Route 66 has many siblings

While Route 66 is an interesting and picturesque old highway, it wasn't the only one built in that era, nor is it the only one remaining. Indeed, the odds are very good that an old U.S. Route isn't too far from where you live today, and it's probably chock full of decrepit old motels and ramshackle tourist traps.
A few of my favorites are U.S. Route 40 in Maryland, US 11 in Virginia, Route 30 (The Lincoln Highway) in Pennsylvania, and the true "mother road" - U.S. 1, which stretches from Maine to the Florida Keys.
There are many others and they are all rapidly changing. The time to explore these places is now, before they disappear entirely.

Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico

US 40, Aberdeen, Maryland

U.S. Route 1, Florida Keys

Photos © QR AI/Nightening/MDRails

Cameras: Canon EOS 10D, 5D, 20D respectively. (The Canon 20D remains my favorite.)

Sundown on the rancher

"Home buyers' affair with modernistic design is over. When I leaf through a directory of one big home builder's current models, I notice that all the houses have similar architectural features: pitched roofs, gables, dormers, bay windows, keystones, shutters, porches, and paneled doors.
Americans' fondness for such conventional imagery is characterized by some critics as nostalgic and retrograde. In fact, it represents a long domestic tradition that extends to colonial New England and Virginia. In that history, the brief fling with the rancher was an anomaly."
- Witold Rybczynski

Decay threatens important Baltimore history archives

"Among the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s little-known treasures are the vertical files in the Maryland department. They hold 7,000 large envelopes full of yellowing newspaper clippings, reports and documents detailing Baltimore’s life and development, mostly from the 1930s to the 1980s.
For information about Baltimore during World War II or about the city’s housing and education problems, visiting the vertical files is mandatory.
Over the years, the vertical files have spawned innumerable books, dissertations and term papers. But many of those brittle files are literally turning to dust." Read on.

Bush Forest Chapel

© Pat Depkin 2007

Old House #17

This house doesn't look very old, until you notice the chimney. It sits in the old mill village of Franklinville, Maryland.

Tenement

Bel Air, Maryland

Canon 20D ©2007 Kim Choate

The springhouse at Tudor Hall

Tudor Hall, Bel Air, Maryland (vicinity)

Canon 20D/5D ©2007 Kim Choate/falmanac

Country Churches: Rehoboth Welsh Calvinistic

" ... Welsh people began migrating to the Delta area and settling in a town they called West Bangor, after the well-known city in North Wales. Families began arriving in 1832 to set up basic slate mining operations. The first Peach Bottom quarry opened in 1835. Many laborers came to Delta in the 1840's, including John J. Humphreys, a successful plant operator and slate producer. With John J. Roberts financial backing and John Humphreys' experience, West Bangor became a leading industrial town and trading center along the Susquehanna River, second only to Peach Bottom (Delta)." Continued.

Canon EOS 5D ©2007 falmanac

Peach Bottom Township Recreation Center

I just always assumed the Peach Bottom Township Recreation Center, with its stucco face and bas-relief sculpture, was built in the 30's; it's got WPA written all over it. But I was wrong. From what I can gather, it was built in 1952 by the township, as a community center.
I'm still assuming the sculpture is made from "Maryland Green Marble," which was mined locally. I wonder who the artist was?

Canon 5D ©2007 falmanac

Local cable company declares War On Books

One of Cable's best kept secrets is Book TV, which airs every weekend on C-Span2. Well it did, until Comcast began preempting it with baseball.
And thank God for that; for too long the MSM has clogged our airways with nothing but books, books, books. How much learning can this poor Baltimoron be expected to take?
I, for one, welcome our new sports overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted local blogger, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground souvenir caves.
For you book huggers out there, Comcast has, very quietly, offered the following: In an effort to address subscriber concerns, Comcast promised to air C-SPAN2 on a digital tier without interruption. Analog subscribers -- about one-half of the 2.2 million subscribers affected by Comcast's programming change -- may obtain digital boxes to receive C-SPAN2 at no extra programming charge.
“They will not need to change their level of service,” said Beth Bacha, vice president of communications for Comcast Cable’s Eastern division. Comcast will lease a digital set-top box “for at most $1,” she added.