Boston - Freedom Trail: Old State House
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The Old State House, built in 1713, is the oldest surviving public building in Boston. . Alternatively called the Town House, the court of the provisional governor, City Hall, and in time the statehouse of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State House is now operated by the Bostonian Society, Boston's historical society and one of many landmarks along the Freedom Trail.
The original Boston Town House was the bequest of Robert Keayne in 1657. The bottom of the medieval looking wooden structure was a trading market and gathering place for conducting business. Though lost in the great fire of 1711, the current brick building was rebuilt. A 1947 fire destroyed part of the the interior, and was rebuilt again. The building's High Georgian style and formal ornamentation suggests that the 1747 State House was designed by a trained British architect, and not an American.
The red brick building is perfectly symmetrical and ornamented. Its gambrel roof is obscured by pedimented end facades. Its primary feature is a tall multi-part steeple with elaborate clear glass windows. Beneath the restored lion and unicorn are bull's eyes windows, and a ceremonial balcony, ornamented with a segmented pediment over Corinthian pilasters.
The original building housed a Merchant's Exchange on the first floor and warehouses in the basement. On the second floor, the east side contained the Council Chamber of the Royal Governor. This room was the setting for many stirring speeches and debates by dedicated patriots against the British crown. In 1761, the "first scene of the first act of opposition", was James Otis' speech against the Writs of Assistance in the Royal Council Chamber. Though losing the case, Otis's speech was one of the incendiary events which fueled the American Revolution.
The central area of the second floor was the meeting place for the Massachusetts Assembly, the most radical of all colonial legislatures freely elected by the people. The Assembly was the first legislative body in the colonies to call for sectional unity, and the formation of a Stamp Act Congress. In 1766, during the debate on the Stamp Act, which led to the stamp Act Congress, the representatives installed a gallery so the public could sit in on their sessions. This was the first known example of providing public accountability for elected officials.
The west end of the second floor contained chambers for the Courts of Suffolk County and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Judicial Court is the longest seated court in the nation (over 300 years old) and was responsible for the ruling decisions in many of the early landmark trials. The Court was also involved in the drafting of the Massachusetts Constitution, upon which the United States Constitution is based.
Official proclamations were read from the east side balcony. The area beneath the balcony was the site of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, when a handful of British soldiers fired into a taunting crowd, killing five men. On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed from here to jubilant crowds. Later that day, the lion and the unicorn, along with other symbols of royal authority were taken down and burned in a bonfire in Dock Square.
After the American Revolution, the building served as the seat of the Massachusetts state government before its move to the present Massachusetts State House in 1798. John Hancock, chosen as the first Commonwealth Governor, was inaugurated in the Council Chamber in 1780. In 1788, sessions were held here that led to Massachusetts becoming the sixth state to ratify the Constitution.
From 1830 to 1841, the building was Boston's city hall following a rennovation by Isiah Rogers and William Washburn. From 1840-1880, it served as a commerical building. In 1881, after threats of the building's being dismantled and moved to Chicago, Illinois, the Old State House was restored to its original exterior appearance by the Bostonian Society. In 1882 the Lion and unicorn were returned to the east facade under a restoration by George Clough.
Today, the Old State House sits atop the State Street stop on the MBTA's Blue and Orange subway lines (opened in 1905) and houses a museum and is the home of The Bostonian Society.
National Register #66000779 (1966)
Porten Model House
Image by dan reed!
The Cambridge, a typical single-family home in Clarksburg - small lot, rear garage, heavy Craftsman influence in design (but only on the front, of course.)
Kitchen Kohler Design Center
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View On Black
Kohler Wisconsin. The Design Center has dozens of kitchen displays using, of course, Kohler products.The basement hold the history of the Kohler Company on display. Very fascinating. The founder made an entire town to house, feed, and entertain his workers. It was a very different era.
Pullman houses
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Architect Solon S. Beman designed a variety of houses for the company town of Pullman in the 1880s.
Town Bridge - Custom House Quay, Weymouth Harbour
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It was such a nice day, that we headed to Weymouth and Portland. Lucky to have blue skys as well after previous rainy days.
The harbour in Weymouth.
Along Custom House Quay at Weymouth Harbour.
This is the Town Bridge in Weymouth. It is currently getting renovated. I assume that it opens in half, based on the barriers, and level crossing like lights.
It is Grade II listed.
Town Bridge, Weymouth
WEYMOUTH
SY6778NE Town Bridge
873-1/23/2
GV II
Bascule road bridge crossing the Harbour, and linking Old
Weymouth with Melcombe Regis. 1930. Steel bascules, Portland
ashlar abutments and arches with some coursed sandstone.
The bridge has a nearly level roadway carried on bascules to a
flat segmental arch between formal abutments with square
corner buttresses.
At the S end, connecting with Trinity Road, a parapet wall to
the height of the abutments swings round in a segment, and the
Harbour wall is swept round to meet it, containing a small
platform to the W, and a similar platform to the E, but with a
set of steps within ashlar walls. At the N end, leading into
St Thomas Street, there is a similar abutment, with a pavilion
for the bridge controller, then 2 low segmental arches over
the quayside road, with stone parapets, stopped on the E side
to a flight of 20 steps to the Quay level.
The bascule section has a steel balustrade in 10 panels each
side, with a broad teak handrail. The end abutments are in
channelled ashlar, with a square opening with paired doors at
the lower level, surmounted by a cornice at roadway level. The
corner buttresses provide recessed embayments at pavement
level, and an entry to the control building on the NE unit;
they are terminated with prominent steel lanterns, 6 in all,
on open truncated pyramidal bases and with a trellis top. The
control pavilion has a low stone weathered roof above a
cornice, and is semi-octagonal on the E side, with a glazed
door from the pavement, and a single casement to 5 outer
facets, above 4 oculi and a door on the water side.
At the St Thomas Street end the 2 segmental arches over the
low road are in concrete cast on permanent steel shuttering,
and there is a low connecting arch in the wall between the 2
throughways; most of the stonework here, and in the lower
parts of the abutment retaining walls, is in grey sandstone.
There are 4 commemorative plaques or tablets: on the NW
abutment, in the embayment facing the pavement, is a granite
panel inscribed: 'From Weymouth New England to Weymouth in Old
England: 1930', and on the opposite side a bronze plate
records 'This bridge was opened by HRH the Duke of York on the
4th July 1930.....', also gives Bolton and Larkin Ltd as the
general contractors, Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co Ltd
as steelwork contractors, and RW Vince as the Borough
Surveyor. At the S end, to the E the plaque records the
Council members for 1929/30, and opposite the bronze plaque
gives historical information about this and previous bridges.
It also records that the bridge was built by the Corporation,
the cost being shared between the Borough Council, Dorset
County Council and the Ministry of Transport.
Town Bridge inevitably holds an important position visually in
the town, and has been designed to give a dignified character.
At the same time it is of considerable historical interest; a
bridge was built, to replace a rope ferry, in 1597, rebuilt 3
times in the C18, the last in 1769, when it was moved from the
former alignment opposite Nicholas Street to the present
location. In 1821 a new 'permanent' bridge was sought, and
built in 1824. This is known to have had a toll gate at the
Melcombe Regis end in 1857.
The 1824 bridge was replaced by the present structure which
has importance in the townscape. It is a fine example of its
type displaying both technological and architectural
virtuosity.
(Ricketts E: The Buildings of Old Weymouth: Melcombe Regis and
Westham: Weymouth: 1975-: 111).
Listing NGR: SY6786778716
View of the Custom House Quay from the bridge.
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