Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Architecture

I love looking at buildings. The carvings, the window shapes, leaded or stained glass windows. I work in a very old part of town in Yinzlandia and I love taking walks during my lunch time and looking at the buildings. Unfortunately, the sidewalks aren't that even in some areas, so I've tripped more often than I care to admit. I digress. . .

I also love reading the plaques on buildings. So many houses and buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places in this one small part of town. Fascinating! I've discovered many interesting bits of trivia from walking around too. For instance, I had no idea Gertrude Stein lived only a few blocks from where I work when she was growing up. And the inventor of the Ferris wheel lived in the same area.

The bricks that have designs carved in them. Archways and columns. Brick sidewalks. I would love to look inside of some of these buildings and see if the attention to detail has survived. We're looking to buy a new to us house and I've been having a blast finally getting to see inside some interesting houses.

Growing up, I lived in what a friend from college once called "Beaver Cleaver, Flatlands." Every other house looked alike. There is no history or interesting things to look at. The city part of town was (and still is for the most part) run down and not very well taken care of. To see how Yinzlandia is taking care of it's old buildings makes me even more sad when I go back to the Flatlands. But that's another story for another day.