last Tuesday: Fisher Building

[OT from cottage renovations]
[crossposted in part to doorwindowwall and itsinthedetails]

a few more details of the Fisher Building, as seen last week from the Library El station. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Chicago IL

( .. +3 .. )

last Wednesday: after the flight, before the train

[OT from cottage renovations]

Hartford has the crumbling sort of downtown that's struggling to find its way back to viability.  lots of tall buildings for those insurance companies, conterbalanced by the swaths cut through the heart of the city for freeways and the general decrepitude of what hasn't already been demolished.  it is to their credit that they are trying and a few signs of regeneration are bravely if tentatively visible. 

one part of the city centre that hasn't been unduly harmed in the name of progress is Bushnell Park.  though altered from its original plan it's still a neat open space and sports a couple of nifty features, one of which is the city's Civil War monument. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Bushnell Park,
Hartford CT

what a grand piece of 1880s design it is.  if a few features and embellishments are a good thing then, by golly, more of them are even better.  could it have been, one wonders, designed by a committee? 

( .. details .. )

Soldiers and Sailors Civil War monument

last Wednesday: circular bridle path

[OT from cottage renovations]

another Bushnell Park attraction is the old carousel.  clearly it has received a great deal of restoration effort. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Bushnell Park,
Hartford CT

it's housed in a round (or n-agonal) wooden structure quite evocative of E. Francis Baldwin's Mt. Clare shops in Baltimore, now the home of the B&O Museum.  there's much the same effect: lots of height into which heat could rise in the days before mechanical cooling, and an upper cupola with a ring of windows providing natural light to the interior of the structure at floor level (there was enough that I didn't have to resort to flash, but then had it not sufficed I wouldn't have taken these images). 

the stained glass panels topping the lower ring of windows appear to be of modern design and fabrication. 

if you don't want to get on a horse you can ride in style in one of two embellished carriages.  a twisting dragon, ocean waves, carved flowers and an Indian chief: the agglomeration of all these thematic elements can be completely dizzying even when the carousel is at rest. 

I certainly hope carouselrose sees these. 

young mother, younger rider.  it was interesting to catch the similarities of facial expression across generations. 

last Wednesday: wait for a while

[OT from cottage renovations]

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Springfield MA

at Springfield our train was obliged to await the arrival of its southbound counterpart which had experienced some sort of delays up the line.  the issue wasn't so much a need for it to vacate the track upon which we could run (that's what passing sidings are for) as an operational requirement to exchange engineers.  only the one who comes down from northern Vermont is qualified on the track N of Springfield. 

it was, in a way, refreshing to be taking a pause of indeterminate duration.  despite the presence of radio communications and the GPS units with which Amtrak locomotives are equipped, nobody seemed to have much of a clue as to when the other train might show up so the train crew advised passengers they were free to step out and walk around for a while. 

that provided an opportunity to walk down to the W end of the station for another look at a curious feature I'd noted as the train pulled in: up on track level was the steel framing of a structure whose roofing was long gone, replaced by trees of truly massive size. 

in the warm afternoon light of a bright sunny day the shoulder-high weeds, accretion of litter and drifts of broken glass did nothing to diminish the charm of the place.  the rusting I beams could have been the framework for a Tuscan grape arbor or a ramada in the Sonoran desert. 

what a pleasant site it would be for an outdoor café with a bocce court.  one could sit, take refreshment and watch the occasional passing train.  this option for adaptive reuse may not have occurred to the city's urban planners but other elements within the population seemed to have taken it into their own hands to bring it about in their own fashion. 

last Wednesday: Brattleboro

[OT from cottage renovations]

summer days are long enough that there was still a bit of light when the train got to Brattleboro.  a salient feature I recalled from previous visits is this stream, cheerfully rushing down a narrow defile before pooling into the Connecticut River and passing under the stone bridge that carries the B&M (now New England Central) tracks upriver. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Brattleboro VT

Whetstone Brook


railway viaduct

one can walk out onto the bridge over the Connecticut River ...

... and look back at Brattleboro's pretty spires.