Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, date and photographer unknown, via Royal Australian Historical Society Commons on flickr.
Category: architecture
The Sunday porch: Tampa, Florida
“Firemen aboard truck,” Tampa, Florida, October 1919, via Florida Memory Commons on flickr (State Library and Archives of Florida).
It’s not about the firetruck — snazzy as it is — but that trellis mounted over the front porch behind it. Was it simply ornamental, or did the vines help keep the porch and house cooler?
Spruce Grove, Alberta
Alan or Robert (Jr.) Brebner on the homestead, Spruce Grove, Alberta, ca. 1905, via Provincial Archives of Alberta (both photos).
Robert McKay Brebner, a farmer and amateur photographer, immigrated from Scotland to Alberta in 1882 and secured a homestead in Spruce Grove. About 1894, he married Emily Wrench, and after the birth of their first child, Alan, in 1896, they built a two-story house. Robert died suddenly in 1909, and Emily ran the farm with hired help until Alan could take it over at the age of 17.

The Sunday porch: split level
“Backyard of a brick house in the suburbs with picnic table and barbecue,” location unknown, 1959, by Marion S. Trikosko, via U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Blackwell’s Island, N.Y.
“Children’s roof garden,” Metropolitan Hospital Training School for Nurses on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island), New York City, between 1915 and 1920, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Click on the image for a larger view.


