Abandoned and The Wrong Size in Everyday Ramblings

“Anna Crocker lived in this house. She was a bright and talented portrait artist and respected supporter of the arts. After graduating from the Art Students League in New York, William Ladd appointed her as both museum curator and art school principal. She remained curator and, in effect, director for 27 years. This house may also be distinguished as the original site for Nature’s Grocery.”

Some info about her and samples of her work…

I took the above picture about five days ago. Built in 1896 this house is half block away from me. I walk by it practically every day. It has been empty for about 5 months. The sign says that it is not for sale and the city is trying to find the owners. There used to be cats that lived there. And some people too. Renters. This cottage backs up against what was the shochet (the authorized kosher butcher).

I have been taking interesting atmospheric side trips in history today as I discovered a little bit of the backstory of the castle house (the one with the giant chocolate bunny in the yard). A very eccentric businessman built it in 1892. He owned a brick factory and it has no internal right angles. He called it Mount Gleall (a combination of his kid’s names, Gladys, Earl and Lloyd.) He only lived in it a year before they suffered a financial reversal. He would not let anyone female into the tower room with the great view.

It is positively crying out to have a poem written about it, don’t you think?

The castle house was abandoned for a long time in the 60’s and 70’s.

There was a horrific Spanish Flu epidemic here in which more than 1,000 people died concentrated in a couple of month periods between 1918 and 1923. They used what was then our Civic Auditorium (less than a mile away) as a morgue and hospital and during the peak 25 people died a day. They had red quarantine cards that folks had to put in their windows.

They, umm, ordered the wrong stove. So now this beautiful new stove is sitting out in the hall by my front door. The handyman seems confident he can adjust the cabinets to fit the stove. Most Honorable and I are both skeptical about this enterprise.

Stay tuned for more adventures in modern living tomorrow.

I need to take a shower and get ready to teach. It will be a small class tonight I think but one never knows.

Last updated July 28, 2015