"Vernacular Cracker" Closing May 28 Re-post: Heather McPherson's Cabbagetown House Portraits

CLOSING: "House Portraits - House Painters - Vernacular Cracker" at VintageATL. Please come.
Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 6:00pm - 9:00pm
VintageATL 517 Flat Shoals Ave, Atlanta, Georgia 30316



We have a new pieces by William Mize and Joe Dreher (JoeKingATL).

We have three of Heather McPherson house portraits on loan. Here are re-post that shows some the rest.

Heather's House Portraits of Cabbagetown from ArchtectureTourist.com January 19, 2012

You should consider commissioning Heather to do a house you love.

Full disclosure #1: Heather McPherson is Sam's daughter. Sam McPherson is my friend, my daughter's too. Katherine and I are especially devoted to Sam as only music students can be devoted to a favorite teacher.



So of course I went to Heather's first solo show at Get This Gallery last Saturday. I've followed Heather and enjoyed her work for a couple of years. If you are an in-town architecture tourist, you've probably seen her work. She's getting somewhere.


Here's Heather, coat on her arm next to my tall son, getting a lot of attention at her opening.


Full disclosure #2: I was and I am touched by her house portraits, plywood cut to shape, drawn and painted. The houses are all in Cabbagetown.


But they are familiar to anyone from a Southern mill-town, including High Point where I grew up.

Full disclosure #3: I am impossibly sentimental. Heather's houses made me remember.


My mom preferred the clothesline even after she got a dryer.


This summer I searched for my grandfather's house in High Point. I couldn't find it. It may be gone and the neighborhood isn't so hot now.

If Heather could have painted it's portrait, maybe his great great grands could know him a bit better.


Cabbagetown is a going concern, a real community in a house museum.



Folks put their yard waste on the curb every week.



This end of the house has some stories to tell.



You can do color in Cabbagetown.



Heather shows them as they are today, modern living in a century old setting.



Not all evolution is elevating.


It's uncanny to see them this way. The real houses are shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors. Cut out and separated, these could be anywhere in the rural south.


But this is how they look. Heather's paintings ring true to me.

Full Disclosure #4: You should consider commissioning Heather to do a house you love before it's gone. Architect: This would be an extraordinary gift for your clients.

Uncanny Plus-Sized Neel Reid Design With 2/3 Fluted Columns

On Saturday I instagrammed (@terrykearns) the picture below from Peachtree Heights. Jason Cook responded. "It's a Neel Reid."

That would explain something: This giant house made me feel great. This is true of all five Neel Reid's I've visited. Have you toured one? The pictures can't capture the feeling.

Why don't we just keep doing them like this?


"Job 503 Robert Alston house 1922-23 HRA. AHS. Grady, pp. 135-41" from J. Neel Reid, Architect: Of Hentz, Reid & Adler and the Georgia School of Classicists by William R. Mitchell Jr.

Though the rooms were cluttered for the estate sale, the spaces seemed perfect to me. 


It's huge, see the red sweatshirt guy in the doorway? But my brain isn't thinking BIG. It's thinking "pretty" and "harmony" and it's thinking, "These folks have REALLY arrived."


It takes a lot of detailing to get delightful harmony. These closer you look, the more details you see. The double doors open to the kitchen / keeping room.


I only saw the public rooms and they were big but no detail called attention to itself. The rooms were compositions in space, proportion and detailing put together for my pleasure.

I didn't notice the details at first, just the feeling.


My experience was straightforward but there was nothing simple about it.

But what about these columns?


What do you call 2/3 fluted columns?


Looks like brick / column meet-up might have had some rot issues over the years.

The Wedding in the Field at "The Farm" north of Rome, Georgia

Best to Mary Lou and Ben, married four days so far. They got hitched at "The Farm" in Big Texas Valley north of Rome, Georgia. We were honored to be there and enjoyed a picturesque 36 hour adventure in the loving atmosphere that binds friends and strangers for a little while at weddings. But I'm a sentimental man.


It was out in the former pasture, it was hot, and it was perfect.


There was a dinner the night before.


I don't know who designed the stables. Anyone? Anyone?


The bridal party dressed here.


The testimonials.


On Saturday we sampled Rome, there isn't anything in Georgia like Rome. You can drive right to the top of Myrtle Hill Cemetery and we did.


One view from Clock Tower Hill.

 
We had lunch on the Broad Street sidewalk and made some new friends. That's Dusty Mullinax with the flag, he's a SCAD and Sacred Heart Tattoo alum. This must be one of the best streets in Georgia.

The groom, the dad and the groomsmen prepared in this 40 second video.


At 0:27 I walk out to the venue itself.


It was an all ages event.


After dinner the first dances began.

Best wishes to Mary Lou and Ben and to all the loved ones.

Academy of Medicine has my Favorite Men's Room in Atlanta - Terry's Tiny Tour

It's formal and formidable: The Historic Academy of Medicine at Georgia Tech and I go every chance I can get. Designed by Philip Shutze and restored to tip top condition, there's no place like it in Atlanta.



On Wednesday it was the Atlanta Studies Symposium (terrific event, free, mark your calenders for next year). I'll write more about it if I have time.



This is the Historic Academy of Medicine.



Enter here.


Terry's Tiny Tour: The best men's room in Atlanta? Video 2:25 with a bit of bubbly music:





Is the ladies room just as good?

Demolition Watch: Go See This Little Oakhurst Landmark Before It's Gone

We've lost bigger buildings, finer designs, and more historic places lately. But this funky little flatrion - I'm taking it pretty hard. I have an uncanny attachment to it and I'm not the only one.

It was still there on Friday May 1. Go see, there's a map at the bottom of this post.


It was last the Tabernacle Missionary Holiness Church. Before? Do you know? Do you have a picture?

" 102 Fifth Ave. was built c. 1916-1920. I suspect the City of Decatur is anxious to see this parcel open up for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being the current owner is a religious, i.e., tax-exempt, entity. When the City Commission approves the bid tonight, it will place a $21,000 lien on the property to cover the demolition costs, etc. Expect to see soon a request to rezone and redevelop the property so that the City can add it to the tax digest." Thanks to David Rotenstein



On one of our most picturesque streets, the oddest building is the most memorable.

" Bid Award.
Recommend accepting a proposal from Leon Benton Construction, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia in the amount of $18,750 for the demolition and removal of a dilapidated building of the building at 102 Fifth Avenue. "


Somebody must have lived up there.


Why did they cover the brick?


Are folks squatting there?

If you can't get by, here's the video, about five minutes long.





From Dekalb County Tax Records


Go See.

More pictures of Tabernacle Missionary Holiness Church 102 5th Ave Decatur Georgia.

"Most landmarks and focal points in cities - of which we need more, not fewer - come from the contrast of use radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast of the inherent difference ... noble buildings ... set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991