Robert Pence

I expect the folks who go to Landover Baptist Church live in this trailer park.

They do. They take it, and then they expand upon it. :wink:

Wow! Shawnee looks like a barely-surviving ghost town, and the fire truck looks like about 1950 and not in very good shape at that. Decrepit fire department and neglected wood buildings crammed shoulder-to-shoulder -- see it while you can, because one fire, and the whole place will be gone.

Wonderful photo thread! I didn't realize there's so much neat stuff to see there, and it makes me want to visit even more, to pursue some genealogy info. Hocking County is sort of an ancestral homeland for me, before my Dad's great-grandparents came to Indiana. I kinda like trains, too, in case you didn't know.

Gosh! I've read the Bible cover-to-cover three times, working on the fourth, and I keep missing the part about the dinosaurs. I must have a flawed, revisionist translation.

Can't they just take the commuter train or light rail? ... Oh ... wait .... :roll:

Congrats on the new camera; you sure were ready for it, and you've put it to good use. Gorgeous photos!

Thanks, guys! There are more photos of that locomotive on that trip in a recent post on my site. There are also photos of some pretty neat firefighting apparatus in the Baltimore Fire Museum in this set.

The program was Scripture for Americans. I can't remember the preacher's name, but I used to see it regularly in the SPLC's publications. He was pretty much a pillar of the Christian Identity movement that was aligned with various extreme right-wing groups and individuals and generally promoted violence. I remember that the preacher's name came up as one of the people Tim McVeigh visited shortly before he blew up the Murrah Federal Building. During his broadcast he was plainly advocating violence to the point of murder against gays, even while saying that he wasn't ("I'm not telling you to do this, I'm just telling you what the Bible says.") I tried to call the station's program manager several times, never reached him, and never got my calls returned. Finally, I told the receptionist that if I didn't hear back within 24 hours, I was taking my complaint to the FCC. License renewals were coming up, and I got a call back in about 15 minutes. The program manager admitted that he had never listened to the broadcast that aired early on Sunday mornings, but claimed it had a strong following among the station's regular listeners. A short time later, that program was no longer on WOWO. The last I knew, it was broadcasting from a short-wave station in Ecuador or someplace. It may be defunct now; I just tried Googling "Scripture for Americans" and didn't get anything.

Beautiful. On the color vs. black & white, I think I like the color version better. The composition is good either way, but to me the color makes it stand out. You might want to play with just a tad more contrast on the b&w, and see what happens.

Big city; I'd like to visit it.

Beautiful state!

And someday, the towers will sink into the swamps.

One boss I worked for came from Shreveport. He was the most arrogant, blatantly racist and homophobic cracker SOB I've ever known, and incompetent at his job, to boot. I enjoyed annoying him for about two years; it was pretty easy. All I had to do was say "Good Morning!" He got his job because he married the daughter of a division VP, and when the company sold that division, he got a sudden transfer to a dead-end job in some plant in the boondocks. Hah! :shoot:

HeeHee! I'll get that on the next trip! :-D They didn't just chop a hole in Pelli's mall. They amputated half of it. What they're building, though, will probably look good as one side of the courthouse square, and should work OK with the character of the rest of the CBD. Besides, the new development is bringing 500 good-paying professional jobs right into the middle of the CBD. That has to be good for retail and restaurants. I realize I didn't cover a lot of the city, but I'll be back. By that time I had been several hours on the road and two days on foot with my camera in a couple of towns, and physically I was running on fumes. Besides, the weather wasn't exactly inspiring, and I was more-or-less dashing between the raindrops. Miller started with the schools, and it just took off from there. Even though he's gone now, others in the community have taken up the banner and keep the movement going. I agree with your comment about the people, too. One gentleman in business attire stopped to chat when he saw me taking photos, and filled me in about the restoration of the ice cream parlor, and a couple of other people were downright friendly in answering some questions. Columbus has a good manufacturing industry base for its size, and that industry is local and vested in the community. America needs more of that. You'd think those prices for both gasoline and cigarettes would discourage more Hoosiers from smoking while they pump gas, but despite the law they still do it. They pump with the engine running, too.

Good stuff. The last shot looks like you've been spotted!

Impossible to pick a favorite; there are multiple candidates. Wonderful pics, sharp and clear. What kind of glass were you using?

