When it comes to new additions on old buildings, historic preservationists skew into two camps: (1) that the addition should look similar to the historic building, and (2) that the should addition look different. It is a continuum, of course, and many people may find they stand somewhere in the middle. Additions should be compatible… Read More Historic Preservation’s Addition Dilemma
Between his childhood in Kentucky and his years in Springfield, Illinois, the later President Abraham Lincoln lived in the tiny river-front town of New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln first passed through New Salem on a flatboat, en route to New Orleans on the Sangamon River. He moved to New Salem shortly after when, in 1831 and… Read More A President You’ve Heard of in a Town You Probably Haven’t
Painted signs on buildings were the billboards of the nineteenth century. They could be large and numerous. Today, reminders of these signs grace older buildings throughout cities from London to Chicago in the form of “ghost signs“: faded remnants of painted signs that disappear a little more each year. In most cases these signs are… Read More Lincoln’s Law Office: Bringing Ghost Signs Back to Life
Susie Trexler 