Travel Tuesday: Concord, New Hampshire

This is our Nation's oldest State House (1819) in which the Legislature still occupies it's original chambers. 

House of Representatives chamber

Senate Chamber

Rubble

A couple of front stairs and a light sconce are seen here in the rubble in front of the old Quincy High School.

Air Conditioned the Natural Way

 The old Quincy High School has had all its windows removed before its final demise.

Classic Greek

Quincy's City Hall was built in the 1840s in the classic Greek Revival style.  It was built with Quincy granite by master stone workers.  You can see a close-up of one ionic column here.  The crumbling interior  is finally being renovated.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Happy Skywatch Friday!

Out With The Bad . . .

Happy Monochrome Monday!  On the highway heading north towards downtown Boston is this very industrial looking building.  It is actually the ventilation system controlling the air quality for 3.6 miles of tunnels in Boston.

Shadow Paint

The Forbes Hill Standpipe with its shadowy facade presents a good backdrop for a mystery story. You can read more about the Standpipe for a previous QDP post HERE.

School Days

Built in 1894, as Quincy's first high school, Central Middle School now serves 600 children in grades 6-8. Ground will be dug soon for a new $50 million school to replace this one. You can see a design of the new building here.

The new location will be a couple blocks away where St. Ann's School waits for demolition.The new school is projected to open in the fall, 2013.

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The Wollaston Post Office was bathed in late afternoon light at the end of Tax Day yesterday.

It's Friday once again and this is my contribution to the Skywatch Friday group. Click here to see more skies from around the world.

Pumping Station

Does anyone know what this public building, located on the corner of Furnace Brook Parkway and Quarry Street, is used for?

I do know it needed to be pumped out from the recent 3-day storm we had. If you enlarge it you can just make out the edges of a park bench located near the stairs. I like the design and the stone material used to make this structure. The roof looks like it was replaced recently.

Thursday is "This Old House Day"

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Today's handsome Greek Revival building was designed by Quincy's renowned architect, Solomon Willard, in 1826. Today's house is the Norfolk County Superior Courthouse in Dedham; the highest court in Quincy's County of Norfolk and is the location of the famous Sacco-Vanzetti murder trial in the 1920s. Today's "Old House" is a departure from my usual Thursday post because I am performing my civic duty here and thought you would enjoy the Quincy connection.

Have you ever served on a jury? It is interesting to see first hand how our justice system works.

Demolition Phase

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The Center For Technical Education (CTE) wing is being demolished to make way for the final building of the new high school complex. In the second image you can see that I am not the only person interested in the active construction site. It's interesting to see the new red brick Math and Science wing on the right and the old gym and CTE on the left. What an exciting project for our city.

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In February 1909 the Quincy Center post office was moved into its first truly permanent home in the new federal building at 47 Washington Street. Designed by federal post office architect James Knox Taylor and erected by the United States Treasury Department, the building is both centrally and magnificently sited across from the Thomas Crane Public Library. Its Beaux Arts classicism gives it a unusually modern look for a 1909 building.

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Above the Superintendent's doorway of the Wollaston Post Office is a beautiful piece of Massachusetts Post Office New Deal Artwork. This wood relief entitled "Welder" was created by George Katina in 1942. Many welders were employed at The Shipyard in Quincy over the years, so this is a wonderful piece of public art.

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The interior of the Wollaston Post Office, built in 1940, is a beautiful example of one of Quincy's functional monuments from the WPA project launched in 1935 in response to tough economic times. People were put to work through work-relief programs to build roads, schools, park structures and civic buildings like this one. The marble and oak pictured here have proven very cost effective over the years.

After the Storm

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I was treated to another rare sighting of a rainbow over Quincy. This time I caught it over the Police Station which is at the intersection of Sea Street and the Southern Artery.

Wednesday Doorway

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This doorway belongs to one of Quincy's first schools, the Coddington School, designed by Charles Brigham in 1908. The Coddington School and Coddington Street are named in honor of William Coddington, Quincy's earliest benefactor. Coddington was a treasurer of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a magistrate and also had the distinction of building Quincy's first brick house. This entryway served Quincy College students until construction began on the new Quincy High School this year; it now serves as the entryway to the west campus of the High School. Brick and granite make for longlasting, handsome public buildings.

"Guard" House

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Erected in 1924, this is considered one of Quincy's most outstanding public buildings, The Quincy State Armory, located at 1000 Hancock Street. Boston architects McLaughlin & Burr were the designers of the Armory. The Armory is constructed of finely textured granite, called aplite and known in the trade as Weymouth Seam-Face Granite. This deposit, near the Quincy granite quarries is the only one of its kind within the country and has a range of coloring so great as to include all shades of yellow, green, brown, red, grey and blue.
Many fine young men and women are based out of this Armory for various "Guard" and military duties including calls to serve in Iraq. We owe them and their families a debt of gratitude for making the supreme sacrifice to serve their state and country.

Wollaston Branch Library

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The Wollaston Branch of the Thomas Crane Public Library was erected in 1922 at 41 Beale Street by the versatile architect, William Chapman, whose practice was in Boston, although he lived in the Wollaston section of Quincy. This simple Classical Revival institutional building was built for $15,000 and in spite of its modest scale, is still an important component in the Beale Street streetscape. I really like the decorative pediment above the doorway. The library is listed on the National Register of Historic places.