That was my reaction too, but I'm not surprised when I encounter cheesiness in Huntington. After all, it's Dan Quayle's hometown. Some evidence of the town's German heritage survives, but there's a lot of Appalachian Scots-Irish all over the place.

The sight that greeted me after I left Bloomington on a rainy morning, up from $3.78 the day before. Coming into Columbus from from the west on Indiana 46, the Second Street Bridge gives an indication that there's something out of the ordinary ahead. From the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau web site: "The Second Street Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge. Designed by J. Muller International and completed in 1999, it is the first of its kind in North America. The bridge offers an impressive view of two of the city’s notable structures – the Bartholomew County Courthouse and the tower of First Christian Church. The bridge is fully suspended and the 40 cables that support the structure are in the shape of a fan." Vandalism and tagging are especially incongruous in a place like Columbus that displays considerable civic pride and places a lot of emphasis on good architecture and pleasing, attractive living environment. Columbus, Indiana, population 39,000, is the seat of Bartholomew County and is known both for its historic preservation and for its modernist architecture. In 1954 J. Irwin Miller set up the Cummins Foundation to pay architects' fees for the Columbus Schools, in order to attract the kind of employees and residents he thought would be good for Columbus. In subsequent years, other companies have pitched in to maintain the momentum of the movement that Miller and the Cummins Foundation started. Here, because of weather, time constraints, and fatigue I've presented only a very small sampling of Columbus' architectural treasures. What I saw makes me want to go back in more cooperative weather and dedicate a couple of days to a more in-depth exploration. The Crump Theatre, built in 1889, is Indiana's oldest theatre. The current facade was created as part of a 1941 remodeling. The U.S. Post Office in Columbus was the first one to be built with privately-funded architect's designs, by Roche Dinkeloo in 1970. 150,000 square foot, 13-acre Commons Mall was designed by Cesar Pelli and completed in 1974. Photos of the area before redevelopment can be seen here Renfro Development purchased The Commons Mall in December, 2000. A major renovation and expansion is being planned with assistance from Stan Eckstut of Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn of New York and Rowland Design of Indianapolis. The plan calls for “un-malling” the mall, turning it into a mixed use development with residential, an extended-stay hotel with 94 rooms and suites, a four-story, 100,000 square foot office building to be occupied by 500 new professional employees hired by Cummins Engine, retail and entertainment. Renfro Development is working with the City of Columbus to utilize TIF financing to build a parking structure and to develop the area along the downtown riverfront. Renderings and general information on the redevelopment can be seen here Dora Hotels will develop the new Cummins office building and hotel and will manage the hotel, along with the Indigo Hotel nearby. I'm amazed at the state of maintenance and landscaping for Commons Mall. How many other 35-year-old malls even survive, let alone look this good? The end of the mall, figuratively and literally Irwin Union Bank and Trust was designed by Eero Saarinen. This was pretty ground-breaking design in 1954, and it still looks good and fits well in its setting. I had assumed that this was a former fire station, but I've been informed that it used to be a Goodyear tire store. It must have been the classiest one of those anywhere!<br> The 1901 City Power House was designed by Harrison Albright and renovated into the Senior Center in 1976 by James K. Paris. The brick walls are 17 inches thick. The building overlooks the East Fork of the White River. In many communities the designs of the sixties and seventies have come to look dated and have fallen out of favor. In my eyes, what sets Columbus apart is that the buildings of that era were designed by iconic architectural firms who really understood what they were doing, and their designs were executed without corner-cutting. Add to that exceptional attention over the years to ongoing maintenance both to the structures and to the landscaping and surroundings that display the architects' work in the right context. The Columbus Republic's building was designed in 1971 by Myron Goldsmith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Edward Charles Bassett, Principal Architect at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed Columbus City Hall in 1981. Bartholomew County Courthouse, begun in 1871 and completed in 1874. Veterans Memorial

I used to listen to WOWO back in the fifties and sixties. In my earliest memories it was a Westinghouse affiliate, and for most of the time I listened to it, it was local content; Fort Wayne Komet Hockey, local high-school sports, farm programming, local bands at dance halls at the lakes on Saturday nights ... I can't remember when it happened, but through a change of ownership, or probably a series of changes, it started carrying mostly syndicated programming and then morphed into a right-wing talk station, of which Fort Wayne already had too many. After a long abstinence from WOWO, I turned it on one Sunday morning to hear a preacher from some church in Colorado railing about "The Death Penalty for Homosexuals as Prescribed in the Bible!" That was at least 15 year ago, and that was the last time I listened to WOWO.

