What is Westminster, Maryland’s claim to fame? Besides being my childhood hometown, it was where county-wide Rural Free Delivery began on December 20, 1899. Mailboxes from the era are contained in both the collections of the Historical Society of Carroll … Continue reading
DC’s downtown streetscapes are being resuscitated in scraps and snippets. Whitewashing idealism and urban renewal threatened to wipe clean the historical texture of the scrappy American capital throughout the 20th century. Historic buildings that once didn’t fit model image of America of … Continue reading
It’s a little bit untrue to title this small volume solely a book. It caught my eye while I was perusing the stacks last week at the New York Society Library. I love small books – they are a small … Continue reading
Amtrak has built some humdingers of depressing rail stations over its forty year history. Compare the current Cleveland, Ohio shed where passengers now alight, compared to the glorious Terminal Tower. Recently, I switched trains at Springfield, Massachusetts. A grim 1970s … Continue reading
One of the premier names in architecture criticism passed this Monday, at the age of 91. Ada Louise Huxtable was the first full-time architecture critic for the New York Times, joining the newspaper in 1963 (see her obituary in the … Continue reading
My brother Mr. F is Cleveland’s Man about Town. During my May visit, he toured me around a number of sites and neighborhoods, including Shaker Square, downtown, Detroit Seaway, and Cleveland’s West Side Market. I knew zip about Cleveland, beyond … Continue reading
I read Allison Arieff’s New York Times Opinionator article “How Small is Too Small?” with a somewhat familiar perspective. I live in Manhattan, in a 450 square foot apartment. I get small. But I’d be hard pressed to get smaller. … Continue reading
No, we aren’t looking to move! But I was flipping through a book in which I kept notes about my apartment hunt in 2005. I had 54 apartments on my list and looked at 30 of them – yep, 30 … Continue reading
If you go to downtown Baltimore today, you’ll notice a few things. The Roush Company’s Harborplace “festival marketplaces” still limp along at the waterfront, but their integral role in pulling Baltimore through the 1980s is respected. There are several business … Continue reading
There is one redeeming thing about the current New York Penn Station – it’s Penn Sushi. They have great inari sushi. I always stop in to see the very friendly staff and pick up sushi whenever I travel by train. … Continue reading