Purcell and Elmslie, Architects

Firm active: 1907-1921

Minneapolis, Minnesota :: Chicago, Illinois
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania :: Portland, Oregon

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Editor's Note:  Yes, this is a blog.  Some webs call this the "What's New" page.  I  jot down informal musings about what discoveries came to hand as I added material, and reminisce about the twenty-plus years of experience along the Path.  These Grinds are and always have been intended to be very personal, off-the-cuff notes made for myself, mostly, as a way to keep perspective on my own experience, knowledge, and understanding in the Caravan.  In short, while there are archival references and anecdotal reports sprinkled about here and there, much said here in the Grinds falls in the category of foggy reminiscence, speculation, or opinion. Have fun. 

11/18/2007
 

 
Terra-cotta detail, cornice
 Edison Shop
 Purcell and Elmslie
Chicago, Illinois 1912 [demolished]		 Surprise, surprise, though why should it be? The terra-cotta always seemed monochrome in the archival shots, and now this revelation to turn the world upside down.

Diastro, Redux. On October 18, 1996, an early incarnation of this site suffered a catastrophic loss when a hard drive crash joined with a failed tape backup to consume the hundreds of images that constituted what was then known as Progressive Architecture On-Line (the shadow of this event can still be found at the Wayback Machine). Nearly eleven years later, shy only by a matter of three weeks, an external hard drive containing the well of raw data accumulated since then dried up with a corrupted file allocation table on a 160 GB I/Omega external hard drive. Fortune favors the prepared, who may in this instance be defined as those who practice regular backup. While much of the data was, indeed, resident on DVD copies, the summer had been long and prosperous with receipts from the field, as it were, and the last backup was dated July 17, 2007. Need I point out that Mercury went retrograde on October 11th? Took a month to start up here again.


 

Lobby rotunda
 Woodbury County Court House
 Purcell and Elmslie, associated architects
 Sioux City, Iowa   1916
Photograph © 2007 by Tom Shearer. All rights reserved.		 A view from the universe where this is a temple, with God in the aspect of a Cyclops. OM!

Relieved of scarce cash for some file recovery software and a great deal of time tediously spent, I was able to regain about 95% of the data not stored in the interim. This included a range of documents, mostly research PDFs and image scans, among them a tidy number sent to me concerning the Woodbury County Court House, the Lawrence Fournier house in Minneapolis, writings by Claude Bragdon, and other research materials, plus about 200 yet-to-be-Ground images, mostly from Tom Shearer. Being the stand up guy that he is, which is to say a Minnesotan, Tom leapt into the maelstrom of my distress and dispatched by earth mail another hard drive loaded with his entire catalog of Prairie images--from which stock the Grind is again generously illustrated. Tip o' the hat to Providence and the native charms of Minnesota. More about Tom and a promising project arises below.
 

Court room electrolier
 Woodbury County Court House
 Purcell and Elmslie, associated architects
 Sioux City, Iowa   1916
Photograph © 2007 by Tom Shearer. All rights reserved.

The arrowhead slices, embraced by a grid, are always a static geometric line pointed downward, into the fecund dynamic of phenomenological possibility. The realm of the unchanging eternal principle is assuming expression in the ever plastic substance of material being. The result of this penetration is a crystallized moment in life, evoked by the sire of movement implied in upwelling arcs. Sometimes the result is polychromatic leaves and berries and flower pods, other times it's a pure hemisphere of white light, as above.

Woe betides those who can't believe this had intended metaphysical meaning. I am always stunned when people say that I am just imagining things, as I really don't think I have that vast of an imagination. George did.

Other Prairie architects, be they named whatever they maybe be, I think missed expressing an important substance when their lines remained purely angular. To my eye, anyway, there is always something missing, an incompletion of understanding and alignment. Always so determined to be the messenger...unable to receive.

