Handsell

24 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, HISTORY, kayaking, Museum

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choptank, Handsell, HISTORY, Indian artifacts, Museum, Nanticoke

Headed out this morning to go to a Delmarva artifacts display in Cambridge, at the Dorchester Heritage Museum. Some guy spent a lifetime collecting Indian arrowheads and other tools. 6,000 or so of them. Between Salisbury and Cambridge is Vienna, on the Nanticoke River. There are a couple places I would really like to kayak in that area, so I detoured off onto Rte. 331 in hopes of finding a boat launch somewhere on that side of the river. Kathy and I try to stay away from large open areas of water. We prefer the small creeks and rivers. To follow the river I turned off 331 and onto Indiantown Road. Soon I crossed over the creek I was looking for. It is called Chicone and there was nowhere to park or launch by this little bridge. I continued on and came across this sign…

As good as place as any to turn around. Looked over and saw this building…

There was a car parked there so I thought I would check it out. Met a man named John Lewis, from Baltimore. (He works at Baltimore Magazine – small world!) He is on the Board of Trustees to preserve and restore this building. He filled me in on a lot of information and instead of me getting it all wrong trying to remember what he said, check out the history here: http://www.restorehandsell.org We had a very interesting talk. Here are some more photos of the structure.

As I said, I was actually looking for a place to launch a couple of kayaks and mentioned that to John. He pointed to the woods and told me to head that way. So I did. Had to cross thru an RC Airplane field. They like to buzz the plane right overhead and cut the engine off so you have to look up to see if you are about to get whacked! (Whacked! Man, I thought I left that lingo back in Baltimore!)

Thought these were beehives, but not so sure.

And then the water. Small area and will probably be easier to get to in the fall.

Headed back and had this view. Beautiful day.

There is an Indian Lodge on the property.

These two photographs are from the National Historic Register. What it looked like before restoration work started.

After quite a while there I headed to the artifacts show. It was ok. I wished the objects would have been labelled, but still some nice pieces.

Left Cambridge and headed to Trappe, to the Unicorn Bookstore. Great old book store. Below is the bridge over the Choptank River. The smaller bridge in front was a drawbridge, now a fishing pier. How many people remember getting held up for what seemed like hours when heading to Ocean City and the drawbridge was up!

Just a cute doggie photo of Molly cause people like to look at doggie photos more than history photos!!

Thanks for looking! Sorry Kathy didn’t make this trip with me…

Cambridge Md. & Harriet Tubman

25 Saturday May 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, HISTORY, National Parks

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Tags

Mural, Museum, nature, Road Trip, Tour, Tubman

Road Trip to Cambridge to visit the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center which is about 8 miles out of Cambridge. This property was donated by the National Park Service.

A lot of visual displays and history.

Kathy chillin…

From there we headed to downtown Cambridge, to the Harriet Tubman Museum.

And of course the Viral Internet mural (3 year old reaching out to the 3D artwork).

Inside a guy was filming one of the volunteers in an oral history presentation. We watched a video of Tubman’s life. Very informative.

I liked the fearless shirt.

Another mural outside depicting life in Cambridge.

Burnt out Western Auto

Rear view.

In the alley across the street.

The inside of the building the graffiti is written on.

Headed to the river to find a place to eat. Crab dealer and processor. Kathy framing out a photo for me. Crab meat shot up in price – $30/lb.

Decided to eat here. The crab soup was terrible! More like cabbage and warm water soup. Kathy’s cream of crab was good. Rest of meal good.

Sitting outside to eat. a beautiful day.

Stopped traffic and raised the bridge for this little boat.

A great day in Cambridge! If you ever get down here, do yourself a favor and visit the museums and UGRR concerning Tubman. Lots of history people just aren’t aware of. Also, we did this trip on the day that the Treasury Secretary decided not to put Tubman on the $20 bill.

An August Weekend In Baltimore

20 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in art, Baltimore, Photography

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Tags

Baltimore, engineering, Farmers Market, food, HISTORY, Monuments, Mt Vernon, Museum, music, photography, Washington Monument

Living in Baltimore most of my life, there are but a few things that I have never done while living here: Visited the Peabody Library, climbed to the top of the Washington Monument and gone to the downtown Farmers Market. So, time to check those off my “To-Do” list.

First stop on Saturday morning was the Peabody. They are only opened a few hours on Saturday. 10a-1p.

Before going in we took a shot of the Washington Monument. A lot of these photos Kathy took.

Heading towards the library.

What a wonderful sight!

All these books! Old books!

And the architecture is amazing.

Of course, since you are not allowed to roam around the upper shelves, the next best thing to do is to look through the card catalogue. My name is there – but no listing of my books!

Kathy also has a listing.

After a while of gazing in amazement at the library, we decided to roam around other parts of the building. The Peabody Music School is here also.

