Big Bridge

December 16, 2013, 10:37 am

New York, Niagara County, Lockport

Big Bridge. One of the widest bridges in the world; 399 ft. in width, 129 ft. in length. Built 1914.

(Bridges & Viaducts) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Pierce Mill

December 16, 2013, 10:42 am

≫ Next: Herring Highway

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District of Columbia, Washington

The last of several grain mills operating on Rock Creek during an era when most American mills derived their power from small streams located near an Indian site. The land was conveyed to Isaac Pierce by the Revolution patriot William Deakins in 1794. Mill built about 1820 by Isaac and Abner Pierce. Inherited by a nephew Pierce Shoemaker in 1851, and operated until 1897. Purchased by the Federal Government in 1890 and restored by the National Park Service.

(Colonial Era • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Herring Highway

December 16, 2013, 10:49 am

≫ Next: Clara Barton House

≪ Previous: Pierce Mill

District of Columbia, Washington

Peirce Mill Dam was completed in 1906 to create a scenic waterfall on Rock Creek. Since its construction, the dam has prevented spawning herring and other migratory and resident fish from swimming further upstream. A Denil fishway was installed in 2006 to provide fish access to the upper reaches of the creek. This fishway consists of a series of baffles inserted into a concrete channel. The channel passes between the stone walls located on the east side of the dam. The baffles act like rungs in a ladder. Now the fish can swim from level to level up and over the dam. Arrows point to the fishway entrance and exit. This fishway and the removal or alteration of other obstacles has restored the "Herring Highway", the ancestral spawning route of Blueback herring and Alewife. Pierce Mill is 4.4 miles upstream from the Potomac River. Rock Creek meanders 33 miles from its source in Montgomery County, Maryland through suburban and densely populated urban areas until it reaches the Potomac River. From there the water continues to flow southeast 112 miles to the Chesapeake Bay and another 80 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.

(Animals • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Clara Barton House

December 16, 2013, 10:56 am

≫ Next: Mobile Architecture

≪ Previous: Herring Highway

Maryland, Montgomery County, Glen Echo

Clara Barton House has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935. This site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States.

(Charity & Public Work • Patriots & Patriotism) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Mobile Architecture

December 16, 2013, 12:17 pm

≫ Next: Lambie Street

≪ Previous: Clara Barton House

Alaska, Anchorage

Athabascans were masters at designing a variety of shelters--simple and functional--that kept them both warm and mobile as they set out to hunt and trade.

Emergency shelters were constructed in minutes.
A wandering hunter could pile up brush to crawl under at night, dig a hole in as snow bank and ice over the interior with the heat of an oil lamp, or construct a conical tent by bending over and lashing together several alders, covering them with bark or caribou skin. Dirt and moss piled high along the sides provided insulation. A second layer of skin, moss, a thatch of grass, or willow brush kept out the rain.

The ends of a tent or lean-to were usually left open so hunters could keep watch.

Double lean-tos for larger groups were made by sharing a common frame and facing the opening.

(Inscription under the photo in the upper right)
Winter tent somewhere along the Yukon River, c.1898. In pre-contact times, the covering would have been of caribou skin instead of canvas.

(Inscription under the photo in the lower right)

Summer fish camp, 1919. This fish camp at the mouth of the Tolovana River, with birch bark canoes and dip nets in the foreground, also shows the use of post-contact canvas tents.

(Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Lambie Street

December 16, 2013, 12:21 pm

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Australia, New South Wales, Beresford, Cooma

This marker consists of two plaques placed back to back.

In the 1850s Cooma was developing in two areas, one around Lambie and Mulach Street, the other over the hill where Centennial Park and Sharp Street are now. Nevertheless for the first twenty years Lambie Street was the commercial centre of Cooma.

Lambie Street is registered by the National Trust as a heritage precinct. This is because many of Cooma’s oldest buildings are there and as modern development virtually passed it by, the houses are relatively intact. The early Victorian buildings range from modest cottages to two storey residences. Many are distinguished by the use of granite gneiss, a local granite, which can be worked into smooth rectangular blocks. Other buildings are constructed of over-sized bricks, peculiar to Cooma. James Hain, his son Joseph, and James Mawson were prominent Cooma builders in the second half of the 19th century and they were responsible for many of Lambie Street’s oldest houses.

