Monday, May 26, 2014

Charleston, SC (5/24-26/2014)

Saturday, May 24, 2014
Back in Charleston, SC for Spoleto this year, first doing the The Garden Conservancy Charleston Open Day/Behind the Garden Gate. Paid big bucks for a ticket that allowed entry into nine of Charleston's "finest private gardens."
Gaillard-Bennett House
The Gaillard-Bennett House at 60 Montagu Street is a circa 1800 Federal mansion that has been restored with its outbuildings by master craftsmen. No photographs were permitted of the extensive garden divided into sections by shrubs and trees. Typical seems to be having an English-garden type boxwood parterre, then a gazebo and reflecting pool, then a bit of formal lawn.
Lewis Timothy Print Shop
The Print Shop house at 97 King Street (not on tour) may have been the original location set up by a Lewis Timothy, a partner sent in 1734 by Benjamin Franklin to publish The South Carolina Gazette. Lewis died in 1738 and his widow, with seven children under the age of thirteen, continued the newspaper, becoming the first female newspaper editor and printer in America
Vine-covered building on King Street
William Elliott House
The William Elliott House at 75 King Street was built circa 1730s and was once used as the Mary Stokes Boarding School. The current garden was designed by landscape architect Sheila Wertimer.
Front door
Unique container
Anthemion (design of radiating petals) grill over the crawl space
Espaliered Camellia sasanquas
Part of formal parterre
Statue of Pan
Next:
John Fullerton House
The John Fullerton House at 15 Legare Street is a single Georgian house built in 1772. The grounds were landscaped in 1985.
Formal parterre
Vine-covered fountain
Forest Pansy Redbud leaves?
Swimming pool
William Gibbes House
The Williams Gibbes House (1772) at 64 South Battery is classic Georgian. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. Much of the garden plan was introduced from 1927-1931 by landscape artist Loutrel Briggs, who was brought to Charleston by the owner at the time, Mrs. Cornelia Roebling, the widow of the engineer who supervised the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The garden is being restored to follow the original design and plant list, although some substitutions have been necessary as the shade canopy is now much greater.
Outhouse?
Confederate jasmine arch
Cypress trees
"Summerhouse"
1831 wall
    Hydrangea macrophylla normalis/Lacecap Hydrangea
    Pre-revolutionary rose garden
    Wisteria arbor by the pool
    Benjamin Phillips House
    The Benjamin Phillips House at 55 Church Street was restored in 1987 and at that time there was no garden. The present garden was designed by Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan following 18th century patterns.
    Confederate jasmine spirals up the porch posts
    The owner and her interior decorator
    designed the acorn-decorated garden furniture
    Garden house made to look like a privy
    Mrs. Whaley's Garden
    Mrs. Whaley's Garden at 58 Church Street was behind a house tucked behind another. Ben Scott Whaley and his bride purchased the house in 1938 and Mrs. Whaley hired Loutrel Briggs to design the small garden with a formal foreground and a romantic natural background.
    Formal foreground
    Natural background...
    William Stone House
    The William Stone House (c. 1874) at 83 East Bay Street was a merchant's home with a commercial enterprise on the ground floor. No photographs were allowed here, where the unique garden, designed by Loutrel Briggs, was made within the ruins of a warehouse, demolished except for the exterior walls.
    Longitude Lane,
    an unimproved 17th century "country lane"
    off of East Bay Street
    Caspar Christian Schutt House
    The Caspar Christian Schutt House (1802) at 51 East Bay Street is an Adam-style mansion. The garden was designed by Sheila Wertimer. No photos permitted.
    McGee House
    The McGee House at 72 Anson Street has a garden designed by Loutrel Briggs in the 1960s.
    Quercus virginiana/Southern Live Oak
    Water feature
    Confederate battle flag design?
    Mid-afternoon I met Marsha to browse the Wragg Square Outdoor Crafts Fair, then we attended a concert at the Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street: "Until the Next Time: A Tribute to Sadie Green Oglesby, A Television Pioneer" performed by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Gospel Choir.


