Theatre, Chicago Illinois

Granada Theatre, Chicago Illinois

The Granada Theater was constructed in 1926 for the Marks Brothers (Louis and Meyer), who at that time were among the major theater owner/operators in Chicago. The Architects were Levy & Klein with Edward E. Eichenbaum as the principal designer. The Theater was operated by the Marks Brothers until 1934, when it was purchased by Balaban and Katz, a Chicago based movie theater firm which operated theaters throughout the United States. Their theaters exhibited films produced by Paramount Pictures. That firm later became ABC-Great Lakes Theaters and held title to the Granada until 1973. It was then sold through a blind trust to a group who proposed to use it for rock concerts, but that use was never realized. Several other

Belair Mansion, Nashville Tennessee

Belair Mansion, Nashville Tennessee

Belair, one of the impressive antebellum homes in the Nashville area, was built in 1832 on a grant of one thousand acres by Harding of Belle Meade for his daughter, Elizabeth, who married Joseph Clay of Kentucky. Constructed of bricks laid in Flemish bond, the house was built in an L-shape, but has had many additions. In 1838, William Nichol bought the place and added a wing on either end, as well as making changes to the house. The winding stairway, rosewood doors and silver hardware were added at this time, and it is probable that some elaboration to the front of the house was made. The exterior bricks have been painted white. The style of architecture of Belair is generally

Belle Meade Plantation Mansion, Nashville Tennessee

Belle Meade Plantation Mansion, Nashville Tennessee

Belle Meade mansion, the plantation house of the several thousand acre plantation that once existed along with the mansion, was owned and built by the Harding family. John Harding founded the plantation in 1807 and gradually added land to what was to become one of the finest farms, especially thoroughbred, in the country. The original deed included one of middle Tennessee's first permanent structures, Dunham's Station. The Harding family occupied the property from 1807 until 1904. General W. G. Harding built the present mansion and his daughter Selene who married William Hicks Jackson, a confederate general, continued to live at Belle Meade. Other families owned the mansion as a private home in the twentieth century, but the farm Was soon divided

Sloppy Joes Bar, Key West Florida

Sloppy Joes Bar, Key West Florida

Ernest Hemingway Hung Out at This Famous Key West Bar

Only limited historical sources exist documenting the original Victoria Restaurant, which was to become the home of Sloppy Joe's Bar in 1937. During construction in 1917, a photograph was taken of workmen preparing the foundation of the restaurant. Another photo, taken during the 1920s shows a view of the restaurant at the corner of Duval and Greene streets. Although the print is somewhat fuzzy, it is possible to see that Victoria Restaurant has been painted just above the entrance to the building. The restaurant is also listed at 201 Duval Street in Key West city directory for 1917-1919, and the restaurant appears on the 1926 edition of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Key West. Juan Farto, a native of Spain,

Haines Shoe House, York Pennsylvania

Haines Shoe House, York Pennsylvania

Modeled after a work boot, the house was built by shoe salesman Mahlon Haines in 1948 as a form of advertisement. His shoe business claimed it made shoes from hoof to hoof because the company began the process with raising the cattle. The house, which is 25 feet tall and contains five stories, was once rented out to couples, and is now open for public tours. It is located on Shoe House Road, next to a shoe-shaped doghouse. Haines requested the design by handing a work boot to an architect and saying, Build me a house like this. The living room is located in the toe, the kitchen is located in the heel, two bedrooms are located in the ankle, and

North Mountain Lookout - Fire Watchtower, Groveland California

North Mountain Lookout - Fire Watchtower, Groveland California

North Mountain lookout and garage were built in 1963 to replace an earlier 30' tall windmill type wooden tower. The wooden tower had been built in 1940. The taller tower added at least another 10 percent to the area viewed, made the remote facility more fire-resistant and greatly improved its strength and durability. North Mountain, the location, had its name by at least 1908 and a trail system that reached the mountain-top was in place by at least 1927. North Mountain may have been used for fire detection during the course of building the Hetch Hetchy project for the water and hydroelectric supply for the City and County of San Francisco. The old lookout was replaced with the new during a

S.S. Grand View Point Ship Hotel, Juniata Pennsylvania

S.S. Grand View Point Ship Hotel, Juniata Pennsylvania

Motorists traveling the Lincoln Highway stopped at Grand View Point even before the hotel was constructed to take advantage of the view of the surrounding valley below. The Lincoln Highway at Grand View Point was part of a transportation corridor that has a history that dates back to the mid-eighteenth century. It had been part of the Forbes Road, Pennsylvania Road, and the early turnpike across Pennsylvania. The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental highway, planned in 1913 by some of the leaders of the auto industry. They included Carl Fisher, founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Henry Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company. The purpose of the highway was to provide a route to the 1915 Panama-Pacific

Kenmore House, Fredericksburg Virginia

Kenmore House, Fredericksburg Virginia

Kenmore was built as a plantation house by Fielding Lewis and his wife, Betty Washington Lewis, soon after they acquired the property in 1752. The original 863-acre plantation extended to the west of the thriving Tidewater port of Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River. Kenmore is best known for its elaborate plasterwork ceilings, reputed to be the finest of their kind in America. The geometric floral designs were derived in part from Batty Langley's City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs (London, 1756). The Stucco Man who plastered Kenmore's ceilings also designed ceilings at Mount Vernon, the home of Betty Lewis' brother, George Washington. The symmetrical Georgian design of Kenmore is characterized by two five-bay brick facades, a half-hipped

Rich's Downtown Department Store, Atlanta Georgia

Rich's Downtown Department Store, Atlanta Georgia

Closed in 1991, this was the Largest Department Store in the City

The Rich's complex covered a two-block area of downtown Atlanta in Fulton County, Georgia. It was bounded by Alabama Street to the north, Broad Street to the east, Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive to the south, and the elevated Spring Street viaduct to the west. The site is bisected into two blocks by Forsyth Street, which runs north/south between Broad and Spring Streets. The department stores on either side of Forsyth Street were connected by a four-story pedestrian bridge (the Crystal Bridge). Except for a one-story McDonald's restaurant on the southwest corner of the Alabama Street/Forsyth Street intersection and a public plaza on the southeast corner of the intersection, the department store facilities occupied the entirety of the two blocks on

Old Beersheba Inn - Beersheba Springs Hotel, Beersheba Springs Tennessee

Old Beersheba Inn - Beersheba Springs Hotel, Beersheba Springs Tennessee

The long line of important names closely associated with Beersheba Springs make this one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, settlements in the State of Tennessee. This is not to be construed as belittling the settlement in the Watauga Section of Tennessee or the Natchez Trace Section, but the difference between Beersheba and the aforementioned sections is that Beersheba is a small community whereas the Watauga Settlement and the Natchez Trace District are so large as to be made up of many group settlements and in that way we are differentiating Beersheba from other important areas. Beersheba also differs in that where the political, religious and social developments were executed or administered or flowered in Watauga and in

Book Title Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks

Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks

Book Title Lost Places: Images of Bygone America

Lost Places: Images of Bygone America

Book Title Abandoned Places: A Photographic Exploration of More Than 100 Worlds We Have Left Behind

Abandoned Places: A Photographic Exploration of More Than 100 Worlds We Have Left Behind

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)

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