Falmanac: All history is local
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Tian Tian, the adult male panda at the National Zoo in D.C., was reunited with his mate/buddy Mei Xiang for a short visit the other day. They had to do something as Tian Tian has been suffering from "stereotypical behavior" recently. In other words he's bored and it's making him neurotic.
And speaking of stereotyping, does it sometimes seem like the zoo staff likes to project their frustrations with men in general on poor Tian? He's a deadbeat dad, all he does is lay around and eat, he didn't take a Lamaze class. What's a poor bear to do? Even worse, it may turn out that pandas, at least some of them, aren't "solitary creatures" at all. A recent report from China tells how scientists have found whole panda communities living in large groups centered around caves in the mountains. This may apply doubly to Tian Tian who was raised at the communal panda breeding center at Woolong. So the next time you're at the National Zoo, send some happy thoughts towards Tiany - a solitary and perhaps, lonely creature.
I can't think of a better place to hold a funeral than at the Watters Meetinghouse. If there is a more desolate spot in Maryland, I am unaware of it. The meetinghouse (aka Thomas Run Church) was built in the 1840's, replacing an earlier structure that dates back to the late 18th century. You can read all about its history here. The building has been described as Greek Revival, but that's a bit of a stretch IMHO; I think it's better described as a box with holes in it. Anyway, the building and setting combined make for one stark setting.
"St. Patrick's chapel never grew past its two rows of pews. Of the six mission churches started by St. Ignatius in the Harford County town of Hickory, the tiny Cecil County chapel near Conowingo is the only one that never expanded or flourished as an independent parish. That's according to William Pare, treasurer of the St. Patrick's Chapel Historical Society, an organization raising money to repair and preserve a chapel built by Irish immigrants nearly 188 years ago." Read on. For more pictures of St. Patrick's chapel see our post here.
Both of these old bank buildings sit near the NCR trail in Baltimore County. They represent a time when money was counted out in paper and before there was an FDIC. Does anybody use paper money anymore? I keep a few dollars in my wallet, in case I stop at the Waffle House, and that's about it.
I thought this was a school house when I first saw it; turns out to be a horse stable, ca 1857.
Hampton National Historic Site Canon 5D ©2007 Falmanac
Somewhere between York Road and the NCR trail, around Monkton or White Hall, sits this old building. I'm gonna assume it was a school. Anybody know for sure?
Many Marylanders associate the Baltimore Ravens name with Edgar Allen Poe, but that's not the real story, or at least not the whole story.
Only 5,875,200 seconds until Spring, assuming you read this at midnight, and now it's even less. A mere 68 days.
Fallston, MD Canon EOS 5D ©2007 falmanac
Eden Mill bill's itself as a nature center, and I'm sure it's a very good one, but I never think of nature when I'm there - I think of Charles Dickens. With it's big blue mill sitting there in a dark hollow, and the ritzy owner's mansion sitting right on top of the place, it's hard not to think of Oliver Twist or Great Expectations. I'm always half expecting to see some creepy girl staring out of one of the mansion windows.
Back in town, there's a local theme restaurant chain made up to look like a 19th century coal mine. I find it appalling. Nobody else seems to mind. Maybe I'm just a wet blanket.
Towson, MD (Baltimore Sun) - Orange construction netting surrounds the 18th-century mansion. Plaster dust has crumbled to the floors in the once-stately rooms. Paint is peeling on the grand exterior doors and along the handcrafted moldings. But still, Greg McGuire has something to show off.
The crews are more than half-done with the renovations to the Georgian mansion at the Hampton National Historic Site, says McGuire, the facilities manager, as he surveys the drilling through a second-floor ceiling.A new air conditioning and heating system is being installed, and cosmetic repairs are to follow, as part of the $1.6 million project. National Park Service employees and volunteers are beginning to plan the reopening of the 33-room mansion this year. Read on.
"Unlike many other areas of the state, Baltimore County has remained a home to industry during the modern period. Many of the old industrial complexes were converted to new uses. In the 1930s the Reifschnider Company began to manufacture piston rings in the old Franklinville Cotton Factory. During the late 1940s and early 1950s the plant was a plastic manufactory, and beginning in 1954 the Belko Corporation used it to produce rubber belting products." - from A Historic Context for the Archaeology of Industrial Labor in the State of Maryland by Robert C. Chidester.
