Category: architecture

The winter garden: Rockwood

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Rockwood, Delaware, 1982 HABS, Library of Congress“Conservatory interior looking southwest,” Rockwood, near Wilmington, Delaware, 1982, by David Ames, via an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all photos here).

Built between 1851 and 1854 in the Rural Gothic Revival style, the estate still exists as the Rockwood Park and Museum.

Designed for Joseph Shipley, a member of one of the leading Quaker mill-owning families in the area, Rockwood is an unusually complete and effective statement of early Victorian taste in the tradition of A.J. Downing and John Clauduius Loudon. The mansion house reflects both early Victorian romanticism and the picturesque merger of irregular architecture and naturalistic landscape. When taken in conjunction, the architecture, the plan, the garden and the remaining furnishings depict a total physical sensibility that is fast vanishing from America.

— 1986 HABS report

Rockwood, Delaware, 1982 HABS, Library of Congress“Conservatory, detail of cast iron columns looking northeast.”

Rockwood, Delaware, 1982 HABS, Library of Congress“Conservatory, roof and northwest wall looking north.”

More winter gardens are here. And more abandoned greenhouses here on the blog Messy Nessy Chic.

The Sunday porch: Madison, Georgia

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Stokes-McHenry House, 240 S. 2nd St., Madison, Georgia, 1939 or 1944, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This porch is certainly a strong contender for “best in latticework.”  The woodwork around the front door is not bad either.

The house was built in the 1820s in the Federal style. The porch was given its current Italianate and Gothic features in the 1850s. It still stands — the property of descendants of its original owners.

Vintage landscape: Nîmes, France

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Garden of the Fountains, Nîmes, France]“Garden[s] of the Fountains, Nîmes, France,” between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.

This is another image from the Library’s photochrom collection, which includes many views of the architecture, monuments, and landscapes of France.

Les Jardins de la Fontaine were built in the mid 1700s.  They were the first public gardens in France.

Vintage landscape: temple mound

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Les Buttes Chaumont, Paris, France

Temple de la Sibylle in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris, France, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900, a photochrom by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The park, located in the northeast of Paris, is the city’s fifth largest. It opened in 1867.

The winter garden: diplomatic cacti

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Mexican Embassy cacti, Library of Congress“Mexican ambassador Don Manuel Tellez standing amidst potted cacti in the embassy’s conservatory, Washington, D.C.,” ca. 1925, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Amb. and artist in cactus garden, Mexican Amb.'s residence, via Library of CongressR.G. Gunther, a Mexican artist, and the Secretary of the Embassy, M.Y. DeNegu, among the cacti on May 28, 1929, also via Library of Congress.

More winter gardens are here.

After she left he bought another cactus
just like the one she’d bought him
in the airport in Marrakesh. . .

Next week he was back for another, then another. . .

— Matthew Sweeney, from “Cacti“