That's sort of inevitable. I know of only one alternative to getting older. :-(

Beautiful park and beautiful photos. I owe Youngstown another visit one of these days.

Fitchburg was home to Fitchburg Engine Company, a preeminent manufacturer of high-quality steam engines for mills and factories from 1871 into the 1920s. I know where a Fitchburg engine reposes. I think all or most of the parts are still there.

Huntington, Indiana, Population 17,450 according to the 2000 census, is the seat of Huntington County. Around 1970 Huntington, like many towns hoping to revitalize dwindling downtown retail activity, created a pedestrian mall on two or three blocks of Jefferson Street, the main downtown business street. I'd be hesitant to say the mall finished it off, but few traces of the mall remain. Huntington takes great pride in being the hometown of former Vice President Dan Quayle. Whenever he visits, Nick's Kitchen is the gathering place for Mr. Quayle, his hometown friends and the press. Downtown has retained quite a few handsome upper-level facades and some beautiful cornices. I wonder what hides under that metal cladding. I like the jewelry store entrance and marquee a lot. This is nice; it looks like canal era. Huntington was served by two Class I railroads, the Wabash, now Norfolk Southern, and the Erie, later Erie Lackawanna. The Erie Lackawanna didn't make the cut with Conrail and mostly died in 1976; a couple of short lines tried but couldn't make a go of it. Prior to 1916 the Chicago Bluffton & Cincinnati ran parallel with the Erie. It was an ill-starred venture from its beginning, and after it shut down its rolling stock was loaded on a ship for France for use in WWI. The ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic, and all that remains of the CB&C is somewhere on the bottom of a cold ocean. The Detroit - Kansas City main line of the former Wabash Railroad, now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern. Many freight trains pass through Huntington every day, but the Wabash Cannonball doesn't run here any more; this was one of the passenger lines that Amtrak declined to pick up in 1971. Freight house, now a pizza parlor. Passenger depot. The Huntington County Courthouse was designed by Vincennes, Indiana, architect John W. Gaddis and built 1901-1906. It's a well-maintained, handsome building outside and in, and the stained glass and decorative painting are intact and restorable. I like to imagine what a stunning beauty this courthouse could be if restored and made bright again. The stained-glass dome over the rotunda is lavishly detailed, and deserves some illumination to show it off. This row of buildings extended across a bridge to the left. I remember being in one, an antique shop, in the mid seventies. One of the buildings collapsed and I think some others were declared unsafe. The bridge has been replaced, and the buildings are gone. Odd Fellows times two. The railroad and the river give downtown some angled streets that add character. The LaFontaine, now senior apartments, was Huntington's finest hotel back in the day; the Wabash Depot was just a scant block away, and the interurban between Fort Wayne and Lafayette with connections to Indianapolis stopped right out front. Well-kept Romanesque City Hall is right across the street from the LaFontaine. You'd best behave! I like the Public Library's industrial motif. Gallery roofs help to distribute natural light to interior areas. Mmmmmmm! Fort Wayne's Wolf & Dessauer had a department store in Huntington in the fifties & sixties. To become senior housing. Former home of Our Sunday Visitor and other Catholic publications. Heading north out of downtown, Jefferson Street rises sharply. St. Mary's Catholic Church and Sts. Peter and Paul, just a couple of blocks away, have a commanding view of the downtown. Some grand old houses look over downtown from the hill. It looks like someone is seriously working on this one. It stood vacant and boarded up for many years, but now most of the plywood is gone, replaced with new windows and even some beautiful stained glass. Saint Marys. Saints Peter and Paul. 1868 Jessie Davies house - one of the finest Italianate houses I've seen, in a prime location at the corner of Poplar and Tipton Streets overlooking the town.

Sweet. I think they should go back to traffic signals at the top of posts on the corners; anyone else here old enough to remember those? They really teach you to pay attention, and it'd get rid of a lot of visual clutter. Might thin out the incompetent, inattentive and non-defensive drivers in a pretty short time.