Back at the very beginning of the COVID pandemic in mid-March 2020, I had a short-notice call from my colleague Amy Cole Ives at Sutherland Conservation and Consulting about the HABS/HAER photography of the Machine Tool Lab at the University of Maine at Orono. This little Art Deco gem in the middle of the campus …
In 2020, on behalf of Outside The Box LLC, I was contracted by NASA to provide the HABS/HAER photography and research of a portion of the White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, NM. The object was to document Test Stand 302, a component of the 300 Area, that was built for the Apollo lunar …
Whenever I receive a call from my colleague Mike Franklin, an independent real estate broker, I snap to attention. As a specialist in marketing historic properties that fall outside the realm of most real estate agents, he runs across some amazing properties. As a passionate advocate for the preservation of historic buildings, he appreciates the …
Minidoka National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park System that commemorates the forced relocation and incarceration of more than 100,000 American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 gave rise to virulent anti-Japanese sentiments, and the military and federal officials immediately began …
In September 2019 I traveled out to southwestern Minnesota to visit Pipestone National Monument. This unit of the National Park System was created in 1937 in large part to preserve the pipestone (Sioux argillite, also known as catlinite) which American Indians have quarried here for at least two millennia. It is a sacred site for …
The Great New York State Fair is a focal point in the annual calendar of rural New York State. Coming at the very end of August and ending on Labor Day, it is a riotous and fitting way to bring the summer season to a close. With my wife volunteering at the Wool Center, I …
In May 2019 I had the chance to attend the Michigan Historic Preservation Network‘s annual conference. The conference was held in the historic city of Holland, MI, and I was hooked. It is a beautiful small city, with a fantastic historic district. I brought my 4×5 camera with me, and was able to take some …
The Lehigh Valley Railroad Roundhouse was built in 1916 in Manchester, NY, a small town between Rochester and Syracuse. This semicircular building once was a key part of the largest freight yard and locomotive service facility in the world. Almost 450 feet across, the inner part of the semicircle contains 30 service bays where railroad …
The Seven to Save list which was released by the Preservation League of New York State in 2016 included this architectural landmark, the Dutch Reformed Church in Newburgh, NY. The City of Newburgh’s Planning Department arranged for me to see the interior of the church in late March of 2016 so that I could conduct …
Continuing my series of posts on the HABS/HAER photography that I did on a volunteer basis on behalf of the Preservation League of New York State. The second round of Seven to Save photographs that I did in 2018 included a category: Wells Barns. This was a fascinating experience, and gave me access to barns …