Carolyn Roland-Your Delaware and Chester County Historic Homes Specialist

A meeting will be held on November 19, 2009 at 7 PM at the Carriage House in Rockwood Park on Washington St. Extension to discuss a New Castle County Department of Special Services sewer rehabilitation project which is scheduled to begin in late 2010.

If your home in North Wilmington is to be affected, you have probably received a letter notifying you of the meeting. The interesting part about this notice is that it will have a picture of your house and markers showing where the rehabilitation will be located. I received a notice, and it says that at no cost to the homeowner, the County will line the pipe with a new cured in place pipe liner. The liner will form a new water tight pipe inside the existing lateral reducing leakage, resisting roots, and extending the life of the service lateral. The county will install the liner from the County sewer line to a point between the sewer and the existing cleanout, with no excavation required. This will be good news for those of us who have been fighting tree roots for years. The old sewer lines are terra cotta, and even if you have replaced the line on your property with PVC, as I have, the roots get in where they meet the sewer at the street.

Wow, I went outside and took a picture at dusk to celebrate, and rather than looking down in the ground, I looked up in the trees at the beautiful sky!

The Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania features both the white "Thousand Bloom" chrysanthemum with 718 flowers blooming on ONE stem, and the shield shaped Seiko mum with 172 flowers developed by only one other grower, master horticulturist Tadashi Imafuko, of Japan.

The variety of chrysanthemums is amazing, with these spider mums just 2 more examples of plants on display.

The East Conservatory of Longwood Gardens is centered on chrysanthemums and fountains, with a water feature running the length of the arched glass roof, while the Exhibition Hall features a lawn surrounded by more mums and topiary bees flying above the lawn.

Wandering through the Conservatory, one travels past the changing displays to the always beautiful and fragrant Orchid House, Mediterranean Garden, Bonsai, Palm House, and areas where plants are being cultivated and developed for future exhibits. We in the Brandywine Valley are very lucky to count Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square among our many treasures!

Preservation Delaware's annual meeting was held November 7, 2009 at the historic St. Joseph's at Providence Creek School in Clayton, Delaware. Originally founded in 1896 by the Josephite Order and financed by future Saint Katherine Drexel, heir to a Philadelphia family fortune, the vision was to give a better life to black boys from inner city locations from as far away as Chicago.

The idea was to teach the boys useful trades such as printing and machine trades and help them rise above impoverished backgrounds. Sister Katherine Drexel and her sister, Louise bought 400 acres in rural Clayton, Delaware, an area not known to be friendly territory for Catholics. The boys at this historic black school had to be walked into town two by two, in silence, during outings.

Used as a school until 1972, the property with multiple brick classroom buildings and the original church, is now called St. Joseph's Center for Community Service. There are plans to work with nearby Delaware State University, an historically black university, to restore the church on the property, estimated to be a $2.3 million project.

Marc Ostroff, the Executive Director of the Center, points out one of the 2 original windows, Jesus at Gethsemane. The period photo is of the church before a drop ceiling was installed and the pews were sold off. The Josephite Order, headquartered on Calvert St. in Baltimore, still retains some of the original elements at their headquarters. The Center is now looking for some of the alumni and teachers, and several have been found. Having been curious about what the inside of the church looks like after having seen it from the outside on frequent visits to the Smyrna/Clayton area, I am grateful to Preservation Delaware for opening this building for their meeting.

For the last 28 years, the Junior League of Wilmington has sponsored a giant "garage sale" at various locations in Wilmington. The Whale of a Sale usually is held in vacant retail space, the locations echoing the latest downturn in commercial real estate. This year, it will be held at the former Vanity Fair location in the Shipyard Shops, a location that didn't work out for outlet shops at 900 S. Madison St. in Wilmington.

Gowns for $20, furniture, player pianos, all bring in buyers; last year about 2400 people came, raising $35,000 for local charities. The doors open 8 am Saturday, November 7, 2009. There will be a line at the door! It ends at 1 pm, and bring your own containers, and there are no dressing rooms. Admission is free, and you will be helping many local people who benefit from the work of the 500 volunteers who put the sale together.

The Architectural Treasures of Buffalo New York are many, and a recent visit there highlighted several, including this magnificent pile of Medina Sandstone which was designed just after the Civil War by Henry Hobson Richardson. The Buffalo State Hospital, originally sat on 200 acres north of the city, and consisted of 11 buildings. It is in a rather uncertain state right now, with a chain link fence around much of the main building. Buffalo State University now stands on part of the original farmland which surrounded the building.

Another great Buffalo building is on Main St., downtown. The Ellicott Square Building, 1895-6 was designed by Daniel Burnham with Charles B. Atwood. At the time of its completion, it was called the largest office building in the world. Its glass covered concourse is one of Buffalo's most ornamental public spaces. Its concourse is so lovely that a wedding reception was being set up the day we were there.

Contrasting all this delicacy is the nearby Erie Community College building, originally designed to house Federal Courts and designed by James Knox Taylor, architect of the U.S. Treasury. It had later tenants and was in danger of being torn down in 1969, when a critic called it a "monstrous pile of death-like stone." Preservationists thought otherwise, and in 1972 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places!
These are just a few of the great buildings that make Buffalo an interesting place for an out-of-town architecture lover and Realtor in the historic home field.