Return to Millwood

So. It's been nearly a month since I got back. First things first, I suppose: finals went well, and my grades for the semester came back: As in American History, European History, Russian/Soviet History, and Historic Preservation, and a B in Art History. And yes, I made the Dean's List for the second time. So, I'm considering my first year of college a decent enough success, overall. 

I got back to New York late on May 12th, just in time for Rebz' prom on the 13th. She looked absolutely beautiful, as always. Went to her concert the next evening, and the next week or so was spent catching up with the high school friends who had gotten home by that time. Brendon had to leave again quite soon, as he is studying abroad in Japan for two months over the summer. Other than that, I've been spending most of my time desperately applying for any job I can get an application for, and writing to all the historical societies from the city to Dutchess County, as my plans for Ireland fell through. It's been discouraging, to say the least, but I'm still waiting to hear back from a few places, so... in the meantime, I suppose I'll keep bothering people. the New Castle Historical Society is looking pretty promising, and I've gotten calls from the Bedford Historical Society, as well as the Briarcliffe Historical Society, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Cambridge is still a plan, thank goodness. My sister got into a program at Oxford for the month of July, so the family (minus Nick) is going to pick her up on the 31st, and between then and the time I need to be at Cambridge (the 7th of August), I'll be vacationing with them. We'll be mostly in the Cotswolds, and after that, my family is going their own way for the rest of their vacation while I'm in class. 

Speaking of Cambridge, I've just gotten the list of required books I'm meant to read before taking the classes. There are thirteen of them. Books, I mean. If it weren't for the fact that I now have to order them from the Cambridge bookstore, and wait for them to arrive (or preferably find them at the local Library or on amazon.com), I would be the happiest person in the world. At the moment, I'm about half-way through "Anglo-Saxon England," by F. M. Stenton. It's going more slowly than I thought it would, but that's because I'm actually reading it-- not skimming it. The thing is, I actually know essentially nothing about the period between the re-call of the Roman troops to Rome, and the Norman conquest. So... it's proving really fascinating, of course! I'm just hoping that I'll be able to get through the rest of the books at a rate faster than 100 pages per day. Oh... by the way. The classes I'm taking are: 

The Making of England: Kings and Conquests, c. 600-1066

The Norman Conquest

England's First Heresy: John Wycliffe and Lollard Texts

English Radicals and Revolutionaries, 1376-1414

Anyway. It hasn't been all work, of course... 

My mum and I went to Stonecrop Garden in Cold Spring for Memorial Day... 

...and then walked around Cold Spring itself for a while. 

...and for a while I was really perturbed by this clock, painted on the window of a clock shop. The roman numeral for 4 is written as "IIII," and not as "IV" as I know is the correct way... I'll get to the rest of that story later.

Okay, so Rebz and I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art the next day (and I was very honored to be the first person to take her), and started wandering around the European Decorative Arts wing... and behold:

...again with the "IIII."

... and again. But anyway. More on that in a bit.

A piece of sculpture we came across in the Byzantine Art section, if I remember correctly... someone had carved their name into it in 1836. 

...yeah. The clock thing was really irking me.

Swagger portraits! (Yes. That's actually an official name for them.)

When/if I ever have money... I want this tea set.

We also went up to the rooftop garden, which was really lovely... it was actually the perfect day for it. Very warm, but too much so, clear, and very sunny.

...and we walked along Central Park back to Grand Central...

...but anyway. After agonizing over the "IIII" v. "IV" thing for two days, I finally looked it up... turns out that's just the way clocks are. Really anti-climactic end, but... whatever. Supposedly it has something to do with the symmetry of the clock face.

Yep. 

As you can probably tell, things have been moving really slowly so far... so if I don't post again until August, it's not because I'm forgetting to: it's because I actually have nothing to write about. Though I probably will. 

All my love,

Tasha

Fell's Point

Well, we did make it to Fell's Point!

I realized that I sort of mentioned that in passing without really explaining, so... Fell's Point is a Historic District in Baltimore, dating from 1763, which is known for it's bars and pubs, and among History students, for it's historical infamy as one, big, brothel, and for it's hooked shape.

But anyway. It's a very interesting area, partly because it was originally not part of Baltimore at all: in fact, it was quite a trip to get from one town to the other in the 18th century, as one would be traveling through swamp, essentially. Baltimore town was built on its now famous Inner Harbor, but the issue was that the Inner Harbor is actually quite shallow. Fell's Point, on the other hand, has a deep-water port, which made it relatively easy for large, ocean-going vessels to anchor there. So what ended up happening was that ships would anchor at Fell's Point, and unload their cargo onto smaller barges, which would take the goods to Baltimore. As a result, Fell's Point evolved as a more maritime community, where sailors lived between journeys (you can imagine for yourself what that community looked like), while Baltimore Town became inhabited by merchants and artisans, and was therefore somewhat more established and conservative.

Baltimore annexed Fell's Point in 1773, and that's where I'm going to leave the story until the 1900's, when much of Baltimore burned down. Fell's Point survived, making it one of the only areas where 18th century architecture survives in the city.

It was made into a Historic District in the 1960's, after it was almost destroyed to make way for a highway that was to be built through the area. There is a very long, dramatic, and fascinating story behind what I just summarized in one sentence, but I'll save that for another time.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a lot of pictures, but the cornices on some of the buildings are really beautiful. This is a relatively plain brick one, but most are made of wood, and can be very ornate.

Supposedly, this is the next project for the Fell's Point Preservation Society.

Anyway, I went there on a field trip with my Historic Preservation class this afternoon. One of the 3 people who work at the Fells Point Preservation Society is the head of the Graduate program in Historic Preservation at Goucher, so we got a private tour of one of the projects they are currently working on. The building is called "The Academy," for some unknown reason, since it was never at any point an academy... It was built in 1790, and many additions were made in the 1890's. A porch was added in the 1920's, but it has since been taken off, since the Preservation Society lacks the funds to restore it.

Currently, most of the house is down to the bare bones, so you can see the old wooden frame, and the nogging (essentially bricks that were laid to fill the spaces in the frame). The Baltimore area is very rich in clay, so naturally, one finds bricks being used quite a bit, even though it was porous and a rather unreliable building material in the 18th and 19th centuries. Usually, one finds brick being covered up by wood or by Form Stone (such as in the house above).

An original doorframe.

The plans.

The original staircase.

One can see some of the original nogging here. Apparently, they are going to keep part of this area uncovered, so visitors can see the different layers of the wall.

Wallpaper from the 1920's.

Some of the original roof.

A view from the back of the house. 

This is what is known as a sally port. The more recognized usage of the word describes a secure entrance, usually to a prison or a fort (and of course, Fort McHenry has many of them). These, however, are simply entrances to alleys that lead to the back of a house. Though I suppose they fit the definition of a "secure entrance." They would have to be, I assume.

If you're interested, Fell's Point has a website (and it's not purely about bars!) at http://www.fellspoint.us/ It's worth looking around the site-- they have some interesting videos on the architecture, and some really good stuff on the history of the area. Needless to say, I'm going to have to take another trip there on my own, so I can take my time with the place... and hopefully cover more than just one house.

Until next time, my love to all!

Tasha