Looking up from the bottom…

And then down from the top. Helter Skelter.

Kathy took this next photo. One of my favorites.

Up and down the halls. I was surprised at all the areas we could venture to.

A history of one of many violin makers.

Random artwork.

Time to leave the Peabody and head outside. Looking at the Washington Monument I noticed that the gate was open! My heart started beating faster! I have always wanted to go in and climb to the top!

Yes! The steps are open! $6 is a small price to pay, to be able to go to the top! And I am off! (Kathy did not want to go, but she said she would take a photo of me looking out the window)

Holy crap! Am I going to make it??!!

Halfway there! Time to stop and catch my breath!!

I knew aliens built this thing!

So close!

Wow! What a view. (I did take lots of pics, but seriously, you should try to make this trip yourself)!

Another view. I wonder how much longer this steeple will last?

Where’s Kathy? Oh, there she is!

And her photo of me, waving through the window! I tried to enhance but there was just too much sun glare.

One happy camper!

Another view of the monument.

And still another, as I REFLECT on my trip up the steps and catch my breath!

And Kathy’s reflections.

Worked up quite an appetite, so here is where we went. Great food. Highlandtown on Gough St.

That was all on Saturday. Sunday we headed to the Farmer’s Market.

A preacher preaching under the overpass.

Lots of food and art work.

Murals everywhere. I liked both of these. It looks like it says “Horny, Angry Man”?

Lots of fruits and veggies.

Shrooms!!

No, I do not!

Nor these!

Time for breakfast. Crepes.

And a piece of art.

It was a great weekend in Baltimore. Thanks God and Kathy!!

Highlights in Public Works History part 1

05 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Archives, Baltimore, engineering, HISTORY

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Baltimore, bridges, engineering, FILTRATION, HISTORY, Museum, POLITICS, Public Works, Research, water history

Continuing with documenting and archiving, I found a collection of small posters concerning Public Works. I believe these were given out at the DPW Museum in Baltimore back in the 1980s during the time it was open. There are some missing and I hope to be able to find them, to complete the collection. Here are issues #1,3,4,6 and 7. #1 has some misinformation. The Roland Tower was completed in 1905 according to Annual Reports. Not sure what the word exhaneous, which is handwritten on the poster, means?

#3 comes from Abel Wolman’s booklet, “The Livable City”.

#4 from the exhibit: Baltimore’s Bridges and Their Builders.

#6 from 1985’s Women’s Week.

#7 is about our infrastructure.

Over the years there have been many attempts at posters, exhibits, newsletters etc. I wish they would start doing more of the history in a poster like the above or a new newsletter… The City attempted to try a new format of the Annual Report, but it is inconsistent and sporadic at best.

The Peale Center

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in HISTORY, Photography

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Baltimore, Barnum, Ghost, glass plate negatives, HISTORY, Museum, Peale Center, photography, Research, writing

The Peale Center, also once Baltimore’s City Hall and Colored School #1 and then a temporary Water Engineer’s office. Then the Municipal Museum and then a vacant…am I missing anything? It has been a lot of things since 1814 and I am really glad it is being restored to a museum.

View from across the street, at the Municipal Building – where the water engineers are now located. Workers had to move their scaffold out of the way so we could get in.

A walk out back. I think I would have placed this lamp elsewhere instead of in front of the relief.

Another gas lamp.

Back inside to await the history talk. Here is an artist rendition of what the Peale will look like when completed.

A nice model of the proposed renovations.

Holy H.G. Wells! A freakin’ time machine. Damn, still under construction!

Hum Bug!!

More bugs.

And the real reason for my visit – a talk by Peter Manseau on his book “The Apparitionist”. It was a really good talk. One thing that kind of stuck in my head was when he said, “There are about 50,000 deceased persons on Facebook. Still being visited by family and friends.” It is like a modern day seance in the electronic social media age. People get to see their departed loved ones, just like the photographs taken by 19th century photographers of dead people posing. But Peter’s book goes more into ghost being seen in glass plate images. I can’t wait to read his book…

Tying Up Loose Ends

21 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Photography, water history

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Baltimore, Dams, engineering, FILTRATION, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, Loch Raven, Museum, photography, Research, water history

Since my retirement is pretty much just around the corner, I need to start working on “Tying up some loose ends”, so to speak. At work, this means getting my files together and putting them in order so others may find important information. As far as my work on the DPW Museum archives, I do not think I will ever get this done. Just so much stuff.

I came back across an old box full of broken glass plate negatives. I guess it must be about 24 8″x10″ plates. Hard to tell because most are broken into a lot of small pieces. Some, like the one below, are in just a couple pieces, making restoration fairly simple. Years ago, before computer scanning and restoration software, the previous archivist either placed the pieces on a Xerox copier and scanned them or took a photograph of the pieces, placed together as best they could. They came out as negatives. I need to find those paper copies to help put the pieces back together.