The Lord Raglan Inn above was built in 1854 by James Hain, who obtained a publican’s licence (sic) in 1855, in the same year Samuel Shannon obtained a spirit merchant’s licence for a store in Lambie Street and in 1856 Dr Merryweather was practicing in Lambie Street.

Lambie Street was the location of the first hospital in town, the first court house, the first post office, the first school, and the first bank which opened in the Lord Raglan Inn in 1860 The Lord Raglan Inn is now the Raglan Gallery & Cultural Centre. It is at present open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday.

Second plaque

Lambie Street was named after John Lambie, the first Commissioner of Crown Lands for Monaro. He came to Cooma in 1842 and when Surveyor Townsend carried out his survey for the proposed new town in March 1849, he marked on his plan John Lambie’s house, an office and an old lock up in the area known as Mr. Lamie’s Paddock. Lambie’s house was a slab hut with a thatched roof located where the Hain Centre now stands.

The area at the junction of Lambie Street and Sharp Street became known as Royal Side or the Royal end of town after James Hain built the Royal Hotel in 1858. A few years later he built a stone general store across the road on Sharp Street. The Royal Hotel’s elaborate verandahs were added in 1900 and are the only street verandah’s (sic) in Cooma to survive the demolition orders of the 1950’s. The Hain family has continued to be a commercial presence on the Sharp Street side for the past 140 years.

(Roads & Vehicles • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Civil War Monument

December 16, 2013, 1:38 pm

≫ Next: Harpers Ferry Bolivar Veterans Memorial

≪ Previous: Lambie Street

Minnesota, Meeker County, Litchfield

The Grand Army of the Republic Badge

To the Honor and
Memory of the Loyal
Soldiers and Sailors
of the War of
1861 to 1865.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Harpers Ferry Bolivar Veterans Memorial

December 16, 2013, 9:11 pm

≫ Next: The Appalachian Trail and Benton MacKaye

≪ Previous: Civil War Monument

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Bolivar

This Memorial is dedicated to all from the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar District who served their country from World War I to the present. Their sacrifice and valor for the freedom of America will never be forgotten. For those who did not return, our undying gratitude. May God Bless America.
Dedicated May 30, 1993 by Helen P. Wiltshire

Members below died during their military service to their country
1. Quinn, Luke - USMC - Killed during John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal - Buried St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery - Harpers Ferry

2. Geary, William - USMC - KIA - Belleau woods, France - WWI

3. Hoke, Bernard - USA - WWI - Non-Combat

4. Newcomer, Daniel - USA - WWI -Died Flu - Texas

5. Webb, James E. - USA - WWI - Non-Combat

6. Ballenger, Oscar - USN - WWII - Missing at Sea - Pacific Ocean

7. Perry, Glbert, Jr. - USAAF - WWII - Non-Combat - Air Crash

8. Rider, William - USMC - WWII - Non-Combat - Air Crash

9. Rockenbaugh, William - USMC - KIA - WWII - Guadalcanal

10. Mahoney, William - USA - KIA - Viet[nam]

[Roll of Honored Veterans]

(Patriots & Patriotism • War, Vietnam • War, World I • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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The Appalachian Trail and Benton MacKaye

December 16, 2013, 9:58 pm

≫ Next: Galveston Island

≪ Previous: Harpers Ferry Bolivar Veterans Memorial

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry

The American Institute of Certified Planners
has designated
The Appalachian Trail
as a
National Planning Landmark
and
Benton MacKaye
as a
National Planning Pioneer

Conceived by Benton MacKaye in 1921 as a walking trail from New England to Georgia, the Appalachian Trail was a pioneering invention in regional interconnection. MacKaye's work in regional planning theory and practice also laid the foundations for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Rural Resettlement Administration program of the 1930s, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The National Trails System Act of 1968 made the Appalachian Trail the spinal cord of a fourteen-state greenway and the premier component of a national system of scenic and historic trails.

(Charity & Public Work • Environment • Man-Made Features • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Galveston Island

December 17, 2013, 6:10 am

≫ Next: St. John's Lutheran Church

≪ Previous: The Appalachian Trail and Benton MacKaye

Texas, Galveston County, Galveston

Few spots have played a more exciting role in the life of Texas than Galveston Island.

Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer, wrote of the cannibalistic Karankawa Indians when he was shipwrecked here in 1528. The island became headquarters for Jean Lafitte and other adventurers between 1815 and 1821.

Importance of the harbor was recognized as early as 1825 when Stephen F. Austin petitioned the Mexican government to establish a port.

Galveston became temporary capital of the Republic in April, 1836, when President David G. Burnet fled here at the approach of Mexican Gen. Santa Anna. After the revolution Galveston's place as first city of the Republic became fixed. Immigrants poured through the port. The Texas Navy was berthed here. With statehood in 1845 came continued growth; Texas first telegraph (1854), first national bank (1865), first electric lights (1888).

Capture and recapture of Galveston were principal Texas engagements of the Civil War. The port fell to blockading Union troops Oct. 4, 1862. It was retaken Jan. 1, 1863, by Gen. John B. Magruder and remained in Confederate hands.

Galveston was again on the nation's lips Sept. 8, 1900, when a hurricane packing winds of 120 mph swept a vast tidal wave across the island, killing 5,000. No other American disaster has taken a greater toll. The storm had two immediate results -- construction of a protective seawall 17 feet high and 7½ miles long and creation of a commission form of city government, an innovation that spread to other American municipalities.

The port remains one of the state's most important, handling more sulphur than any in the world. Important to sightseers and motorists are the toll-free ferries operated by the Texas Highway Department across the 2½-mile strait between the island and Port Bolivar.

(Disasters • Exploration • Settlements & Settlers • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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St. John's Lutheran Church

December 17, 2013, 2:49 pm

≫ Next: Grand Army of the Republic Hall / Litchfield's Historic Downtown

≪ Previous: Galveston Island

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry

The Reverend Doctor Josiah P. Smeltzer laid the cornerstone of St. John's Lutheran Church on April 30, 1850. The building was completed two years later and dedicated on August 1, 1852. Little more than seven years had passed when, at dawn on October 17, 1859, local physician John D. Starry ordered the church bell to be rung to alert Harpers Ferry that John Brown's Raid was under way. Many terrified residents fled the town proper and gathered at the church. Smeltzer, the church's pastor, wrote in his diary, "I never witnessed such a fright in any community as when the news fled that the Abolitionists of the north had taken the Armory and were killing our people."

Less than two years after shots were fired in Harpers Ferry, the Civil War began. Services here were soon suspended as Federal forces took over the church to use it as a hospital.

The war took its toll on the church. During the Battle of Harpers Ferry on September 15, 1862, a Confederate cannon ball fired from Maryland Heights struck and shattered part of the wall. The signs of repair are still visible. After the war, the church was slowly rendered fit for services, which resumed in 1869.

In 1908, dissension divided the congregation, and the church was closed. It reopened in July 1928 and remains in operation today. The church's interior remains intact, with the original pews in place. The church bell that rang on October 17, 1859, is accessed from the balcony.

(Churches, Etc. • Patriots & Patriotism • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Grand Army of the Republic Hall / Litchfield's Historic Downtown

December 17, 2013, 3:10 pm

≫ Next: Foundations of Freedom

≪ Previous: St. John's Lutheran Church

Minnesota, Meeker County, Litchfield

Grand Army of the Republic Hall
This brick fortress style building across from Central Park was built in 1885 by Civil War Union soldiers to help promote veterans causes and to provide assistance to veterans and their families.

The G.A.R. Hall was the home of Frank Daggett Post 35.

This building today remains basically the same as it was when the veterans were using it.

The G.A.R. Hall contains a collection of Civil War relics and G.A.R. memorabilia.

This is the only building of its kind in the State of Minnesota.

In 1961, the Meeker County Historical Society built a museum adjacent to the G.A.R. Hall.

This museum contains important artifacts from Meeker County and its past.

Marker donated by: V.F.W. Post 2818

Litchfield's Historic Downtown
Designated "Commercial District" by the National Register of Historic Places on March 1, 1996. Buildings in this district date from circa 1882 through circa 1945.

These buildings are strongly associated with Litchfield's historic role as an agricultural trade center on the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Line (later Great Northern Railroad).

The Litchfield Commercial Historic District is comprised of more than 40 buildings that collectively serve as an unusually intact example of a late 19th and early 20th century business district in a small Midwestern farming community.

