Ask around in the historic preservation / architectural history field about folks’ favorite conferences, and invariably you’ll get the same reply: “VAF!!” There’s a reason attending the Vernacular Architecture Forum conference is a beloved ritual for many–the field trips. You get to access little-seen spaces and privately-owned historic properties, the equivalent of a back-stage V.I.P. pass for your favorite band. Seeing and discussing these incredible places in the friendly company of other architectural historians, preservationists, historic site directors, and academics (this year I met a historical geographer and a medievalist) makes for an invaluable learning experience. Continue reading →

In my ongoing research on ice houses, the apparent lack of clear building trends within time periods and geographic regions continues to frustrate me. I originally conceived of my research project with the goal of developing a typology of Potomac Valley ice houses and delineating general construction periods to assist architectural historians and archaeologists. With supporting field work data, perhaps ice house or ice well remnants could be identified and dated via the shape or dimensions of the pit, construction materials, or other factors.

As far as outbuildings go, it’s a simple structure with one purpose: to preserve a huge pile of ice as long as possible, ideally until the following Winter. How much variation could there really be? British ice houses almost always took the form of a large conical brick-lined pit, covered with an earthen mound (which could also serve as a garden mount), revetted into a hillside, or covered with a conical thatched roof. One would expect to find these traditional forms prevalent among the early ice houses in America. Indeed, earthen mound or hillside ice wells can be found at the Governor’s Palace at Colonial Williamsburg (early 1700s), possibly the Oxon Hill Manor archeological site (18th c.), Hampton in Towson, Maryland (1790s), Lexington Manor archeological site in Lorton, Virginia (1790s), and Huntley in Alexandria, Virginia (1820s). However, my preliminary research and field work is turning up examples of subterranean conical or circular ice wells built long after the agricultural advice literature proclaimed them obsolete and unnecessarily expensive compared to square ice wells or double-walled above-ground ice houses. As early as 1806, Frederic Tudor, the first American ice merchant, proclaimed traditional subterranean ice house construction obsolete, and subsequently built the first of many above-ground commercial ice houses. American farmers, however, seem to have avoided this “new” type of ice house construction until after the Civil War. Continue reading →

“The days are long but the years are short.” I’ve often heard this said about parenthood, especially the early years, but I think it applies to life in general just as well. Somehow, over five years has gone by since the last time I posted to this blog. I had launched it not long after getting my Master’s degree, as a way to keep my writing skills fresh while job hunting. I also wanted to continue researching 20th-century prefab housing–the topic of my thesis–and needed a way to quickly share new bits and pieces that would hopefully help others in the preservation community and general public.

Fast forward five years, after working as an architectural historian/planner with an environmental services firm, having kids, losing sleep (re: kids), staying home with kids, working on a few research projects, moving to a new house, and changing my web hosting provider, I think I’m ready to put this blog back online. Continue reading →

The 2010 Vernacular Architecture Forum conference, “Housing Washington,” has sadly drawn to a close. I’ve heard from many in the architectural history and preservation fields that VAF conferences are their favorite, and now I understand why. A great balance of bus tours, walking tours, and sessions of three 20-minute presentations grouped by theme keeps things moving and interesting.

As for me, I somehow managed to get through my presentation, “Postwar Prefabs in the Washington, D.C., Suburbs: The Mass-Production Success of Vernacular Prefab Homes,” without dry heaves or hyperventilating. Many thanks to session moderator Janet Foster, of Columbia University, and the other session presenters, Nancy Holst and Erin Cunningham, for providing a supportive, collegiate atmosphere.

I was pleasantly surprised at the interest the audience showed in my topic — more historians have begun to take interest in the prefab homes in their own postwar suburbs. Continue reading →

Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ; architect Eero Saarinen. Photo by Flickr user “sodapop.” CC BY-ND 2.0

With the increase in preservation of 20th-century historic sites has come a parallel rise in  preservation efforts for buildings and places that played host to some of the greatest innovations in science & technology.  As a former digital content manager, married to a computer programmer who’s nuts about science, I’ve been following with interest the efforts to preserve Nikola Tesla’s 1902 Lab on Long Island and the Eero Saarinen-designed Bell Labs in New Jersey, the site of significant research leading to the computer and cellphone.

Now tech history buffs have a new guidebook, The Geek Atlas. A BBC News story, “Follow in the footsteps of geeks,” features this new travel guide that highlights important science & tech history sites across the globe. Although heavy on places in the UK, the guide includes sites such as the White Sands missile testing range in New Mexico and the Jacquard Museum in Roubaix, France, with exhibits on punched-card weaving technology, predecessor to the modern computer. Each entry in the book includes background info and precise GPS coordinates, natch.

BBC journalist Bill Thompson says, “It’s our geek heritage, and the more we make people aware of it the more likely it is to be preserved in some way.”

Read the full BBC article >