 Babson Biography. In reference to the above image from the Edison Shop, news came of a biography being put together for Henry Babson. Elizabeth Dawsari, a breeder of Arabian thoroughbreds who happens also to be the librarian for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, contacted me about the P&E connection. Considering the total omission of any mention of the firm's highly significant work (2 major houses in Madison, Wisconsin, and the extensive Juniper Point estate buildings along with the Bradley Bungalow in Woods Hole, Massachusetts) in the biography of Charles R. Crane a few years ago, I was heartened that the Babson project was interested in being inclusive. I have been asked to contribute the essay.

Turns out there is an unexpected connection between Crane and Babson, beyond being critically important P&E clients. Both men imported Arabian horses to America. Babson bought his in Egypt, and the line still exists as Babson Straight Egyptians. At one point, some of the Babson horses and the Crane horses crossed bloodlines, and this breeding will be mentioned in the forthcoming biography. I will use the excuse to wave the banner for the contribution of both men as captains of democracy in their architectural pursuits, thus correcting, if only a little, the failure of the Crane tome.

The Fountainhead. During his short time in the Sullivan office, Purcell was put to drafting a landscape plan, specifically a rose garden, for Louis Sullivan's summer cottage in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. As most regular readers already know, that structure was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but a nearby house that Sullivan designed (collaboratively with Frank Lloyd Wright) for James Charnley and a third cottage also part of this historic cluster were severely damaged.  Tony Walker, an Apprentice during my tenure at Taliesin, sends along an interesting link that shows the stymied progress of possible restoration. The article on Bloomberg.com notes that the Charnely Cottage in Ocean Springs was completed before the more famous house for this client in Chicago (now owned by the Society of Architectural Historians), and therefore may be of critical pedigree in the claim to the title "first modern house in America."

A Spout. A leader to this Sullivan article appears on the much-to-be-lauded Prairie Mod site, which is what I would be doing if I had the opportunity. An emporium for ideas, information, podcasts, and derivative products (both reproduction and contemporary), Prairie Mod subtitles itself "The Art of Living in the Modern World." Developed and maintained by the "PrairieMod Squad...a collective of twenty and thirty-something designers/entrepreneurs based in and around Chicago, Illinois," the site offers free goodies, including a Prairie font, along with a steadily accumulating archive of blog entries and articles. Ah, still to be young, filled with ambition and energy in the wonder of it all. Design has pretty much worn off of me, and I am left with just history.

No, I don't normally plug non-historical sites, but this one is really a living, breathing example of Progressive intelligence at work. They do have a quality perspective that deserves furthering, even if I don't always embrace their particular verge in Modern design. My bad.


 

Detail, court room electrolier
 Woodbury County Court House
 Purcell and Elmslie, associated architects
 Sioux City, Iowa   1916
Photograph © 2007 by Tom Shearer. All rights reserved.

 There is in this image everything good you need to know, on all levels, everything rendered perfectly in the metaphor of geometric ecstasy--even evil is represented by the unnatural intrusion of the florescent light boxes.
 
Prairie Treasure. A number of constraints have always been placed on Organica, and on the Purcell & Elmslie pages in particular. Something else wants doing.

First, the site was originally built and served as part of the HyperFind information management system prototyped for the University of Minnesota Libraries Archives and Special Collections during the 1990s. The database containing both many P&E images and texts, as well as about 1,000 images and numerous research articles found at the sadly flagging Prairie School Exchange, also holds a wide array of finding aids and facsimile documents from the Social Welfare History Archives, Children's Literature Research Collections, and, added later when I tried to extend Apprentice access at Taliesin West, the inventory and many digital images of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives (these obviously cannot be opened to public access here, even though they still reside in the system). The arrangement has always been oriented primarily toward the non-commercial goal of facilitating research, a direction that lent itself to simplistic graphics design that was also spawned out of the code generating the web page returns out of the database. This now primitive effect is especially visible in the 1994 vintage The Prairie School On-Line.