Here is one of the better broken plates. The slivers from the crack will never be found by me. So I filled it in as best I could with the software. When I first started my water history research, I had no idea that Baltimore City built one dam on top of another. The upper right portion shown was built in steps, at an elevation of 188′. This was to be able to support the newer dam which would be built at elevation 240′. It was thought to be able to support a dam at 270′.

The jigsaw puzzle, restoration process is long and tedious and I don’t believe I will have the time to finish up this box of broken pieces. Let alone finish up documenting what is left to be done.

Random Labor Day 2017

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in nature, ocean city, Photography

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Tags

Farm, Museum, nature, ocean city, photography

Trip to Salisbury and Ocean City

Looking thru the screen.

Losing a feather.

Brave Molly chasing the heron away from the pond. The heron likes to eat all the fish in the pond.

The old barn and the shed.

He decided to land on top of the barn for a while.

Kathy’s photo of a knot hole in the barn.

And her photo of a morning glory.

My view of the mg.

A walk through the cornfield.

Rows of corn on the sandy soil.

Kathy looking at something…

How the corn holds on for dear life.

Corn on the cob.

Picture of Kathy taking a picture of me.

Turkey feather.

Spider.

Milkweed.

To the ocean Hon.

Rides not being…Hmm…grammar question. Would it be ‘Not being ridden’ or ‘not being rode’?

If you get a chance, go in the Life Saving Museum and look at the collection of sand from around the world.

Across the inlet. No ponies today.

Need more light.

It.

Two sisters shopping.

Favorite art store.

New York City

05 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in New York, Photography, vacation

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

art, boats, Hiking, HISTORY, Museum, nature, Parks, photography

Did the Groupon Tour Bus to NYC the other day. Really nice trip and for $32 round trip, you couldn’t beat the price. Left the Carney Park and Ride at 7:26am and was parked in NY at 10:25am. Had to be back to the bus by 6:30pm. Nice long day of sight-seeing. It has been close to 30 years since I have been there. Back then it was smelly and dirty and I saw someone get robbed right outside of Penn Station…

First stop, Times Square.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Inside the church.

Past Rockefeller Center and thru some back streets to this guy made of Coach bags. I was waiting for the girl to start singing… “Mothra…”

The first Trump property we saw. Armed Tactical Police outside with dogs. Secret Service inside with scanners. Looking down from the top of the waterfall.

From walking around mid-town to Central Park. Not sure what was going on with the woman in the pink top, to the left. It looks like her transporter malfunctioned.

On the hour and half hour, these guys rotate around the base of the clock.

Nice zoo in the park.

Model yacht sailing on one of the lakes.

Was goiing to ask Alice something, but she seemed pre-occupied knocking this little kid off her toadstool…

To the oblisk.

Then to Belvedere castle.

View of the turtle pond with many of them basking in the sun, along with the egret.

Across the pond to the Grand Lawn.

We were supposed to go to the Natural History Museum, instead, we were enjoying just seeing the sites, we kept on going…The Dakota.

Which then took us back to Central Park and Imagine.

Lots of people trying to pay their respects. This was the only rowdy scene all day. Some rickshaw driver started cussing out tourist as he was hogging up the photo-op for his passengers. Surrealistic.

Another Trump Property, for the man who would be king and have this in his hands.

Relections.

This was pretty neat – a wall of plants, just barely hanging on by their roots.

Lincold Center.

And of course, a bunch of water towers.

Chincoteague Va.

29 Monday May 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, nature, vacation

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birds, Hiking, kayaking, light house, Museum, nature, ocean, photography

Nice Memorial Weekend in Salisbury and Chincoteague. Again the weather was not cooperating for kayaking, but always a nice day for a hike.

Hung out at the visitor center a bit. Watched a film on the two distinct herds of horses and ponies. One in Maryland and one here. Down here they manage the size of the herd with birth control and an auction to benefit the volunteer fire department.

Hiked over to the light house. Too many people in line to go to the top. We will come back on a week day.

Sailors memorial behind the light house.

I always liked a B&W of various light houses.

Kathy’s mom hiked with us today.

It struck me as odd that the light house was on the bayside and not on the ocean. Pooling on the beach after high tide.

Windy and chilly. But lots of people on the beach. A few swimming. Safety zone flag.

On the opposite side of the ocean shore is Toms Cove. Some kayakers and bird photogs.

Clams, mussels and birds in the marsh.

Digging for dinner.

The brownish orange guy was chasing everyone out of his way.

Pony tails – nice gift shop. But we didn’t see a single horse or pony the whole time!!

Back on the farm – always a favorite view. It amazes me that the pines grew in such a straight line, about 20 deep…until Kathy’s father told me they didn’t just grow that way. He planted them that way! Ha! Dummy me!