Heavy Metal High Rise Track

Only in America.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 20, 2018 - Comments (1)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Entertainment, Motor Vehicles

Unauthorized Dwellings 7

The famous author Robert Louis Stevenson spent a large part of his honeymoon squatting in an abandoned cabin.

After their marriage in San Francisco on 19 May 1880, Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson set off on an adventurous honeymoon to the Napa Valley. Stopping briefly for a night in Vallejo, the Stevenson’s then boarded a train to carry them (and their dog Chuchu) to Calistoga at the northern end of the Valley. They spent the remainder of May in Calistoga, at one of the Hot Springs Hotel cottages. Then, once joined by Fanny’s son Lloyd Osbourne, the family made their way up the grade of Mount St. Helena to the Toll House, from which they found their way to the abandoned Silverado Mine bunkhouse where they would squat until the end of July.

You can read his account of that time, THE SILVERADO SQUATTERS, here.

Or, you can visit the state park named after the writer.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 18, 2018 - Comments (2)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Nature, Unauthorized Dwellings, Marriage, Nineteenth Century

Unauthorized Dwellings 4

Houseboats have always been a prime source of contention as authorities try to police dwellings. The Amsterdam article is from 2016. The other news report hails from 1924.



Source.



UPDATE: now behind CHICAGO TRIBUNE paywall.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 08, 2018 - Comments (0)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1920s, Twenty-first Century

Davis Caves

Back in 1976, Andy Davis of Armington, Illinois decided to dig a cave in the side of a hill and live there with his family, to avoid high heating bills. In the process, he became a pioneer of the "earth-sheltered home" movement, and he went on to start a company building other "cave homes."

Andy died in 1995, but his company still seems to be in business.

Bloomington Pantagraph - Jun 28, 1976

Image source: Mother Earth News

The Davis Cave, a pamphlet by Andy Davis

Arizona Republic - July 25, 1976

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 05, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, 1970s

The Demolition of a World’s Fair

The Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago occupied 427 acres and innumerable buildings, all specially constructed for the event.



Then, when it was over, the whole affair was wiped clean. How? See the article below.










Source of article.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 31, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, 1930s

Unique Real Estate Negotiations

Original story here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 28, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Domestic, Marriage, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Stupid Criminals

The Total Environment Room

In 1963, GE engineer John L. Matrone came up with the idea of creating a "total environment" room. It would be capable of creating any environment (the deck of an ocean liner, a beach in Hawaii, a rainforest in Tasmania) inside your own home.


I don't believe a "total environment" room was ever built, but it sounds quite a bit like the Holodeck in Star Trek (minus the holograms).

The Shreveport Times - Nov 3, 1963

The Shreveport Times - Nov 3, 1963

The Lincoln Star - Nov 3, 1963

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 11, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Inventions, 1960s

Manure Glass

1973 saw the debut of Envirite (aka Glass-Dung, Manure Glass, or Pasture Glass), a promised-to-be revolutionary building material made out of glass and cow manure.

It actually seems like it was a pretty good idea. The concept was that you could take old glass bottles, combine them with cow manure, heat both together in a furnace, and the manure would act as a foaming agent fusing the glass together into a versatile building material. So you'd be repurposing two waste products (old glass and manure) into something useful.

The problem, it seems, was actually getting architects and builders to use the stuff. I found a 1990 article that credited the "inherent conservatism of the building industry" with denying us our glass-manure houses.

Somewhere in here there's a joke about what people who live in glass-manure houses shouldn't do.

Lansing State Journal - July 25, 1973

Los Angeles Times - Aug 23, 1973

The Alexandria Town Talk - July 26, 1973

Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 22, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, 1970s

Yuma Swastika Bridge

I spent New Year's Day in Yuma, Arizona, where I had a chance to see a local oddity — the Swastika Bridge, which can be found out in the desert just north of the city.

According to local legend, the swastikas were carved into the bridge by German POWs held nearby during WWII. Another story has it that the bridge was designed by the Nazis and shipped to Arizona from Germany.

The reality is that the bridge was built in 1907 by the U.S. Reclamation Service. The engineers decorated it with swastikas after seeing similarly designed and decorated bridges during a trip to India.

The bridge was part of the larger effort to dam the Colorado River and create an agricultural oasis around Yuma.

More info at the Yuma Sun or smoter.com.

And you can find a lot of other examples of the pre-Nazi use of swastikas in American culture at the American Swastika blog.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 07, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Evil, Signage, Arizona

Mystery Illustration 33

Was this structure ever built? And if so, what was its purpose?

The answer is here.


And after the jump.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 21, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, 1950s