The Historic District

This is so great:

I just saw that on Shorpy before coming here! Beautiful, esp that gate way. The house is apparently still around.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=38 ... ORM=HDRSC2

I've never heard of Shorpy before. What a neat site!
Yes, a beautiful fence.

Well isn't that a great looking wooden fence and a spectacular gate. Hell to paint though. I wonder, would those pickets be a milled item, if not can you imagine the time it took to hand saw.

Gothichome wrote:Hell to paint though. I wonder, would those pickets be a milled item, if not can you imagine the time it took to hand saw.

Judging from the pic the house and the fence were long overdue for some paint !

Yes, I wonder what the story was with that fancy fence and gate. Was there a carpenter in the home who was a show-offy type ? Were the kids taught to do that scroll saw work and somewhere is the clumsy first and the much refined last picket ? Or did the pickets come from a big city catalog ?

I do wish people still made fancy things like this, despite the PITA factor.

If someone ever wanted for a reason to buy a paint sprayer, that fence would be one for certain.

Great find!

Gothichome wrote:Well isn't that a great looking wooden fence and a spectacular gate. Hell to paint though. I wonder, would those pickets be a milled item, if not can you imagine the time it took to hand saw.

Bit of work with a bandsaw or jigsaw but nothing hard there really. you can stack a half dozen at a time.

Phill, judging by the home I would suggest no electricity was used in the making of those pickets. But you are correct, a steam or water wheeled mill shop would be to place to make them on mass. If not, I can see a first or second year apprentice getting very good with his jigsaw by the time they were all done.
I think I would (if they were made in a saw mill) saw out the shape in a larger blank and just ripe them into separate pickets rather than stacking picket blanks and then shaping.
No one yet has commented on the layed brick columns going all they way up, you won't see that too often.

Gothichome wrote:No one yet has commented on the layed brick columns going all they way up, you won't see that too often.

They are really something ! On Shorpy the pic enlarges very large so all the detail is shown. It is an odd feature that is uncommon. I wonder what the story with them was ?

Willa, just a thought, maybe the second floor is an add on. The first floor is brick the second wood. Maybe they just continued the columns to support the rather large dormer opening up the attic space. Can a dormer that large still be considered a dormer, Hmmmm.?