Category: design

The Sunday porch: Eutaw

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Eutaw, S.C., 1938, Library of Congress“The Lodge” at Eutaw Plantation, Berkeley County, South Carolina, 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Eutaw Plantation, South Carolina, 1938, via Library of Congress
The plantation was established by William and Elizabeth Sinkler in the early 1800s.  Their descendants owned it until the 1940s, when the South Carolina Public Service Authority flooded the area to build the Santee Cooper hydroelectric project.  The estate now lies beneath Lake Marion.

The Lodge — built to resemble a Greek temple — was used as a medical office by a physician member of the family.

I came to explore the wreck. . . .
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.

— Adrienne Rich, from “Diving into the Wreck“

A study in steps: pink umbrella

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A glimpse of an old Japanese garden. . .

Steps in a Japanese garden, ca. 1900, Natl. Museum of DenmarkA hand-colored photo taken between 1860 and 1910, from a collection that belonged to journalist Holger Rosenberg,  via National Museum of Denmark.

Unfortunately, the museum does not have any other information about this image.

When has an umbrella ever
Kept the rain and the mist from entering a heart
And shaking it with dreams?

— Luis Muñoz Marin, from “Umbrella“

Life in gardens: sod roof oven

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Breadbaking, West Jutland, 1929, National Museum of DenmarkBaking bread on a small farm on the moor in Koelvraa, West Jutland, Denmark, 1929, by Kai Uldall via National Museum of Denmark Commons on flickr (all photos here).

Click on the images to enlarge them. I would love to visit this landscape.

Breadbaking, West Jutland, 1929, National Museum of DenmarkTaking the bread out of the sod-covered oven.

Breadbaking, West Jutland, 1929, National Museum of Denmark, slightly croppedBread cooling in a bed (photo cropped slightly by me).

Was that where the three women worked baking bread? —
Where they began at morning, by their fire under the wet boughs.
And laid the loaves in the sun?

— H. L. Davis, from “Baking Bread“

Vintage landscape: begonias

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A little Monday morning pink and white…

Flowers in a Greenhouse, early 20 c., Te Papa“Flowers in a greenhouse,” between 1900 and 1930, an autochrome by James W. Chapman-Taylor, via Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand)

Begonia House, c. 1913, via Te Papa“Begonia House, Domain Gardens, Auckland,” 1915, an autochrome by Robert Walrond, via Te Papa Tongarewa.

The irresistible and benevolent light
brushes through the angel-wing begonias. . .

The blooms are articulate deluge. . .

Elizabeth Woody, from “Illumination“

The Sunday porch: wisteria par excellence

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In honor of the wisteria now beginning to bloom in many regions, here is a Sunday porch redux from 2013:

On abandon, uncalled for but called forth. . . .*

full cropped

I think this is the loveliest wisteria I have ever seen.  It grew on the porch columns of “Wisteria House,” at Massachusetts Avenue and Eleventh Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. The photo was taken in 1919, by Martin A. Gruber.**

The house was torn down in 1924 to make room for the Wisteria Mansion apartment building.

Wisteria House detail, 1919, via Smithsonian Institution Commons

A naval officer brought the vine from China and gave it to the owner of the house, probably during the 1860s, according to the blog Greater Greater Washington.

Wisteria House, Harris & Ewing photo

The Harris & Ewing** photo above, taken between 1910 and 1920, shows the trunks of the (one?) plant emerging through openings at the base of the porch.  The house was built in 1863, and the two-story portico was added in 1869 — so it looks like the wisteria was planted between those years and protected during the construction.

Wisteria House, LOC photo

The National Photo Company image above shows the house about 1920.

*Lucie Brock-Broido, from “Extreme Wisteria“

**Top and second (a detail of the first) photos via the Smithsonian Institution Archives Commons on flickr.  Third and fourth photos via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.