Many of the commercial buildings in Litchfield were built with bricks manufactured locally at the "Brick Yard Farm" owned by Henry Ames and located 2 miles northeast of Litchfield.

Litchfield was named after a family of three brothers who helped finance construction of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad through the area and in other parts of the state... E. Darwin Litchfield, Egbert E. Litchfield & Edwin C. Litchfield.

Marker donated by: American Legion Post 104

(Man-Made Features • Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Foundations of Freedom

December 17, 2013, 5:48 pm

≫ Next: Heads versus Hands

≪ Previous: Grand Army of the Republic Hall / Litchfield's Historic Downtown

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry, including Anthony Hall (to your left), played host to large and small scenes in the epic human struggle for freedom and equality. In this building, the superintendent of the national armory contemplated how to strengthen the nation's military. On these fields, great armies battled over a divided land. Here, former slaves strove to obtain the education previously denied them by law.

[Aerial photo caption reads]
Storer College grew from a one-room schoolhouse in an abandoned armory building to a typical college campus by the time it closed in 1955. Today these buildings serve as a training center and offices for the National Park Service.

[Inset photo captions read]
During the Civil War, a war over the meaning of freedom, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the fields around you as staging, training, and battlegrounds.

Storer College, founded in 1867, was one of the first schools in the South open to African American students. Chartered as a school for all students, regardless of race or gender, Storer College was never able to achieve the goal of an integrated campus due to racial segregation laws.

(African Americans • Education • Man-Made Features • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Heads versus Hands

December 17, 2013, 6:19 pm

≫ Next: Storer College Veterans Memorial Gate

≪ Previous: Foundations of Freedom

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry

A national controversy regarding the education of African American students played out in the building before you. Throughout its history, Storer College faced great difficulty attracting funding. Most white benefactors favored trade school training for African American students. In order to attract better financial backing, Storer College opened this industrial arts building in 1905. The following year, W.E.B. DuBois spoke out on this campus against training only the hands and not the minds of African American students.

We want our children trained as intelligent human beings should be and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings, or simply for the use of other people. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire.
W.E.B. DuBois
1906 Address to the Nation
delivered on the Storer College campus

[Background photo caption reads]
Despite the controversy, students continued to earn liberal arts degrees from the school until it closed in 1955.

[Inset photo captions read]
Storer students took industrial arts training in carpentry, upholstering and caning in these classrooms.

Storer College struggled to find funding for liberal arts courses such as this chemistry class.

(African Americans • Education • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Storer College Veterans Memorial Gate

December 17, 2013, 6:48 pm

≫ Next: Liberty Bell Reproduction

≪ Previous: Heads versus Hands

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry

To the students of
Storer College
who fought in the
Civil War
1861 - 1865
Spanish American War
1898
The World War
1917 - 1919

May their illustrious example inspire us
to a loyal senses of duty to our country.

(African Americans • War, Spanish-American • War, US Civil • War, World I) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Liberty Bell Reproduction

December 17, 2013, 7:16 pm

≫ Next: Electric Street Lighting

≪ Previous: Storer College Veterans Memorial Gate

Alaska, Juneau Borough, Juneau

This reproduction of the Liberty Bell was placed on permanent display at the Treasury by direction of Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder. It is a duplicate of the original Liberty Bell in tone as well as in structural details and dimensions.

Identical reproductions were exhibited through the nation during the Independence Saving Bonds Drive, May 15-July 4, 1950, the Liberty Bell having been inspirational symbol for the drive. At the conclusion of the drive, Secretary Snyder, presented one of the reproductions to each state, to Alaska, to Hawaii, to Virgin Islands and to the District of Columbia for further public exhibition.

The Independence Drive was planned as a sales stimulus for the United States Saving Bonds program, with an appeal to the spirit of thrift—“Save For Your Independence”—as its slogan.

Out of the association of the Liberty Bell with the drive there developed a widespread rekindling of public interest in the story of the bell and its role in the great drama of Colonial America’s struggle for freedom.

There developed, too, an enhanced consciousness of the paramount importance to Americans of preserving our freedom for all time.

In dedicating this bell in the year 1950, Secretary Snyder expressed the hope that it “will serve forever as a symbol to the people of the United States of the independence which is their priceless heritage."

Funding for purchase of the Liberty Bell reproductions here referred to were provided by six American copper companies’ namely: American Smelting and Refining Company, Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Kennecott Copper Corporation, Miami Copper Company, Phelps Dodge Corporation, The American Metal Company, Limited.