Second, there is no place in such an architecture for interpretation and commentary beyond a minimal amount of wink and nod. While the Grind is a popular blog, it was not intended to be a vehicle for my own formal musings, such as there ever may be more here beyond the Minnesota 1900 essay; indeed, the P&E pages were always meant as votive offerings on my part, not droppings from walking the dog. The Grind has sort of been a catch basin, rather than a vessel for what I might call real writing. The opportunity for the lyricism in my heart is limited here.

Third, there is a wide array of events, products, books, and related materials that are worthy of being brought up (like Prairie Mod does), but which do not fit the reference idiom driving Organica. Plus, with the wolves pacing outside the door of this hard-to-pay for LA apartment, I'd like to get some kind of revenue stream that supports the $1200 or so a year it costs my pocket to keep serving these web pages. My bad, and never mind my many hours of labor.
Bench light
 Woodbury County Court House
 Purcell and Elmslie, associated architects
 Sioux City, Iowa   1916
Photograph © 2007 by Tom Shearer. All rights reserved.

For a number of years I have wanted to write commentaries on the panoply of books, articles, and other media that form the literature of progressive American architecture. I have also wanted to make it possible for people to point and click in order to acquire these books, something that Amazon makes readily satisfied. These days many wonderful products are becoming available, too, that can bring some support to this endeavor through various affiliate programs. None of that is appropriate to Organica. Then along came Tom Shearer with all his tremendous gift for seizing the soul of not only P&E buildings but also the passion still burning in those of Sullivan, poor old vacillating George Washington Maher, and all the rest.

I have felt drawn strongly to collaborate with him to produce a book that supports the power of his photographs to convey the idea behind the objects. Like me, Tom believes in the democracy of information that is at the heart of the Web. His idea to use a published book as, essentially, a portal to link with a larger presentation in a web site matched my own instinct and general intentions. So we are in the process of creating a separate domain where these functions can be grown in proper manner. The proposed book, together with other iterations of his photography in the form of limited edition prints, posters, cards, and so forth, in conjunction with my writings and reviews, are to be served at Prairie Treasure. While only a raw construction page is up at the moment, we are hopeful of regular if perchance modest continuing advance in the near future. Wish us luck, and keep us in your bookmarks.
 

Sunday School room
Westminster Presbyterian Church,  alterations
 Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie
Minneapolis, Minnesota  1910
Source: IMAGES, University of Minnesota Libraries		 Bits and Pieces. John Panning, proprietor of the extremely valuable resource of The Prairie School Traveler, builds and repairs organs for a vocation. This gets him into churches a lot, imagine that, and a recent travel to Minneapolis saw him standing in the remains of the Sunday School room designed by P&E for Westminster Presbyterian Church. The notion of remains is very apt. There are missing doors and bookcases, and nothing at all survives of the original finish save some wood, a little glass, and the brick and stone of the fireplace. Stencils have been renewed, but I wonder at the drab palette, though maybe they did reference the original stencil boards and I just have a jaundiced eye. There is the strangest lattice containing a clock mounted above the mantel, something that bemused me no end and which John guesses must be some reference to the great sawed wood grille in the breezeway of the E. S. Hoyt house in Red Wing. He has shared photographs on his site. No luck yet on finding any of those little chairs stashed away anywhere in the attic. Keep looking!

More shards are being generated in Chicago, this time from the Plymouth Building designed by architect Simeon B. Eisendrath, who had been in the Adler & Sullivan office. The balustrade parts being auctioned last month bear a resemblance to the Guaranty Building, said the seller, but were notable for the addition of a grid (which is also seen in the Schlesinger & Maher panels). Made by Winslow Brothers, the black paint was added in the 1940s. Lurking beneath is the original copper plating. The link won't last forever, but at this writing you can still view the original eBay description. If you've got $1600, I bet one can be scared up for your holiday gift giving (or receiving).

Another bit directly involving Purcell turned up for sale on the Internet recently. A bronze door plate from the Union Trust Building in St. Louis designed by Sullivan was offered for $800. Since the building was constructed in 1893, there was a shade of mystery about why a drawing by Purcell for this very door plate, executed during his time at the Sullivan office in 1903, remains in the Purcell Papers. Some solution is suggested by a nice little article, tutored by Tim Samuelson concerning another doorknob in the Auditorium Building, with note of Purcell chiming in to Richard Nickel. 
I think it very probable that Purcell sketched the Union Trust door plate from a sample lurking in the Auditorium Tower like the one for the Saint Nicholas Hotel as an exercise, since there was otherwise little billable work to do. That is, of course, when George and William weren't keeping their hands from the devil's work with entries into various competitions by Purcell.
Staircase
Plymouth Building
Source: (left and above): eBay listing

 

Doorknob
Union Trust Building
Louis Sullivan, architect
St. Louis, Missouri  1893
Source: Antique Door Knobs

Passageways Resumed. One effect of living on the edge of the abyss is that long term intentions are often submerged by the exigencies of immediate survival. Like the recently rediscovered city at the bottom of the Bay of Cambay (and carbon dated to 8500 BC, so go figure), I was surfing through the P&E pages and found an array of tasks left incomplete from antediluvian times BCE (Before Current Employment). The early essays written by Purcell as an account of his childhood, education, and apprenticeship years are now up in the "Review of Gebhard Thesis" (1950s) manuscript. Those heretofore stalled out accounts  include his year long tour of Europe and Asia Minor with George Feick in 1906 (William Gray Purcell - Part VI) and out-of-chronological-sequence notes concerning a 1902 stint in the Oak Park offices of Ezra Roberts, which Purcell takes as an opportunity to remember the talents of Roy Hotchkiss, chief designer in the Roberts office (William Gray Purcell - Part VII). In this latter section I have also started to revise the formatting to include a sidebar for footnotes, related links, and illustrations; and the line widths now match those of the original manuscript.
 

  Title lobby card
4D Man (1959)
Universal Pictures		 Who knew it was even possible there was life after Bragdon?  
New Resources. If wishes were horses, Babson Straight Egyptians or not, everyone would eventually want to ride. A great equestrian advance for researchers is taking place through the many digital initiatives emerging on the Web to provide access to rare periodicals and scarce journals of great value in deeper study of the Progressive period. While the world might seem divided and thus conquered between the commercially supported ventures of Google and Microsoft, who pay for digitization of library collections in exchange for certain restrictive rights, there was recently been announced the  participation by eighty major libraries in the Open Content Alliance hosted at Archive.org for "building a digital archive of global content for universal access." A reading of the New York Times piece describing the philosophy and technology of this collaboration is well worth your while and gives hope that all is not lost for democratic thinking.

Among the periodicals now available as (hefty, 100-200 MB) PDF downloads through Archive.org are complete or near complete runs of The Architectural Record, American Architect, and House and Garden during the late 19th and early 20th century. Project Gutenberg, which early on nobly provided access to text files of important monographs, is now searchable through the Archive.org portal, but this valuable effort was always limited by the lack of included illustrations. Book scans added in the new paradigm of PDFs maintain the relationship between text and graphics that is so essential to many architectural publications, now with color, be they monthly or monograph. Search is easy, and I'm sure you'll find many worthy of the bandwidth to acquire, but here's a few of my own favorites with the two original 4D Men upfront:

Most significantly in terms of the fountainhead and another spout:

And it was really nice to see that the very, very rare biography Life of Abraham Lincoln. For the young man and the Sabbath School written and published by William Cunningham Gray in 1867 through his Elm Street Publishing Company is also available. This book by his grandfather was undoubtedly among the very first Purcell read about this martyred President, whose life was still conversation around the Oak Park dining table as Purcell was growing up (PDF 12 MB). I'm going to try and get Dr. Gray's quintessential Musings by Camp-Fire and Wayside (1901) added directly.

  

Among other search terms on Archive.org that return a Lydian wealth of period information related to the Progressive era are "Columbian Exposition," and "American architecture" (which will kickstart you toward to all those wonderful magazines abovementioned).

With that, this Grinds to a halt for the time at hand.
Coming up.  Five essays by Purcell about George Elmslie, full of interesting observations concerning how George worked and his relationship with Sullivan, plus all of Elmslie's publications (or at least those I've ever seen), all embraced with more lensing effects from Tom Shearer. And maybe, just another plug for Prairie Treasure.

Historical Grindstones

    The More Amusing, Memorable, and Perhaps Insightful Grinds
The Chronological Perspective

 

Om Mani Padme Hum!, bring where a Portland church by Purcell becomes a Buddhist temple, and a visit to Lawrence Fournier's house; and Scrumdiddlyumptuous, being a relish for the eye in a tribute to Caravan photographer Tom Shearer.

Pass the Ammunition, with a review á la Salieri of personal events sandwiched between more fabulous images from Tom Shearer, a post card from William [Wilhelm Miller], and putting a false rumor sweeping the Winona prairie to the sticking place; and Clearing the Underbrush, with notes of properties for sale and another advance in Passageways.

Wonder of wonders. I'm back, again, which is apparently some sort of lifecycle, but more importantly through the kindness of an researcher in the Caravan we learn that something was actually built heretofore thought only a project; and A Hunting We Will Go, with comment about how hard it is these days to hire a drafter, as it was when Parker Berry might have become part of the P&E Team.

Happy New Year, sharing new photographs and information about a number of P&E commissions, with notes on the Portland era and the threat to the Woodbury County Court House, and New Thoughts for Old, in which a secret of the path become revealed to my lately surprised eyes.

Polling Day, with note of another Sullivan loss and the advent of our own P&E elections; Wabi-sabi, being a poetic irony about some missing buildings as seen from outer space; and Scudder, describing minor technical difficulties and some potential.

Eye to Eye, musings about the passage of a century in various ways, how some people have never heard about P&E, and architectural photographs as contrivances; and Precision, which nails the coffin shut on why, wherefore, thence and thither my P&E book will have to be the Heart Sutra to get the job done.

En Passant, brief comments on changes in the wind for a house and a department store, with a few tangy comments atop a reading list; Still Not There, meaning new images instead of text, together with a discussion of P&E presentation renderings; Successful Relaunch, noting the restoration of serious back-end database services here; and Buck Up, being thanks to a Good Samaritan in the Caravan for saving Organica from probable extinction.

Interim Thoughts, being notice of the publication of Purcell & Elmslie: Prairie Progressive Architects, which is based on David Gebhard's 1953 doctoral dissertation on P&E and edited by his wife, Patricia Gebhard; and Just something to take in for a moment, which is playing with technology to make the fourth dimension visible in one of Elmslie's terracotta designs and for which you will need to download a plug in for your browser; but methinks is well worth it.

Passageways 3, recounting people and places from Purcell's apprenticeship time with John Galen Howard in Berkeley, and offering the first desktop backgrounds; Passageways 4, where we see the roots of Purcell's predilection for roofs with a steep pitch; and Passageways 5, where Purcell leaves Berkeley for Seattle, a chilly and rainy place where he has a reasonably good time until his family descends en masse to get him out of there.

Daedal-dee and Daedal-dumb, just comments on adding some Elmslie (dee) photographs, posing a question for someone out there who knows the answer (my dumb), and a thumbs down on the destruction of language by cell phone; Passageways 1, being an introduction to the second chapter of what amounts to Purcell's autobiography; and Passageways 2, wherein is reprised some of the Purcell family turmoil that set the pattern for Purcell's experience of women for much of his lifetime and a question tendered concerning the relevance of homosexuality in the achievements of P&E.

Aside from some technical notes concerning restoration of the web server after an untoward event, there are two brief notes: Seeing is Believing, where advanced noggins at the United States Air Force validate four-dimensional consciousness in the form of teleportation, and Progressive Report, introducing the exceptional detail photographs of the National Farmer's Bank in Owatonna gifted to our readership by Tom Shearer.

Web Ring Around the Poem, which starts out by showing where all those angles in the leaded glass come from and links to other establishments where our Caravan also has sweet watering holes; and Between Two Georges, wherein we hear of the insecure and at times unpleasant character of George Feick, Jr., to whom by Purcell's estimation we owe the existence of P&E.

  • 4/6/2006 - 4/18/2006

    Breezing the horse (making a silent tip of the hat to Elizabeth Babson), being note of books, exhibitions, and auction sales still doing win, place, and show at the track; La Poème, taking note of the potential for decay in the relationship between truth and beauty when ornament goes to seed; and Confessio, with a look at how we know what we know because someone left mention, in particular a glance by Elmslie toward quantum mechanics as being a physical basis for the spiritual.
     
  • 3/19/2006

Hasta Revista, Baby, wherein I review the past six months of false starts, adverse personal circumstances, and the tangible costs of maintaining Organica in the light of a newfound sense of encouragement all because the site went down from equipment failure, and ending with a re-vue of my mission statement concerning the P&E book. 

Chromographs, being the fruit of a lifetime in photography and a final gesture of art from William Gray Purcell.

Dust to dust, being reflections on the life of John Jager and a theory about his disappointment at the end; and Living Color, a look at how we benefit from Purcell's lifelong interest in all forms of photography, and our special blessing for this in the 1910s color photographs of P&E buildings.

Intermediate Period, which provides peeks at three of the four Frank Lloyd Wright textile block houses in Los Angeles and mentions a superb Arts & Crafts show at LACMA; plus Caravanserai, taking a look at "Westwinds" as I muse over the experience of inner change.

Roadside Stop and A Little Night Music, being hardly worth a glance, though I do mention the start of bringing the writings of W. C. Gray to the realm of the cyberliving.

Gray Days and Gold, being an account of the intergenerational transmission to Purcell from his grandfather, William Cunningham Gray; and In Memoriam, noting the loss of a dear companion and a herd of other sad events that kept me otherwise occupied away from this keyboard.

Bits'n'P&iEces, being comments about the salvation by good souls and the damnation by devils of P&E architectural fragments; and Pas de deux, which looks at the two airplane windows that essentially bookend the canon, wherein the latter one there is reflected some discontent in the Purcell family.

The relational index of holidays and dedication, being the value of doing what you want to do.

After the Beginning, Before the Start, a list of designs and projects by Purcell while in college and during his apprenticeship period; and Déjà-dipity I & II, being short lists of new images added. 

Modern Prospects, being a look at later houses done by Purcell and Van Bailey in southern California; Betwixt and Between, a glimpse into the worst period in Purcell's life; Portland Cement, or how Purcell kept busy during the era in Oregon, and A Scanning We Will Go, noting a prophecy or a work plan, or perhaps both. 

Picture Postcards, featuring images contributed by John Panning; Tempus Fugit, an account of how I was gone a long time and some friendly people encouraged me to return; and Coming, Going, Gone, being brief comments about what happens over time to long term interests.

Craning to catch a glimpse, wherein I review briefly the new biography of Charles R. Crane; Tidiness, or looking more deeply at high resolution images for details that otherwise elude the eye in the original format; Working It, which is a glance at the biography of Gerald Stanley Lee and the pitfalls into which he fell as predicted by those who knew him and his work; and First Step, which still needs more than a toe forward.

Signs, or I find my very own Knopf edition of Tertium Organum; Veni, vici, exeunt, meaning how Charles R.  Crane remains newsworthy; and Lost pages happen, which leads me to remark that Elmslie still needs to be recognized as more than "a nervous drafter" when it comes to work out of the Sullivan atelier.

Double Whammy, Redux, being scans of the second half of two volleys from Purcell of the Message on building materials; and All In The Family, calling attention to a few documents relating to the family members of the Progressive principals who were also players on the field of community.

Leaving to Return, I work as production designer on a feature film and thus I am absent from here for a month+; Let There Be Light, concerning disembodied leaded glass panels hither and yon; and So Let It Be Written, purveying notes about the evolution of graphical layout in the publication of work by P&E.

