Monday, June 28, 2010

Coincidence and Architecture

I told you about the completely random event which connected us with grandkids while traveling a long way from home. Here we are visiting at Arby's. JoAnn and her great granddaughter, Mikayla.
Mikayla and Grandpa make paper "rings".

About thirty miles into the trip, we drove by a school where I taught back in the early sixties. Stopped to snap a shot. This typical late-fifties architecture has met the test of time. The building looks exactly as I remember it. It is still an educational facility, though now a parochial rather than public school.
While in Mt. Vernon we drove over to the Appellate Court House where I was able to get this night view of the proudly well-lighted building. This is a landmark in Jefferson County of which the locals are quite proud. The architecture is the Greek Revival style. The building was constructed in 1857. One claim to historical fame has Abraham Lincoln in the house in 1859, representing the Illinois Central Railroad in a tax case against the State of Illinois which the railroad won.
In 1888, Clara Barton supervised an emergency hospital which was set up in the building following the destruction wrought by a tornado in the community.

2 comments:

Lin said...

I don't like the architecture of those buildings back in the day. I know they stand the test of time, but they just look so "prisony" to me. Our kids' middle school was like that--it just looked plain ALL the time. Gimme the good stuff, Vanilla. You know--trims and fancy stuff to make it stand out.

vanilla said...

Lin--Ah, accurate observation. Plain vanilla architecture, but oh, the awe and wonder in Mr. L's classroom within!

(He who tooteth not his own horn, lo, the same shall not be tooted.--Gene Fowler)