“Flowers planted around Spyglass homes built on a terraced hillside[, Los Angeles], May 1975.”
This photo was taken by Charles O’Rear for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography program of the Environmental Protection Agency.
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
Laundry hanging from triple-decker porches in East Boston near Logan Airport, May 1973.
“From the rear porch of his home at the southern corner of Neptune and Lovell Streets, Larry Vienza watches jet take off from Runway 15r-33l. Once airborne, the jet will fly directly over his house, May 1973” (with photographer’s caption).
These photos* were taken by Michael Philip Manheim, for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography project of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The East Boston neighborhood was devastated by the noise from Logan airport’s expansion in the 1960s and 70s. (See Friday’s post, “Neptune Road.”)
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
*Via the U.S. National Archives Commons on flickr.
Scratched into a sitting room window pane of Borough House, which was built between 1758 and 1821 in Sumter County, South Carolina.
The words (with slight variations) are from “Sonnet II” by Charlotte Smith — whose poems were praised by her contemporaries Wordsworth and Coleridge.
I have not been able to find out who might have put them on the window.
Borough House is architecturally noteworthy because it is partly constructed with rammed earth — an unusual building material in the United States. (There is more about the house here.) It still stands today, in private ownership.
(I believe that the window with the poem is one of the two left of the front door.)
The photos here are part of an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), May 1985, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Inexpensive retirement hotels are a hallmark of the South Beach area [of Miami Beach, Florida]. A favored place is the front porch, where residents sit and chat or watch the activities on the beach.”
These c. 1975 pictures* (shown here with their original captions) were taken by Flip Schulke for DOCUMERICA — a photography program created in late 1971 by the brand new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA hired over 100 photographers to “document subjects of environmental concern.” The work continued until 1977 and left behind an archive of about 20,000 images.
In addition to recording damage to the nation’s landscapes, the project captured “the era’s trends, fashions, problems, and achievements,” according to the U.S. National Archives, which held an exhibit of the photos, “Searching for the Seventies,” in 2013.
“One of the many residential hotels for retired people living on small incomes. . . . The front porch is a favorite retreat.”
“Income of the retirees in this area is not high, and most live in residential hotels such as the one pictured here.”
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
*Via the U.S. National Archives Commons on flickr.
Today, I’m repeating a porch from August 2012, but it is a nice one. (We were traveling this weekend.)
“Cottages at Maplewood [Waseca, Minnesota],” c.1880-c.1899. By Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.*
Maplewood Park on Clear Lake was a national vacation attraction at the end of the nineteenth century. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)
Above: Maplewood’s pavilion for Chautaquas. From the 1870s to 1920s, the Chautaqua movement brought speakers and companies of musicians, dancers, and actors to camps like Maplewood for up to a week at a time.
The Waseca Historical Society still hosts a Chautaqua at Maplewood Park every July.
To read about a similar sort of summer cabin living, which also continues today, see this 2012 New York Times article, here.
Above: the view of Clear Lake from Maplewood.
*All photos here: c.1880 – c.1899, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
enclos*ure 