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Favorite Historic Buildings or Places

Messages
16,862
Location
New York City
Nice place to visit.
View attachment 86641
The Lost YMCA Bldg, No. 52 E. 23rd Street

View attachment 86642
A carriage awaits a shopper on the Fourth Avenue side as street cars rumble
along West 23rd. Photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum
of the City of New York.


Dream vacation:
Check out all the old existing buildings, take a pizza break and continue! ;)

You'd have a great time but you'd need way more than a day. My girlfriend had been to NYC before, but never lived here when she moved here in '05. I've taken her on many tours of old architecture since, fortunately, she loves it as much as I do. By now, of course, she's seen all the major ones, but less-well-known ones that are still impressive still pop up here and there for both of us. There are - no exaggeration - hundreds of pre-war buildings in this city to see, literally, hundreds. And a meaningful number of them (heck, most of them) would be the most impressive building in the town I grew up in, in Central Jersey.
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
You'd have a great time but you'd need way more than a day. My girlfriend had been to NYC before, but never lived here when she moved here in '05. I've taken her on many tours of old architecture since, fortunately, she loves it as much as I do. By now, of course, she's seen all the major ones, but less-well-known ones that are still impressive still pop up here and there for both of us. There are - no exaggeration - hundreds of pre-war buildings in this city to see, literally, hundreds. And a meaningful number of them (heck, most of them) would be the most impressive building in the town I grew up in, in Central Jersey.

And that's why I'm calling it my
"dream vacation!"
I'm taking as much time as needed.

As long as you all don't run out of
good N.Y. pizza....which I doubt it! :p
 
Messages
13,376
Location
Orange County, CA
Ehlen & Grote Building, Orange, California (1909)
This building now houses the antique mall where I have a dealer space.

440cd035e9e068891f20e257fb08bf6c--orange-county-california-california-vintage.jpg


Same building, September 2, 2017

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rocketeer

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,605
Location
England
United Kingdom Hotel
Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Australia

As you can see in the picture it's now a "Maccas."

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There should be a law that when McDonalds/Burger King etc applies to use a beautiful building such as this, they should be put on hold until further enquiries at a reduced rent be considered.
Better than pulling it down though.
 
Messages
16,862
Location
New York City
On my way to a meeting this morning, I passed by this classic old "artists" hotel - now just a part of the Hilton chain (sigh).

According to the web: ... [it] was built in 1928 as a long-stay residence for sheltering artists, intellectuals and noted authors — such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Mann, and John Steinbeck...


I've noticed that the large casement windows you can seen in the pics are consistent with many "artists" hotels built at the time - large and north facing for more consistent and not-direct sunlight.

In those days, it was quite common for people to live permanently in these hotels as they were priced consistent with regular rentals and were not really oriented toward travelers. They were hotels in the sense that many didn't have kitchens in the apartments, but had a common dinning room where residents would take their meals - but they really were more like rental apartments than hotels (I think I read that the no-kitchen, hotel thing had some city tax / cost advantage at the time they were built, but I forget the details).

I love the crazy details (tried to catch a bunch of it in the pics for you) that these "'20s Art Deco-ish with still some Gothic / Renaissance Revival style" buildings had.

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Messages
16,862
Location
New York City
As you guys know, I love the big, bold pre-war architecture of NYC, but I also love how many older humbler buildings just keep on keepin' on like this small (my guess) early 1900s tenement building whose side (second shot with fire-escapes and pigeons) just became easily visible after they, unfortunately, knocked down a bunch of similar buildings to put up, what I'm sure will be, some ugly glass modern condominium building (to be sold to Chinese investors want to get their money out of that dictatorship state, ditto Russians, so they don't really care what they pay).

The third shot is a poor job of showing the space where the new condo building will go, but does give you a view of the back of another tenement building temporarily exposed.

The last shot is super girlfriend's work as she saw a Hitchcockian moment in that side shot of the building.

The building itself
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The now exposed and cool side shot
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The space being opened up
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Super Girlfriend sees a Hitchcock moment
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AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,126
Location
Nebraska
Gosh, why have I never looked at this thread before?!? I love old architecture! If it were warmer outside, I'd go take some pics of our university campus buildings. The university is celebrating it's 150th anniversary in 2019 and we're fortunate that some of the original buildings are still here.
 
Messages
10,383
Location
vancouver, canada
I travelled Montana for the month of September and the historic buildings in the towns are a great treat. Wish I know more about architectural styles/history so I could have been a more knowledgeable viewer but enjoyable nonetheless.
 
I was in downtown Springfield, Missouri as preparations for the annual Christmas parade were being made. For more that forty of my nearly sixty years this building (left) was covered with a mid-century-modern facade. Once removed most of the original look of the Mansfield Opera House was again revealed. The ironwork was locally made (back when we made things here).

From 1973:

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Mansfield_Opera_1.jpg


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Messages
16,862
Location
New York City
Yesterday had the Fading Fasts all over the city doing Christmas stuff, but we never miss an opportunity to pop into one of my favorite building in the city - Grand Central Terminal - and the one that I bring people to the most if they want to get the best extant feel for the Golden Era IMHO.

There was no plan to these pictures (there are, obviously, many professional pictures a hundred-times better than ours of GCT), but thought you'd enjoy some random shots of this incredible place.

I love this inscription over the main entranceway, very inspiring.
IMG_4599.JPG


Same area in B&W
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Entering the main hall
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The famous clock atop the information booth
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And from a wider angle
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And, finally, a different angle of the main hall
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Sorry I didn't capture the constellation ceiling better
 
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