Sad house

090726_23coudersport
Originally uploaded by lb_philly.

This was once the finest house in Coudersport, PA. Now, it's sandwiched into a small and irregular lot between a bowling alley and a concrete-lined ravine that holds the fledgling Allegheny River. That beige building to the left is the bowling alley and I don't think there is more than 24" between the two.

The original owner, F. W. Knox, was an attorney who in 19th century fashion did everything -- he helped organize the town and the local Presbyterian church and two railroads. Later the house became the Old Hickory Hotel and Tavern. Elliott Ness drank in the tavern regularly when he retired to Coudersport.

Now the building's fate is really questionable. If we had a bazillion dollars we'd buy it AND the bowling alley and knock the Old Hickory Lanes down.

Update

I edited and uploaded the last of my vacation photos. All 461 of them. All that remains is to make a few edits to the text and upload that in day-size bites. (I come by this honestly. The Aunties kept trip journals, too, although they pressed flowers, purchased commercial postcards and did little sketches instead of wailing away with a digital camera.)

We have workmen in the house right now, ripping out the loathsome jalousie windows in our dining room and kitchen (at last! after thirteen horrible years!) and replacing them with windows that can be tilted inside and washed from the inside.

Roy shot six rolls of film while we were on vacation, and also put 150 frames on his Blackberry. We can't figure out how to upload them to the computer, although he can always email them in batches, I suppose. His film (Provia and Velvia, not Kodachrome from The Last Brick) is back from the processor's. He sorted slides and we looked at about 60 last night. We had both forgotten how much we enjoy the kachunk sound the carousel makes as the slides change. O nostalgia, punctuated by a carousel bulb blowing out and the realization that we just installed our last one.

That is all.

For the steampunks on my f-list

090725_32lumbermuseum
Originally uploaded by lb_philly.

Mechanical governor on Barnhart's Log Loader, Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, July 25, 2009. I understand this sucker still works.

Oh crap.

Our new windows have made four windowsills between 1" and 2" shallower. I don't have to tell you what that means for my windowsill plants.

Also, we had to cut all the wisteria off the kitchen window so the guy could caulk. I know it will come back, but I surely miss the greenery.

My Vacation, Part 2 of 9 -- Wednesday, July 22

Woke up early and went outside to photograph the motel cabins in the early morning light because oh, my, it was so beautiful.

We went back to the Milford Diner for breakfast (French toast for Roy, primavera omelet for Laura) and then headed off to Grey Towers (http://www.fs.fed.us/na/gt/ ), summer home of Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the U.S. Forest Service and governor of Pennsylvania. Pinchot's grandfather amassed the family fortune by clearcutting hillsides and then selling the impoverished acres to unsuspecting immigrants. His father, appalled, went to New York to become a wallpaper dealer, and then encouraged young Gifford to pursue a career in forestry, then unknown in the U.S.


( more text and photos behind the cut )