Round and Round

From Pete Zarria:

(The Arcadia Round Barn, Arcadia, Oklahoma, along Route 66)

Love Your Mother

From Mick Melvin:

You never know what you're going to see in New England. I spied this custom ride at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, CT.

I was at the beautiful historic park attending a weekly music concert during the summer of ’11. The truck belonged to a young couple who had attended the concert. It was something out of a Grateful Dead concert. All that was missing was someone saying, “I’m looking for one ticket.”

The young lady was even selling handmade jewelry. She and my wife went on to have a conversation about eating organic and the benefits of organic food consumption.

No matter the reason for the custom paint job, organic food or the jewelry sales, I love the message from the young couple. I wish that more people kept Mother Earth in their thoughts.

What's In a Named Building? (Part 2)

From Dave Brigham:

Late last year I posted the first part of this series (see December 26, 2013, "What's In a Named Building? (Part 1)"). Today I give you the second part, which really should have been the first, since the buildings here are the ones that inspired this concept. But I didn't focus my camera on these until after I'd taken other pictures of named buildings.

Stick around for part three in the near future, and most likely others as the year goes along.

Beacon Street in Brookline, Mass., has some fantastic old apartment buildings. Known as "French flats," they were apartment hotels designed for permanent residents, according to the city of Brookline's official web site. Originally the buildings' residents included doctors, lawyers, publishers and other upper middle class types.

These days these buildings -- many of which have highfalutin or Waspy names -- have mostly lost their glamour, but they still look OK. Some are under construction, others, like my favorite, Stoneholm, still look fantastic. Here are some buildings from the street's south side, between Washington Square and Coolidge Corner. The next installment will feature buildings from the street's north side in the same area.

(Majestic -- have been unable to find out anything about this place, the first one I walked past.)

(Bonair -- look at that awful entryway! "Bonair" means "good air," but I bet they don't get much with that monstrosity hanging over the entrance. Designed by Arthur H. Bowditch, the building at 1477-1483 Beacon St. was built by Abram and Jenny Bilafsky of Boston, according to documents from the city of Brookline. The building has two wings, the second of which was known as the Kenmoir.)

(Empire -- this building suffered a fire in January 2012, and is currently being renovated.)

(Royal -- contains "several studio, 1BR, 2BR and 4BR apartments, each carefully restored to maintain their original elegance," according to the property manager's web site.)

(Pembroke -- can't find anything about this building.)

(Imperial -- just love the attempt to cover up an awesome old sign with a ridiculous new one, which obviously isn't that new, because the "B" in "Beacon Plaza" has flipped upside down. Evidently this is a "guest house" of some sort. It has received some pretty negative reviews online. Sad.)

(Metropole -- little information available about this one. As for the word, Wikipedia says: "The metropole, from the Greek metropolis for 'mother city' is the British metropolitan centre of the British Empire, i.e. the United Kingdom itself.)

Ripple in Time

From lostlosangeles:

(Abandoned barn, Vermont)

Swedish Car Cemetery

From Dave Brigham:

Every once in a while the blog ventures outside U.S. borders. In this case, to an auto graveyard in Sweden. Check out these pictures, and the video below:

http://bastnas.blogspot.com/

Sign, Sign, Everwhere a Sign

From Pete Zarria:

(Superior, Wisconsin)

(Yukon, Oklahoma)

(La Crosse, Wisconsin)

(Lebanon, Tennessee)

(Davenport, Iowa)

(Mercer, Wisconsin)

(Gallatin, Tennessee)

(Lebanon, Missouri)

Going, Going....

From Pete Zarria:

(Tobacco auction barn, Horse Cave, Kentucky)

Old Road

From lostlosangeles:

(Abandoned section of old I-95 in Newburyport, Mass.)

For shots of another abandoned highway section in Massachusetts, see January 24, 2011, "End of the Road."

Last Building Standing

From Dave Brigham:

Boston's West End was wiped off the map in the late 1950's and early '60's to make way for The Future, and it was a huge mistake.

Once densely packed and relatively low-slung the way Boston's North End still is, the West End was considered a slum, and so it was bulldozed to make way for low- and middle-income high rises. Those tall, ugly, spread-out buildings make up Charles River Park, and are now home mostly to luxury dwellers, according to the West End Museum.

Oddly, though, there is one building left from the old West End.

Located directly behind a General Service Administration federal building and very close to the TD Garden (home of the Bruins and Celtics) and spitting distance from the Leverett down-ramp from I-93, this building has four floors and is covered on two sides by a revolving series of billboards.

I'm not sure if each floor is a residence, or if there are offices there. I spied four cars on the property when I walked by. One of the cars doesn't look like it's moved since Larry Bird was running the parquet at the old Boston Garden.

There are two stories circulating online about why this building was spared when hundreds all around it were razed. The least interesting of the two has it that the building's tenants simply refused to leave, and the city didn't want to deal with having to haul them out. Seems to me residents of other buildings would have done the same thing, so why was this structure spared?

The other theory about why this building became the sole surviving connection to Boston's more squalid past involves the Mob. The owner of the building reportedly was the bookie of one-time Boston mobster Jerry Angiulo, and had connections to local officials and because of this, somehow he was allowed to keep his building. Maybe he had dirt on local pols, who knows.

Neither of these stories is particularly satisfying, and I don't believe either. Somebody tell me the truth!

Light It Up!

From Pete Zarria:

(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

(El Dorado, Kansas)

(Joplin, Missouri)

(Carthage, Missouri)

Fade to Black

From Dave Brigham:

Thirty years ago, this marquee read:

THE SENIOR SNATCH EAGER BEAVERS

My friends and I were in high school, and drove the 15 miles from our hometown to check out these ridiculously awesome, R-rated raunchfests. Through a little research, I learned that "The Senior Snatch" originally hit theaters and drive-ins in 1978 as "Surfer Girls," and "Eager Beavers" was released in 1975 as "The Swinging Barmaids."

The East Hartford Drive-in was actually in South Windsor, Connecticut, on Route 5. The East Windsor Drive-In was six miles up the road. I don't recall if we went to the latter, but I know we also checked out movies at the old Hartford Drive-in, the Berlin Drive-in (X-rated) and Rogers Corner drive-in. Other fantastic titles we saw included "Slumber Party Massacre" and "Last House On the Left."

The East Hartford Drive-in opened in 1954, and closed in 1984, according to the CinemaTour web site. My parents moved a few miles away from here several years ago. When I was visiting them around the holidays last year, I thought about the old drive-ins, but didn't get around to checking into it.

After doing a little research, I learned that the East Windsor theater had been turned into condos, but that there were remnants of the East Hartford place. So this past Thanksgiving, I set out from my parents' house to see what I could find. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to find, and how easy it was to walk around the site. I didn't spot one "No Trespassing" sign.

Here's more of what I found:

For more derelict drive-in movie theaters, see November 9, 2012, "Drive-out" and April 24, 2010, "Cars, Flicks & Weiners."