Category Archives: architecture
The dregs of dreams, 3
Weathered wooden cross stuck in hard ground, sad offerings beneath them.
Most of the graves are unmarked. Many of the dead buried here were victims of accidents in the nearby mercury mines, which were active in the early 1900s. Others were victims of the 1918-1919 flu epidemic.
Many of the graves have offerings – a vase, a candle, a flag, a letter, a handful of coins – which only amplify the mysteries.
Terlingua, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
The dregs of dreams, 2
More dregs, more dreams.
The walls of this structure are slowly returning to the hard earth from which they came. Literally: the walls are made from adobe, an ancient building method that’s still in use. It’s sustainable – the ingredients are clay, sand, dirt, water, and some sort of organic material (straw, usually.) It doesn’t require any specialized tools. Adobe walls are load-bearing a,nd have good thermal properties. With the proper covering (plaster, or whitewash) adobe walls can last a long time.
Adobe won’t last once that outer covering is gone, and melts away.
In a desert that takes a while, but it still happens.
Terlingua, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
The dregs of dreams, 1
The road from Alpine to Terlingua goes through mountains, past a border patrol checkpoint, and across a wide plain. And then, just as the mountains of Big Bend National Park loom off to the left, there are a few scattered and abandoned buildings: evaporated dreams.
But the dregs of these dreams are stunningly beautiful.
along Highway 118
Brewster County, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
This door? I wanted to take it home.
I love this door. I really do. I like the curled-up ends of the decorative metal rods on the bottom half of the screen door. And the way the Xs where the rods cross are a slightly different color. And the way the diamond-shaped grid at the top contrasts with the square grid at the bottom. And the pieced-together look of the weathered wood frame. And the dark hinges.
This is the third shot of an unintentional chain of photographs. There’s yesterday’s storm picture. And, this picture has the same storm overhead, and this door on the left. I’d claim I did all of this on purpose, but I suspect you wouldn’t believe me.
Also, if you drive by my house and the front door looks vaguely familiar, it’ll be just a coincidence.
Valentine, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
The Crazy Water Hotel
The ballroom at the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells is well past its prime.
But in its prime, the Baker Hotel was grand, and folks came from far and wide to “take the waters” the town was famous for. Now, I think Mineral Wells is largely famous for having once been famous.
The great songwriter Tom Russell has a song about the place, and the ghosts that haunt it. Reading the lyrics doesn’t convey Tom’s talent, and there’s no video of it that I could locate. So instead – and pardon this abrupt digression, but he got in my head and wouldn’t leave until I agreed to post a link – here’s Tom Russell and Andrew Hardin with The Ballad of Edward Abbey. (Here’s his website.)
Mineral Wells, Texas
photographed 8.15.2010
One Day | One Image 