Public art. Forgotten places. True stories. Dogs.

Dover NH

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:33:00 -0400

Dover NH

Andrew Wyeth’s grave in Cushing, Maine

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:47:00 -0400

Andrew Wyeth’s grave in Cushing, Maine

Photo

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:56:15 -0500

farm stand, Eliot Maine

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:07:08 -0500

farm stand, Eliot Maine

The sprawling Mission Inn in Riverside, California was the dream...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:42:00 -0500

the piano room

The sprawling Mission Inn in Riverside, California was the dream of eccentric art collector Frank Miller. For over thirty years he salvaged and copied European architectural elements of questionable compatibility to create a complex unlike any other, although it’s often compared to a scaled down Hearst Castle.

Around 1915 Miller began creating a network of catacombs beneath the building to provide a comfortably cool space for guests to stroll and view artwork. The main passageway was designed to represent the Camino Real, the route linking the twenty one Mission settlements in early California. Oil paintings of each Mission by Henry Chapman Ford were displayed in niches along its walls.

After passing tableaus of biblical scenes, visitors reached the centerpiece of the catacombs, a waxworks display of Pope Benedict XV and members of his Papal Court. It was originally created for San Francisco’s 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition and came into Miller’s collection shortly thereafter. Apart from the rods that supported the figures in the semicircular room where they were staged, no trace of the delicate figures remains.

When new owners undertook the ambitious project of saving the crumbling Inn in the 1980s, they found countless bizarre treasures. A room off of the catacombs contained forty pianos, including an extremely rare 1876 Steinway built to commemorate the centennial. The piano had gone missing in Missouri in the 1920s, and how it came to Riverside remains a mystery. It has been restored and can be seen in the main lobby of the Inn.

It is generally believed that the catacombs once continued beyond the footprint of the building, though just how far is the subject of much local lore. Some dubious accounts claim there was once a passageway to Mount Rubidoux more than two miles away.

For safety reasons, the catacombs are now closed to the public.

Galisteo, New Mexico

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:29:01 -0500

Galisteo, New Mexico

I’m still researching this one, so please jump in if...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:25:52 -0500

I’m still researching this one, so please jump in if you’re familiar with the story.

The Pulitzer fountain, dedicated in 1916 on the south side of Grand Army Plaza in New York City, is the result of a $50,00 gift from Joseph Pulitzer. It was created by Austrian born sculptor Karl Bitter.

The day his clay model was finished, Bitter was killed leaving the Metropolitan Opera House, struck by a car that jumped the curb. The final sculpture was finished by his assistant. It’s not known whether Bitter was aware that Pulitzer actually conceived the project as a sublime insult.

Railroad and shipping heir William H. Vanderbilt had built an opulent French renaissance style mansion between 58th and 59th streets in 1880, the grandest house in the city, which was inherited in 1914 by Cornelius Vanderbilt III. In the social order of the Gilded Age, Pulitzer and the younger Vanderbilt were fierce rivals, and Pulitzer was among those who considered the overblown chateau a vulgarity.

Bitter’s sculpture of Pomona, the goddess of abundance, was carefully positioned to give the Vanderbilts an inescapable view of her oversized posterior.

The first library in California, Mission Carmel, 1771

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:57:06 -0500

The first library in California, Mission Carmel, 1771

This is the section of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park known as the...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:00:05 -0400

This is the section of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park known as the Vale of Cashmere. As I was taking these my camera kept detecting faces and switching itself to portrait mode. Later I found this…

http://gothamist.com/2006/04/24/prospect_park_d.php

Happy Halloween!

Diana Kirkpatrick is a painter who is becoming equally well...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:36:00 -0400

Diana Kirkpatrick is a painter who is becoming equally well known for the haunted house she has created in her barn for the past dozen or so Halloweens.

http://bowersockgallery.com/Diana-Kirkpatrick

I wish I had a better link, but you’ll just have to trust me. Or you can head for Portsmouth and ask anyone.

Photo

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:03:00 -0400

Luke MacGregor of Reuters caught this great moment as police in...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:38:00 -0400

Luke MacGregor of Reuters caught this great moment as police in England forcibly evict the Dale Farm Irish traveller settlement.

http://yhoo.it/nZ53NO

Sometimes the off season in a summer town is just too good to be...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:52:00 -0400

Sometimes the off season in a summer town is just too good to be true.

Abandoned mini-golf course, York Maine

Scenes from the Whiskey Plank party at Puddle Dock shipyard on...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:07:00 -0400

Scenes from the Whiskey Plank party at Puddle Dock shipyard on September 28.

See that guy in the red vest with the eight pound hammer? That’s Neil MacIntosh, the only boat builder to have worked on all four existing Gundalows. He’s 95 years old.

Believe it.

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:24:46 -0400

Believe it.

My proposal to improve Venice:

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:50:02 -0400

before

after

From the Daily Mail: Forgotten Victorian era kitchen discovered...

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:08:40 -0400

From the Daily Mail: Forgotten Victorian era kitchen discovered during renovation.

http://bit.ly/rpnAbA

This great photo of the Bear House at Wyntoon has been making...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:36:00 -0400

This great photo of the Bear House at Wyntoon has been making the rounds. It was one of three guest houses designed in the style of a Bavarian village by Julia Morgan, better known for creating the Hearst Castle. The Wyntoon property deep in the woods near Mount Shasta, was developed by newspaper tycoon W.R. Hearst as an estate for his mother.

And this is the main house, by Bernard Maybeck, who also designed the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyntoon

http://bit.ly/oDs641

These guest houses were modeled after traditional Bavarian painted cottages, their outer walls decorated in scenes from fairy tales by Willy Pogany, who was an illustrator for Hearst Publications. The artwork on this building refers to the traditional folk tale of a man who turns into a bear and the confusion that ensues. It goes a little something like this…

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm101.html

Photo

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:48:00 -0400

The bridge connecting Portsmouth New Hampshire and Kittery Maine...

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:40:00 -0400

The bridge connecting Portsmouth New Hampshire and Kittery Maine on US 1, dedicated as a memorial to soldiers and sailors of the first world war.

Opened 1923, condemned 2011.