"When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."
-- John Ruskin
Vernon Cobb, was the projectionist at the Imogene Theatre (1913) in Milton, Florida when he was a teenager. At that time, the theatre showed silent movies accompanied by a piano player. Cobb was also the last surviving employee of the old Bagdad Land & Lumber Co. He would get off work at the mill when the whistle blew at five, go home and clean up, work the projector until nearly midnight, and then walk the 4 miles home, before waking up at 5 AM to do it all over again. This photo was taken when Cobb was around 92.
My Nana. This photo was taken in the basement of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Shortly before her memories we're completely dimmed by dementia we took her to visit the church she had attended as a young girl in the 1920s. She remembered quite a bit about the former minister, Dr. Van Nuys. She still had a small pocket-sized Bible with an olive wood cover that he had given her. She credited him with saving her life when, as a young girl, she had an abusive father who drank and a mother who worked all the time. Though her memory was shaky, she recalled taking the cable car to Church and descending the stairs to the basement to attend Sunday school. Though she couldn't be positive, these were most likely those stairs. She was 93.
The Bridge of Lions (1927) in St. Augustine, Florida. This most beautiful of bridges in America's oldest city stands, not only as a symbol of Florida's decadent building boom in the 1920s, but also the power of the preservation movement. Designated as functionally obsolete and structurally deficient by the FDOT in 1999, the citizens of St. Augustine rallied to save it, but only after a long 10 year battle. Although a good portion of the bridge was reconstructed, key elements such as the bascula towers were retained and restored, and the bridge appears as it did in 1927. The two large, marble Medici Lions still stand guard at the western shore of the bridge. This photo was taken from the opposite shore looking towards downtown St. Augustine.
The unmistakable art deco towers of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge (1937) were designed by architect Irving Foster Morrow. It was Morrow who also persuaded chief engineer Joseph Strauss to paint the bridge in its trademark color - International Orange. Today, it is hard to imagine either of the other two paint choices - black and battleship gray. Most people assume it is this magnificent bridge which gives the entrance to the bay it's name, however, the Golden gate was a moniker long before the bridge was in place; marking the entrance not only to the bay, but the Golden shores of California, and for many immigrants – a better life. The bridge, rather, was more of an economic necessity, built to open up neighboring counties to development, when San Francisco could grow no more.
New Orleans' famous St. Charles streetcar is the oldest continuously operating streetcar in the world. Streetcars have run continuously on St. Charles Avenue for more than 150 years; past the anti-bellum mansions of the Garden District, to Tulane University and beyond to the Audubon Zoological Park. The streetcars that run today are vintage 900 series streetcars from 1923. Each streetcar still features their original Mahogany seats, brass handrails, and exposed ceiling lightbulbs. One of the great things about these streetcars is that they carry tourists and local commuters alike. They're just as much a true public service as they are a tourist attraction, and an integral part of New Orleans character and appeal.
The vast open expanses of wilderness surrounding Salt Lake City - and throughout the state of Utah - are dotted with little towns like Elberta, where this old Sinclair gas station is located on US Highway 6. Ten miles west of this location is the rural mining town of Eureka. The heady days of gold and silver extraction are long gone there and the main street through town is lined with mostly empty storefronts. However, like the abandoned gas station, these places still seem alive because they tell stories of people long gone and forgotten. These places remind us that people lived, worked, and raised families here. Even in their ruinous state, they are beautiful.
I couldn't pass up the chance to photograph this cool, mid-century sign at an abandoned road-side restaurant while in Coopersville, GA. Located in the middle of nowhere at the intersection of State Road 301 and Scarboro Highway, it is likely to rust into oblivion. The restaurant itself had a big hole in the roof and was unsecured. The front door was literally wide open. I can picture my mom and uncle stopping at places like this with my grandparents back in the early 60s as they traveled across country in their station wagon. Sometimes taking a photo like this is the only way to preserve something.
Ghost murals, as they are commonly known, are faded remnants of the most popular form of advertising from the 19th and early 20th century. Often the weathered surface of the advertisement remains visible for decades - as is the case with this mural - while other ads are only inadvertently uncovered when an adjoining building is torn down. Peeling messages for everything including groceries, mill supplies, cigars, rooms for rent, soda-pop, and pharmaceuticals still cover the brick walls of many historic commercial structures across the country. These murals were originally handpainted by artists called "wall dogs", using oil-based paint containing lead. The lead helped the paint bond well with the masonry surface. This mural on the Ft. Nelson building at 801 W. Main St. in Louisville, KY, reads: Fort Nelson Wholesale Grocers & Provisions Izensmeister & Bro. Side note: the Fort Nelson building, an impressive Richardsonian Romanesque structure with a corner turret, is being adapted as a new urban bourbon distillery - Michter's Distillery. After standing vacant for 50 years, severe structural issues pushed the building to the brink of collapse. A new building is essentially being constructed on the inside of the original masonry walls. All of the original exterior cast-iron, limestone, and brick will be preserved and restored. Hopefully, that includes the ghost mural.
A Coca-Cola ghost mural on a historic apartment building in Savannah GA - on Price Street, between Perry and Liberty. Coca-Cola is the company most often associated with historic advertising murals. Created it Atlanta in 1886, Coca-Cola began painting advertisements on commercial buildings starting in the 1890s. The company would provide local artists with detailed sketches which they would then transfer to a wall previously selected. These murals were especially prominent in the South, which was home to the beverage's origin. The mural reads: "Delicious & Refreshing, Drink Coca-Cola, Relieves Fatigue, Sold Everywhere." The other side of this building features another ghost mural for Uneeda Biscuits.
