“Thebideau cabin,” near Franklin, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston for her Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The front yard is very neat. Two old tires protect the daisies and the little tree.
A repeat porch from June 2014. . .
“Remains of log dogtrot house near Webberville Road. . . Austin Texas,” 1935, probably by Fannie Ratchford, via Texas State Archives.
Unfortunately, it’s a little out of focus, but still beautiful.
. . . I woo the wind
That still delays his coming. Why so slow,
Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?
Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth
Coolness and life!— William Cullen Bryant, from “Summer Wind“
The Ramsey-Jones-Bonner House, Oak Hill, Alabama, March 24, 1937, by Alex Bush for an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all photos here).
A nice front porch, but not especially interesting — except that it is a Carolina (or rain) porch.
Its columns rest on masonry bases set “directly on the ground . . . in front of the foundation of the porch floor. This is a distinctive regional characteristic,” according to the registration form (1998) for the National Register of Historic Places for the Oak Hill Historic District.
The back porch, however, is more unusual.
“[The] rear wings have integral recessed porches facing inward and creating an atrium-like space which has been roofed [with] corrugated metal. . . . [The] . . . first floor [is] essentially an enclosed dogtrot. . . .”
The house was built in 1836 by Abiezer Clarke Ramsey, a school teacher and Methodist circuit rider. In 1937, he married Elizabeth Amanda Wardlaw, a widow with four children. She and Abiezer had seven more before her death in 1854.
The house still stands in the Oak Hill Historic District.
Continue reading “The Sunday porch: Oak Hill, Alabama”
“Remains of log dogtrot house near Webberville Road. . . Austin Texas,” 1935, probably by Fannie Ratchford, via Texas State Archives.
Unfortunately, it’s a little out of focus, but still beautiful.
. . . I woo the wind
That still delays his coming. Why so slow,
Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?
Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth
Coolness and life!
— William Cullen Bryant, from “Summer Wind“
“Unidentified Dogtrot* House” in Texas (exact location unknown), 1935, probably** taken by Fanny Ratchford, via Texas State Archives Commons on flickr.
Fannie Elizabeth Ratchford was a librarian who worked in the rare books collection of the University of Texas at Austin from 1919 to 1957. During the 1930s and 40s, she also began to put together a photographic and data survey of 19th c. Texas architecture.
Unfortunately, she ran out of time and funding before the planned book could be assembled and published. Her images, correspondence, questionnaires, and lists were donated to the Texas State Archives. Only the photos are available online, but they are wonderful. I’ll post some more in the coming weeks.
They sang Green, Green Grass of Home.
They sang Ne Me Quitte Pas beneath mesquite.— Ange Mlinko, from “Escape Architecture“
*More about dogtrot houses in Texas here.
**According to an email from the Archives: “Although the majority of the images within our Fannie Ratchford photograph collection were taken by Ratchford, she also acquired photographs from the Historic American Building Survey [HABS] as well as other photographers.”
enclos*ure 