I was in Poughkeepsie last week and that’s a picture of my train ticket. “POKIPSE” is a pretty good phonetic spelling of the name, although I would have gone with POKIPSEE. I’m curious as to why the name was shortened: “GRAND CENTRAL” is 13 characters and “POUGHKEEPSIE” is 12, so it appears that the name …
Last week’s APT Northeast Chapter meeting was held at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts, seen above in a not-very-well-drawn postcard. I stayed at the hotel, which was pleasant, and took a look at the building. My room was very small – basically big enough for a twin bed and some space to walk around …
Building history is very local, and I don’t know enough about Boston’s history to say much about this ghost. I’d guess it was a house or a house-sized commercial building; given that we have scars of both a flat roof and a gable, it was probably altered at some point. Or maybe this is a …
One of the most successful branding campaigns, ever, was linking electric utility companies to Thomas Edison’s name. It’s as if we called all automobiles “Fords.” Edison did not invent electric light or power generation, although he definitely improved on what was available before he started. He was on the wrong side of the DC versus …
On more than one occasion, I’ve happened upon a building I find interesting while wandering around somewhere only to later find out that it is famous, or designed by a famous architect, or in some way previously known but not to me. The photo above shows a good example: 1230 Griswold Avenue in Detroit, AKA …
