B Haley
@ghastlyfop
architectural historian, preservation planner, university lecturer
This is Spring Lawn in Lenox, ca. 1904, designed by Guy Lowell. The MA Dept of Conservation & Recreation has held an easement on the property for decades. They never enforced the terms of the easement requiring regular maintenance. Now they’ve approved demolition by the new owner. What’s the point?
This enormous secretary bookcase was made by Thomas Burling, and retains the label he used between 1786 and 1793. Burling made furniture for George Washington after he became president and for Thomas Jefferson to furnish Monticello. It sold today for $1800 in Columbus, Ohio 😵💫
This Georgian house in northern Connecticut is bonkers. Real Connecticut Valley doorway, incredible entry hall, wonderful paneling, balusters and newel post on par with anything of the period. Landscaping leaves much to be desired tho. www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/de...
This lovely Federal-style house just up the road from me, documented in the 1930s by the Historic American Buildings Survey, has a new owner who drives a car with a bumper sticker that says “my window is down because I farted.”
Hear me out: working remotely from China’s faux Venice, where you can rent a flat for $120/month
At a small auction house today: chest of drawers with the label of William Lloyd, premier cabinetmaker in Springfield, Massachusetts in the early 19th century.
In architectural history class I recall learning about the interior of the so-called Old Ship Meetinghouse in Hingham, MA with this photo. At the time, I remember wondering why there wasn’t a more recent photo. Yesterday I learned the ceiling was removed in the 1930s to expose the framing. Idiots!
These were the two historic buildings. Right by the train station, which is undergoing major upgrades as part of the expansion of regional rail network, and will have a “high speed” train to Boston in 3-5 years. These would have qualified for state/federal historic tax credits and others.
Anyone need a solid mahogany Federal period door from a large townhouse or mansion on Beacon Hill in Boston? $100 on Facebook Marketplace 🤦♂️
Appreciated this pithy observation in a presentation at this year’s Dublin Seminar
The temperature forecast for Bordeaux for the next few days is bonkers. These are much higher temps than those in the 2003 heatwave that killed 70k people across Europe, but I guess there’s probably more air conditioning now?
The house on the left is a chateau on 7 hectares near Toulouse and costs $1.03m. The house on the right is in Needham, Massachusetts and costs $60k more 🙃
The impending loss of Francis Davis Millet’s studio haunts me. The exceptionally rare 19th-c studio of a famous painter is going to be sold to a developer who’ll raze it for $239k. No one cares at all. @savingplaces.bsky.social didn’t return my call for two months. Local groups aren’t stepping up.
Great price for a Caravaggio. Don’t listen to the haters: there are still deals to be found on Facebook Marketplace.
This photo really encapsulates my feelings about downtown Northampton, Massachusetts. It really has declined over the last 10-15 years.
Joseph Venne (d. 1925) was a French-Canadian architect whose work is mostly in Canada. He did design a few buildings in the US, though, including these wonderful churches in Southbridge and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The irony of people mostly standing in front of McMansions in a recently developed subdivision on the best farmland in Connecticut complaining that a proposed solar array would ruin the “rural and picturesque” area that they’ve already ruined.
Me when I’m reviewing a real estate listing for an old house that looks decent and then I see “all new replacement windows!” in the description.
If I had the money I’d set up a revolving fund to buy the increasingly dwindling number of relatively intact old houses like this and the one shown here in East Poultney, Vermont, fix them up, put an easement on them held by a reputable monitoring entity, and resell. We’re losing them left and right
The house needs some work but many original bits remain for the sympathetic rehabber. The first thing a flipper or modern farmhouse enthusiast will do is chuck all the early woodwork and expose the framing because all that matters is seeing hand-hewn timbers and gawking at the width of floorboards
Nice buildings, too. Would have been eligible for tax credits for rehab. Oh well.
Nearly an entire city block of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts just demolished because the owner *hopes* his site will be chosen for a new courthouse. Losses include two buildings listed individually in the National Register. And if the site isn’t chosen? Acres of empty land downtown. Bleak.
We so desperately need a better understanding of history for all kinds of reasons, down to the super mundane. Example: