Four Pounds Flour Snapshots

bkbrains:

We’re unsure if we should be terrified or amazed, but learn all about them at MSG on Tuesday

Aaaaah!  Crazy!!!

My friends Mark and Jess just bought a house in Cleveland (technically Lorrain).  Although good things are on the horizon for the Cleveland area (according to NPR), there are areas that are still in recovery.

Mark invited me over to explore his new home: is has a residential area in the first floor rear, offices areas in the front with doors to the street, and the upper floor used to be a boarding house.  

The entire building was owned by a lawyer whose offices were on the first floor—and in that office, we discovered a two-way mirror, designed to look like and exterior window, facing a conference table.  There was a hidden entrance to the tiny room where you could look at unbeknownst at the conference table.  No joke.

The building was filled with weird, sad, creepy shit like that, especially in the thirteen rooms of the former boarding house.  I snapped photos because in a few months, the whole building will be transformed into beautiful new offices and artist’s studios.  But until then, I’m going to be sharing some of my images over the next few days.

I’m hosting a Progressive Dinner / Safari Party this Saturday night, and since my friends are obsessed with British historical drama Downton Abbey, that was picked as the theme.

To help inspire the courses, I pulled a few menus recommended for June from Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, to go-to book for the Downstairs/Kitchen scenes in Downton Abbey.

One of my favorite things in the world is when people in history dress up as people in history, like the folks in this photo.  This is from my own collection, included in a banker’s box of other photos bought for $2.  The image is from the turn of the century (identified from photo processes/technology) but they’re wearing costumes from the 1840s—and proudly displaying their oldtimey washpans and brooms.  I don’t know anything else about this image other than that!

One of my favorite historical history moments is from the 1863 Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, a fundraisers for the Civil War, which featured a Colonial era restaurant.  Read more here.