    Sunday, May 25, 2014
    This morning we went to Grace Church where Marsha sings in their professional choir. While waiting for the service to begin, I watched the bell ringers.
    Grace Church bell ringers
    That evening we returned to Grace Church for an organ recital by Raúl Prieto Ramírez from Spain. Although we could only stay for a couple numbers, we must have heard from nearly every organ pipe in the place!
    We then attended an amazing performance called "A Simple Space" by an Australian acrobatic ensemble called Gravity & Other Myths. I had seen some of the mind-boggling feats done before by Chinese acrobats, but this group goes further!

    Monday, May 26, 2014
    Memorial Day
    Before heading home, we attended one more concert, the William Baker Festival Singers at Circular Congregational Church on Meeting Street. This concert featured songs of the Holocaust with the settings by Marsha's friend William Dreyfoos. For settings, he took separate music and lyrics and put them together in a choral arrangement. Very impressive.

    Sunday, May 11, 2014

    Lake View Cemetery 2 (5/11/2014)

    Sunday, May 11, 2014
    Happy Mother's Day!
    Another nice day to wander through Lake View Cemetery.
    Fragrant Viburnum sp (KSS)
    The unassuming Van Sweringen grave.
    Van Sweringen grave marker
    Tombstone  for Oris Paxton and Mantis James Van Sweringen
    The inseparable Van Sweringen brothers became real estate and railroad management entrepreneurs who had stock in the Nickel Plate, Erie, Chesapeake & Ohio, Pere Marquette, Hocking Valley, Missouri-Pacific, and the New York, Chicago & St Louis Railroads. They are know for developing Shaker Heights and the Shaker rapid transit line, as well as building the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland.
    Bench in the Cottingham family plot
    An unusual grave stone with
    an etching of a telescope in an observatory
    and the ham radio call sign of W8ZEP (KSS)
    A cross between a Celtic knot and the Toyota logo?
    Grave of George Magoffin Humphrey (1890-1970)
    George Humphrey was president of M A Hanna (iron ore processing company) from 1929-1952. He headed the Reparations Survey Committee to advise Allied forces on dismantling German industry after WWII, and served as Secretary of Treasury from 1953-1957 for President Eisenhower.
    Balanced cube memorial
    Schey Memorial 
    Small bronze sculpture (KSS)
     A sculpture of the Abduction of Ganymede? No, there's a Robert Browning quote about a man's reach should exceed his grasp.
      Phlox subulata/Creeping Phlox (KSS)
      Jeptha Homer Wade (1811-1890)
      Jeptha Wade built a number of Midwest telegraph lines and helped consolidate the telegraph industry to found Western Union in 1854. He organized the Lake View Cemetery Association and was its first president. He donated land from his private estate to the city, which is now Wade Park.
      Haserot Angel (1924) by Herman Matzen
      The Haserot Angel holds a torch upside down to symbolize an extinguished life. The Tim Burton-esque angel appears to be weeping, due to stains of weather.
      Coffin-shaped sculptures for William & Annie Wetmore
      This tombstone had so much information!
      And a clever photo in the lens of a camera
      Eliot Ness (1903-1957) (KSS)
      Eliot Ness was the leader of the legendary "Untouchables," a team of law enforcement agents organized to enforce Prohibition in Chicago and known for bringing in Al Capone. So why is he buried in Cleveland? He was appointed Safety Director for the City of Cleveland in 1935-1938 and cleaned up crime and traffic. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1947. Although he died in Pennsylvania, his ashes were scattered in one of the Lake View Cemetery ponds.
      Harvey Pekar (1939-2010) (KSS)
      Harvey Pekar was an "underground" comic book (American Splendor) writer and the headstone has his quote: "Life is about women, gigs, an' bein' creative."

      Schofield (1842-1917) Vault (KSS)
        Levi T. Scofield is best remembered for designing the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Public Square in downtown Cleveland.
        View of downtown Cleveland from the top of the Garfield Monument

        Sunday, May 18, 2014
        Former First Church of Christ Scientist (1931)
        Former First Church of Christ Scientist carillon
        Pink dogwood blossoms


        Thursday, May 23, 2014
        The scrawny Cornus florida/Flowering Dogwood tree