Fredericksburg | Will B. Mackintosh

Tag Archive for Fredericksburg

Back off, Fredericksburg

February 11, 2014 / Will / 2 comments

Whose claim is more legitimate?

I clicked on this Free Lance-Star article about Erin Hamlin, the American who just won the bronze in luge in Sochi, expecting to find a feel-good human-interest story about a local athlete made good. Which is exactly what I found. Except that Hamlin isn’t from Fredericksburg (her aunt lives here), she’s from Remsen, New York, just outside of Utica. And now I’m mad because Fredericksburg is squatting on the local-girl-made-good human-interest story that rightfully belongs to my people. Lay off Oneida County, will ya? They’re in a 50-year drought of feel-good human-interest stories up there.

Category: Squirrels that Caught My Attention / Tags: Fredericksburg, olympics, Upstate

In Which I Enjoyed City Bureaucracy

February 11, 2014 / Will / No comments

This evening Brian and I attended the monthly meeting of the City if Fredericksburg’s Architectural Review Board. We had a proposal before the board, seeking their approval to replace the entry door and add some signage to Skin+Touch Therapy‘s new location on Caroline Street. Since the building dates to 1839 (although the ARB claimed 1820!) and it sits in the middle of the he historic district, we have had to go through endless layers of both structural and aesthetic approvals for all the renovations we have needed to make. I have to say I was a bit nervous about appearing before there ARB, because after all, aesthetics doesn’t seem like a comfortable area of expertise for a city bureaucracy. But I was really impressed with the meeting. The members of the board all seemed to have a clear architectural vision, and it wasn’t one that was hidebound or historico-pedantic. They quickly approved the proposals that were easy no-brainers, and asked thoughtful questions about the tougher calls. All in all, it made me very glad to be locating in the historic district, despite the extra bureaucracy.

Category: Squirrels that Caught My Attention, The Aspiring Handyman / Tags: architecture, Brian, Fredericksburg, historic district

Just another Sunday afternoon in Fredericksburg

January 27, 2014 / Will / No comments

Yesterday I got to spend the afternoon reading and writing at Hyperion Espresso, Fredericksburg’s main coffeeshop. It was a real treat, because life has been so busy recently that I haven’t had time to sit and think and absorb the atmosphere. The experience didn’t disappoint, because I was joined in my lazy Sunday afternoon contemplation by a group of reenactors in costume. It was a classic Fredericksburg moment.

Category: Squirrels that Caught My Attention / Tags: Fredericksburg, Photos

Midcentury Love

December 21, 2013 / Will / 2 comments

I have often argued that the square, blocky buildings of the 1940s-1970s that dominate American cityscapes don’t deserve all the hate that they get. A lot of them have very nice proportions, and I find their minimal adornment preferable to plastic historical pastiche that has dominated architecture since the 1980s. See for example my favorite plain midcentury building in out neighborhood of College Terrace in Fredericksburg, the Washington Building pictured at left. And now there’s a blogger who shares my feelings. Actually, he feels them much more strongly than I do, strongly enough to have developed an extremely impressive (and impressively productive) blog on the subject, Midcentury Mundane. I cannot express how much I love this blog, both its concept and its execution. Plus, lots of bonus Upstate New York love, and he even covered Fredericksburg’s “Big Ugly” Although he called it “not a very interesting and engaging building,” obviously I secretly love it. It provides your eye such a nice break from the cloying cuteness of Caroline St.

Category: Digital Life, Historian in the World / Tags: Fredericksburg, Kevin, Upstate

Christmas Approaches in Virginia

December 12, 2013 / Will / No comments

I can’t help it, I get sentimental around Christmastime. Too much early 20th century British literature as a child, I suppose. I get a contact high from nostalgia. Anyway, out friends Andy and Eric gave us this Christmas cactus last year, and it’s flowering right on time!

Category: Squirrels that Caught My Attention / Tags: Andy, Brian, Christmas, Eric, Fredericksburg

Columns-n-a-Crate

December 4, 2013 / Will / No comments

Get your Greek Revival here! Whole columns, crated and ready for installation. Buy in bulk and save! Enough to cover every church in Virginia and banquet hall in Astoria.

Category: Squirrels that Caught My Attention / Tags: Astoria, Fredericksburg, UMW, Virginia Architectural Pastiches

Creature of Habit

December 4, 2013 / Will / No comments

I drove to campus this morning because the car needed some love, and yet again, I forgot about it and walked home. Brian and Mabel and I had to head back up the hill to retrieve it this evening.

Category: Squirrels that Caught My Attention / Tags: Brian, Fredericksburg, Mabel

Places I Have Lived, in 1941

December 3, 2013 / Will / No comments

Yesterday Kevin sent me a great site put together by Yale that has made available 170,000 photos taken by the Farm Security Administration between 1935 and 1943 to document the last years of the Depression and the early years of World War II. When I was procrastinating today, I looked up three of the places where I have spent significant chunks of my life to see what life was like there in 1941. Read more

Category: Digital Life, Historian in the World / Tags: 1941, Fredericksburg, History, Kevin, Links, Photos, Upstate