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A look at the architecture in historic Charlestown, MA, with side trips to other amazing buildings, alive or dead, in other parts of the country.
Devens Street
My favorite half-a-house
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Torpedo Factory
In Alexandria, Virginia what was once a giant torpedo factory is now a giant art center with 82 artists' studios and 500,000 visitors every year.
On a much smaller scale, there is in Charlestown the StoveFactory Gallery, a factory remade into a gallery and several artists' studios. I wonder if we were to search the entire U.S., how many factories become studios we might find.
On a much smaller scale, there is in Charlestown the StoveFactory Gallery, a factory remade into a gallery and several artists' studios. I wonder if we were to search the entire U.S., how many factories become studios we might find.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Why I created 'At This Address'
Several months ago an editor from the on-line PATCH e-mailed me to see if I'd like to write for them. She had seen some of my Examiner posts and thought I might bring an interesting point of view to a new Charlestown Patch, since I was a Charlestown native. She was great and open and asked what I'd be interested in writing about. For Examiner I'd been writing about Arts & Entertainment but I really wanted to write about the buildings in Charlestown, especially the ones, like the Armory on Bunker Hill and the Rope Walk in the Navy Yard, odd looking buildings that had always intrigued me. The editor said it was a great idea and while I was deciding which structure to study first something interesting happened. On Bunker Hill Street, in front of the house where I'd grown up, where there had been a vacant lot all my life, suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, there appeared this three story monstrosity. (See picture below) Sure, I'd noticed them digging holes in the lot, next to the abandoned five and dime, but it would take months, wouldn't it, for a building to get there?
Turns out it was a pre-fab, trucked in from a factory in Pennsylvania, and designed by one of the guys who bought the empty lot. I decided to write about this house first; to let this misshapen, out of proportion to anything around it and selling for $2 million condo at 235 Bunker Hill lead the charge. And I'm grateful to it, for in its warped, rude, 'show-off' presence, it has led me to explore all that is beautiful, historic and most times elegant about Charlestown's lovely, smiling buildings.
"At this Address" shows up weekly at charlestown.patch.com. I don't want the blog to be just a repetition of what I'm posting there. I want to blog about beautiful buildings that have disappeared, like the Root House in Buffalo, or have been reinvented into new vibrancy, like the Torpedo Factory in Arlington, Virginia. This is what I want to do.
(You can click on the photos for more information)
Turns out it was a pre-fab, trucked in from a factory in Pennsylvania, and designed by one of the guys who bought the empty lot. I decided to write about this house first; to let this misshapen, out of proportion to anything around it and selling for $2 million condo at 235 Bunker Hill lead the charge. And I'm grateful to it, for in its warped, rude, 'show-off' presence, it has led me to explore all that is beautiful, historic and most times elegant about Charlestown's lovely, smiling buildings.
"At this Address" shows up weekly at charlestown.patch.com. I don't want the blog to be just a repetition of what I'm posting there. I want to blog about beautiful buildings that have disappeared, like the Root House in Buffalo, or have been reinvented into new vibrancy, like the Torpedo Factory in Arlington, Virginia. This is what I want to do.
(You can click on the photos for more information)
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