Last week I spent a long weekend in Vermont. It was beautiful and the fall color stuck around just long enough for us to see it. Woodstock, Vermont, has made it onto my blog before but my focus was Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Today I’m bringing you on a little trip through the town of… Read More Views of Vermont
Chicago’s alleys were not always paved with asphalt, or even brick cobbles. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, efforts to find economical materials led to Chicago’s streets being paved with wood. Paving with wood blocks was developed in the mid 19th century by a Boston builder, and by 1871 more than… Read More Chicago’s Wood Alleys
Now that October is in full swing and I’ve been admiring the decorated front porches around Chicago, I thought it would be fun to team up with Deb Cohen from the Front Door Project (check out her beautiful Instagram here) and feature some of her favorite front doors in Connecticut, a state that really knows how… Read More Front Doors of Fall
When I read early this summer that Chicago had a 120-year-old El station, right in the Loop, I knew I had to make a visit. I finally made the trip this weekend and could not be more excited to have found the gem that is Quincy Station. Quincy Station was one of three El stations… Read More Chicago’s 120-Year-Old El Station
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Oak Park lately, and one of the things I’ve found to be the most interesting is comparing houses of different styles but similar time periods. This is, after all, the neighborhood of Frank Lloyd Wright where the Prairie style was born. Not everyone was interested in the… Read More What Came Before Prairie Style
Donner Pass, just west of the California and Nevada border, is perhaps best known in history for the Donner Party and today for its large ski community. The area, however, has a rich and varied history, much of which is easily visible from the Old Donner Donner Pass Road. Donner Pass has petroglyphs visible just… Read More California’s Chinese Wall
The thing that fascinates me most about Second Empire style (most identifiable by those mansard roofs) is how quickly it went from huge popularity to disfavor in the United States. Second Empire, which drew from contemporaneous French building fashions, was the dominant residential style in the United States 1860-1880. It was also used in a… Read More Second Empire in the 21st Century
I started off my summer with a road trip from Seattle to Chicago and featured my favorite roadside motel in July. So now that it’s Labor Day and summer is winding down, it’s only fitting to share this little gas station I stopped to visit on my trip to Reno/Tahoe last week. Rocovits’ Gas… Read More A Century Ago on First Street
Tucked close to the water between steep granite slopes and the azure water of Lake Tahoe is a 1929 Scandinavian estate known as Vikingsholm. The wood and stone castle-like summer home was commissioned by millionaire Lora Josephine Knight. The estate sits within Tahoe’s picturesque Emerald Bay, which reminded Knight of the Scandinavian fjords. Although… Read More Vikingsholm: Tahoe’s Piece of Scandinavia
I came across this cottage-like building on a walk through Lincoln Park recently and ventured over for a closer look. Turns out this modest cottage packs a punch: not only was it built in 1888, it was designed by Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Silsbee designed a wealth of buildings in Chicago and beyond but… Read More Spotted: Joseph Lyman Silsbee in Lincoln Park
Susie Trexler 