The bells were cast at the foundry of the Sons of George Paccard in Annecy-Le-Vieux, Haute Savoie, France. The United States Steel Corporation’s American Bridge Company donated the supports. Transportation for the Bells during the Independence drive was provided by the Ford Motor Company.

(Patriots & Patriotism) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Electric Street Lighting

December 17, 2013, 7:29 pm

≫ Next: Vietnam War Memorial

≪ Previous: Liberty Bell Reproduction

Australia, New South Wales, Inglis, Tamworth

Tamworth N.S.W. was the first town in Australia to introduce electric street lighting by means of two 18kw steam driven Crompton dynamos. Electricity was supplied to 52 street lights using 140 Swan incandescent lamps and 7 Crompton carbon arc lamps.

9th November 1888

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Vietnam War Memorial

December 17, 2013, 7:31 pm

≫ Next: Church and School

≪ Previous: Electric Street Lighting

Australia, New South Wales, Inglis, Tamworth

For Australia
1962 – 1973

Their bodies are buried in peace and their names liveth for evermore

Killed in Action
From
Tamworth Region

213780 Pte Wilson M.A.F.
1 RAR 8 Jan 66

2781465 2 Lt Sharp G.C.
6 RAR 18 Aug 66

23916 Maj Bourne D.M.
5 RAR 14 Feb 67

781899 Pte Birchell M.J.
6 RAR 17 Feb 67

18665 Spr Wride D.S.
1 Fd Sqn 10 Jul 67

1731955 Pte Weston L.J.
2 RAR 30 Sep 67

2137680 Tpr Woyzey D.J.
B Sqn 3 Cav Regt 14 Dec 69

(War, Vietnam) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Church and School

December 17, 2013, 7:31 pm

≫ Next: The Only Classified Brothel in Victoria

≪ Previous: Vietnam War Memorial

West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry

The school and mission work are inseparably interwoven with each other.
Storer teacher - Kate J. Anthony

The Curtis Memorial Freewill Baptist Church served as a spiritual anchor in the lives of both the students and the teachers of Storer College. Life was sometimes difficult at Storer College, one of the first schools for African Americans in the segregated South. Students and teachers alike faced hostility from local white residents, but found solace in religion. In 1894 the Freewill Baptists built this church to accommodate the needs of this growing community.

[Photo captions read]
The best singers from the school provided music every Sunday for the church. Students were required to attend daily chapel services and two church services a week. Many remained lifelong members of the church.

Windows in the church are dedicated to some of the northern Freewill Baptist congregations that helped to support Storer College through their missionary programs.

(African Americans • Churches, Etc. • Civil Rights • Education) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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The Only Classified Brothel in Victoria

December 17, 2013, 7:49 pm

≫ Next: Porcupine Flat Dredge

≪ Previous: Church and School

Australia, Victoria, Campaspe (Shire), Echuca

This Establishment Built About 1878 Is The Only Classified Brothel in Victoria

The house consists of 3 small rooms on each floor, the upper rooms being reached by a staircase leading into a sheltered lane running off Little Hopwood street, making it possible for even the most respectable citizen to visit the scarlet ladies undetected.

After the nearby Murray Hotel was built in 1879, the Brothel was run in conjunction with the pub and became known for its ‘honky tonk’ dancing and immorality.

In 1897 the licencing court met to reduce by 20 the number of hotels in Echuca – then about 80. The licensee of the Murray Hotel, in defending herself against hints of immorality, said hers was a respectable establishment and gave the following details...

Her patrons were “wharf hands, Tradesmen and working men generally”; there was no “high kicking” on her premises, though she did employ pianists – 8 girls in 8 months; she had no knowledge of a girl called Flocker Liz... The licensing court was evidently not convinced and the Hotel’s licence was cancelled in November 1897.

The former Murray Hotel is the 2 storey brick building still standing on the esplanade just south of here. (It was) used as the Bank of Victoria in the TV series “All the Rivers Run.”

This area is the hub of early Echuca. Henry Hopwood, founder of the town, built his first Slab Inn nearby. His Prefabricated Iron Store, Butchery and Bakery were close to this site...

(Entertainment • Industry & Commerce • Notable Buildings • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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