Historic Parkwood: An Early DeKalb County Ranch House

Parkwood was one of the last subdivisions developed in Historic Druid Hills. The first post in this series explored how Parkwood’s landscape developed between c. 1920 and 1960. The research presented in that introduction shows that there were three periods of historic development inside Parkwood: 1927-1939; 1940-1947; and 1948-1952.

Houses built in the earliest phase were executed in the period revival and bungalow styles popular at the time; homes built in the middle phase bridged the revival styles and included early ranch houses; and, the homes built in 1948 and afterwards were almost exclusively ranch houses. This post explores the history of one of the earliest ranch houses constructed in Parkwood during the middle phase, in 1946. Continue reading

The Civil War, George Washington, and the Mount Vernon Factory

Shortly after the first Union defeat at Bull Run in July of 1861, federal authorities confiscated James Crutchett’s Capitol Hill property in Washington, D.C. Just a few blocks north of the Capitol, the property occupied much of Square 683, which is bounded by North Capitol Street, C Street, D Street, and Delaware Avenue. It included Crutchett’s home and a factory where he had begun turning out George Washington kitsch made from wood he was harvesting from Mount Vernon. Continue reading

Jefferson County, West Virginia, Civil War Memories

In 1994 I worked on a cultural resource management regulatory compliance project that cut through a large portion of Jefferson County, West Virginia, south of Harpers Ferry. I interviewed several older residents about the historic buildings, archaeological sites, and cultural landscapes in the project area. Continue reading