Downtown Dairy

While on business in Richmond Virginia, I looked down a side street and saw a strange but very cool building.

Built in 1914, the Richmond Dairy Company building remains one of Richmond’s best examples of the creativity and eccentricity of respected Richmond architecture firm Carneal & Johnston. The building was commissioned by the prosperous Richmond Dairy Company, which was started in 1890 by dairymen J.O. Scott, A.L. Scott and T.L. Blanton. The chain grocery stores and cardboard cartons forced the Richmond Dairy Company out of business in 1970, but the forty-foot tall milk bottles on either side of the front entrance to the building remain. The building has served many uses over the years, including its current form as rental apartments. – Photos courtesy me.  Text courtesy of: http://www.visitrichmondva.com/listings/Richmond-Dairy-Co-/1664/

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Monster House Revisited!

Well, if you previously visited the original Monster House post, here is the follow-up.  I did go to visit again and guess what?  The birds are gone!  So it appears that there were two large birds sitting on the chimneys at the same time.  It originally seemed that they may have been fake birds placed there to deter other roosting birds, but in fact they were roosting birds!

Here are photos of the front from a different angle, the side, and rear of the building.  You can clearly see that the birds have flown off.

But now a new strangeness appears…Take a look at the third photo. Zoom in to the middle and upper windows. Do you see eyes and faces?

Monster House!

It seems that this house has seen better days.  No one lives here anymore and no one cares.  But I can’t help to look at it every time I drive by.

This is the first time I took a photo of it.  It’s also the first time I noticed something strange about the house.  Click on the picture and look closer.  I don’t know if they are real or not.  I didn’t see them until I uploaded the photos.  Do you see them?

UPDATE:  Click here for part two.

Dinner in Philly – El Vez

We had a nice dinner with friends this weekend in Philadelphia.  We went to a place called El Vez which is popular for Mexican dishes.

We had a delicious “BAZOOKA” LIMON guacamole as an appetizer.  It is made with goat cheese, pistachio, chile flake and roasted tomato.

We tried the pulled pork tacos with slow roasted pork, avocado salsa and smoked jalapeno vinaigrette and sea bass tacos made with sweet potato puree, grilled scallions and fried jalapeno.  Delicious!

For dessert we enjoyed the El Vez flourless chocolate cake, peanut custard with caramelized bananas, chocolate sauce, peanut butter ice cream.  Also, the tres leches cake and orange flan.

Also pictured are shots of Philadelphia City Hall and a local landmark known as The Union League which was established in 1862.  The “League” was founded to suppress the rebellion of the American Civil War and to preserve the Union.

Remains of times long gone

 

 

 

We took a day hike into the Pine Barrens in South Jersey.  We found a lot of what we expected…sand, streams and wildlife. But then we found this old tower.  It appears to have an oven of sorts in it that had been modified over time.  Below is an explanation from Wikipedia.

During colonial times, the Pine Barrens was home to various industries. Bog iron was mined from bogs, streams, and waterways, and was worked in furnaces at Batsto, Lake Atsion, Ferrago, Hanover, and several other locations. Iron from these early furnaces was instrumental in supplying the American military with weapons and camp tools during the American Revolution and the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War. The bog iron industry fell off in the mid-19th century when iron ore could be mined more cheaply in Pennsylvania. Other industries such as paper mills, sawmills, and gristmills rose and fell throughout the years. Smaller industries such as charcoal-making and glass making also were attempted and met with varying degrees of success.