Some background on the catalog for the Walker Art Center exhibition of 1953.

Elmslie Strikes Back, being an account of how an accidental irritation over proper authorship passes from Fournier to Elmslie to Purcell in a process taking nearly thirty years, and Fred Strauel is left holding the bag.

Hooray for Hollywood [I start as production designer of a feature film, so updates will be fewer until September], and reconstruction of the automation background for the Progressives and Organica in general leads to a step back in time, or so it seems.

A major birthday, musings on the National Farmers' Bank, a dream about getting it right, and a useful bibliography of Progressives as they appeared in The Architectural Record.

The Woodbury County Court House, mostly, and the latter day discovery of meditation at a Buddhist retreat.

Helping hands at the restoration of the Stewart Memorial Church, what happened to something made for the Walker Art Center exhibition, old battles for the Cause, how the dictionary stand at Lake Place took years to make.

Those whose have gone before, such as John Jager and his ministrations in the Cave, the raison d'être of this site becomes clear to me at long last, and where is all the furniture hanging out these days?

Pets as program elements, P&E building addresses, Mercury retrograde for emptying old boxes, and the life of this endeavor extended by anonymous kindly souls.

Adding to the Lake Place record, and the appearance of virtual catalogs for ornamental elements.

Progress through the Parabiographies, mostly, with some of my favorite early Elmslie enrichments, and a hint about who absconded with the dining room leaded glass doors from the Wiethoff residence.

The opening of the Prairie School Exchange, bits about various Minnesota houses and banks, and another spooky incident that had me looking to rent George Elmslie's old apartment in Minneapolis--without my knowing.

The Lake Minnetonka jobs--with notes on locating bits of the Decker house and Purcell calling the demolition "psychotic;" God letting us all down over a Minneapolis rectory; and a moment of personal nostalgia with a tribute to persistence.

  • 11/21/2002 - 12/17/2002

    Much new imagery for commissions in Rhinelander and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with some occasional notes about streams of thought within the canon.

  • 11/11/2002 - 11/19/2002

    The first spooky event that happened to me with P&E when I was just being birthed in 4-D consciousness; and the first Top Ten list of who's looking at what most often.

  • 10/21/2002 - 11/8/2002
            Churches in Eau Claire, faded exterior color schemes all around, and some scandalous GGE-->FLLW letters.
  • 9/26/2002 - 10/13/2002
            How much there is left to do, houses appearing for the first time, and the Elmslie/Fournier breakup.
  • 9/8/2002 - 9/20/2002
           Much about the Babson estate, the Edison Shops, and interesting news of P&E client Francis Buzzell.
  • 8/16/2002-9/1/2002
            Musings on good people who befriended me, and some Elmslie terracotta comes to market.
  • 7/30/2002 - 8/15/2002
            Mostly thoughts about how hard it can be to keep a regular schedule in the face of survival mode.
  • 7/18/2002 - 7/28/2002
            See the progress, with banks and churches; Purloined Banks came in on 7/23/2002.
     
  • 7/13/2002 - 7/16/2002

    Just keystroke notes; alas too hard pressed for time to ruminate, save the interesting "virtual" remount of the Second Cornell Exhibition plates, seen together here for the first time in fifty or so years.

  • 7/12/2002

    Musing upon the Destiny of Remodelings, which are by implication Alterations, concerning the sad Devolution of the Francis Buzzell cabin, and the lesser damning Fates of the Amy Hamilton Hunter and Charles A.  Purcell (#1) residences--and now the Grindstone is illustrated.

  • 7/9/2002 - 7/10/2002

    • Organics Anonymous, or Adventures in Lake Place and Taliesin, including the ups and down of the Path, where in I muse upon the Idea of Conversion of Souls, an Unfortunate Experience, and a Happy Surprise, concluding with a Prophecy about skyscrapers. 

  • 7/8/2002

    The first burst of mastication beyond just a list of what I put up.

  • 3/8/2002 - 7/7/2002

    •     Inventories of keystrokes without commentary. 

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