“Waiters at Day and Brothers Ice Cream Saloon,” 1880, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, by William H. Stauffer, via Robert Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views, The New York Public Library.
The image is not very clear, but it looks like a fun place. The same company still exists at the location shown above as Day’s Ice Cream. It is Ocean Grove‘s oldest continuously operating business.
“Plants in window of farm home. Greene County, Iowa,” 1940, by John Vachon, via Library of Congress Photographs Division.
The pleasure of working outside is only matched by the pleasure of dreaming inside.
In Basel, Switzerland, the day after Thanksgiving, we went looking for lunch and ended up at the very pretty bistro of the Museum of Culture — located on the same square as the Münster.
The museum posters decorating the café were so interesting that we decided to go next door (above, left side) and take a look.
Given the quiet, very traditional appearance of the street entrance, we were completely surprised by what we found on the other side of the archway.
In an enclosed courtyard, seven, four-story tall columns of plants hang from the deep eave of an irregularly folded roof of glistening ceramic tiles.
The museum* is 166 years old and houses a current collection of over 300,000 ethnographic artifacts from around the world. The hanging columns were installed in 2011, part of an extensive renovation of the building by Herzog & de Meuron.
To scroll through larger versions of the photos (and several more), click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail in the gallery.
Next: more about the Schürhof, the sloping courtyard below the columns.
*Admission to the Museum der Kulturen is about $16, but the last hour of the day (4:00 – 5:00 p.m.) is free. This is plenty of time to see the large room of Medieval and Renaissance art displayed there until the prestigious Kunstmuseum Basel, currently being renovated, reopens in 2016. (You can also see some of its late 19th century and early modernist art at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst or Contemporary Art until February 21, 2016. The Gegenwartskunst also has a small exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Cy Twombly until March 13. Admission is free.)
More well-furnished porches in Queensland, Australia. . .
“Verandah at The Hollow, near Mackay, Queensland, about 1875,” photographer unidentified (all photos here), via State Library of Queensland Commons on flickr (all photos here).
I love the office setup on this very deep porch with an adjoining fernery or bush-house. There is also a sewing machine on the table between the two women.
These photos are not very clear, but you can click any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger versions. There are four additional pictures there too.
“Unidentified family on the verandah of a Cairns residence, ca. 1895.”
What a beautiful plant collection.
“Furniture on the verandah of a Queenslander home, ca. 1925,” photographer unidentified.
The white chairs on the left with the extended armrests are “squatter’s chairs,” typical to Queensland porches. There are two more examples here.
Additional links:
Gracemere Homestead 1940 photo, Rockhampton, Gracemere Homestead in 2001, GracemereHomestead history
Grape vines over the porch of an old outbuilding at Struan, Arden, North Carolina, 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Detail of the above; note the potted plants on the old ladder.
By the time Johnston photographed the old plantation of Struan for her Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, the property had been a school for boys, Christ School, for 38 years.
enclos*ure 