As part of a 9 mile walk that my joints endured this past weekend I had a chance to appreciate the architecture of the “Please Touch Museum” in Philadelphia.  This structure has recently undergone an $81 million renovation and the results are stunning.

This building was part of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition and was originally known as the “Art Gallery” at the time.  More of the history from the Fairmount Park website:

Fairmount Park Chief Engineer Hermann Schwarzmann created this national significant Centennial Art Gallery as one of America’s first examples of Beaux-Arts architecture. Memorial Hall’s price tag was $1.5 million, quite a sum at that time. Consider though that Memorial Hall was built without wood and was fireproofed. The dedication of this fine building was made by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant at the Centennial. Memorial Hall served as the city’s art museum until the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened in 1928.

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A few years ago I spent Christmas in Key West (which I highly recommend by the way) and toured Ernest Hemingway’s house museum.  He moved there in 1931 and his wife collected the furnishings and chandeliers that are still present today.

You’ll see a few of the polydactyl cats (they have extra toes) in the photos from the many that reside there.  They are descendants of Hemingway own personal cats.

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We spent a good bit of time just walking the streets to admire the homes.  The size and scale of these old buildings makes you realize why today so many of them get rented out or turned into Bed & Breakfasts – they’re huge and could house a family of 15 if you were so inclined.

The Cape May oceanfront homes are seeing a flurry of rebuilding and restoration as you will see some of that in some of the photos.  Click on the image above for a meager sampling of the hundreds of Victorians in Cape Mayor for the full-screen experience, see the slideshow, here.

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St. Michaels, Maryland is one of my favorite places to be in the U.S. and is a great place for the appreciation of old homes. Imagine a quaint historic town with cute little shops and big-city caliber restaurants and you’ve got a good feel for the “downtown”. Drive away from the town area, down winding roads and past lush greenery, and you’ll find hundreds of miles of waterfront property and some of the most picturesque scenery anywhere. … and your historic home of your dreams can be right there at the water’s edge. … and you can catch Maryland’s treasured blue crab right in your back yard. I can’t take it. It’s just too good to be true.  That’s why I see more smiles on peoples faces than anywhere else I visit on the East Coast.

St. Michaels is located in what I believe to be the most beautiful county in all of Maryland (but I’m biased), Talbot County. You can get a good overview of the region by seeing this map.

The photo above is of the Tarr House, purportedly one of the oldest houses remaining in St. Michaels from that era.

Each year St. Michaels holds a Christmas home tour and if you’re in the area in December, you should check to see if it coincides with the timing of Christmas in St. Michaels when the home tours run.  Of course, any time of year is worth a trip to St. Michaels and during the warmer months it is at it’s peak.

The photo below will take you to our first photo tour from St. Michaels and only represents a small sampling of what is there.

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The chief carpenter on the home at the time of construction was said to have described Scheidt as a stickler for details who inspected every piece of wood that went into the house.

What follows is an architectural review provided to me by Donald J. Weiss, Esq., who is offering the home for sale for $1.3 million, which for the area and property is very reasonable.  I thank Donald for the opportunity to tour and photograph Stonebridge.  The video tour of the home will be available in the coming weeks, so please check back.  Click on the photo above for the tour when you are ready.

Stonebridge is an imposing 5 bay, 2 1/2, story Georgian Revival house of gray coursed cut stone. There is matching stonework in the wall surrounding the house, in the stepped gateposts at Webb Road and Route 1 entrances and the bridge crossing the stream. Stone is worked in arch radiating voussoirs with keystones over all windows, even basement windows. The three exterior chimneys on gable ends and interior chimney on “L” are of the same stone.

Front (south facing) facade has a high style entranceway: a 2 story, 1 bay portico with dental-work trim, fluted Ionic columns, and a balustrade flanked by 2-story Ionic columns. Formal centered doorway has leaded glass Sidelights and a Palladian window in story above.

The 2-story portico is repeated, this time 2-bay, on West side of house. Room below is enclosed with small paned windows. 1 story flat roofed sun porch with modillioned cornice is on West side of house. Three dormer windows break the roofline on South facade. Central one has paired windows with dental-work in pediment and modillioned cornice. Flanking hipped dormers repeat the cornice detail.

Two dormers on North facade: 1 hipped, 1 pediment with wide window and sidelights. 1 story, 1 bay entrance on North facade has one Ionic column on Northeast corner, again, modillioned cornice. Leaded glass stairwell window above has 2-light half-elliptical transom and 2-light sidelights. “L” wing, projecting to North, has a pedimented gable with dental-work and half rounded window. Modillioned cornice and a decorative frieze wrap house. Proportion of rooms and interior details are very impressive.

A 2 1/2 story carriage house (garage/apartment) North of driveway carries out the high style elements. The south facing carriage house has an apartment over the two-car size garage (driveway level) and two on the lower level (entrance from North). To the left of the South facade is an old stone stairwell leading to the back lower level garage and a second building (60 x40).

Click on the photo for the complete photo tour comprising 99 images across 4 pages.  For the best viewing, I recommend selecting the slideshow link near the top.

Detailed location information at Panoramio

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Ralph Krainik, a friend of mine from his participation on my other blog just recently went on a four-day house tour through Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia with his photo model (and wife) Pam.  I had never thought to take a multi-day house tour trip, but I like the way he thinks.  He was gracious enough to share his photos with us.  Their particular passion is Gothic Revival as you will see from the number of homes of this style captured on their trip.  They are also owners of  a Gothic Revival home named Seven Gables which we hope to profile on this site sometime in the future. Click on the photo above for the full set.

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Although empty today, the water tower for Oakbourne Mansion’s purpose was to hold water in case of fire in the main house. I stopped by during lunchtime and snapped some photos of the tower and plan to go back for the main house in future. In the meantime, there are several more photos of the Oakbourne water tower here.

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Hopefully you’ve seen the rest of the house in our previous tour.  Here is the bonus footage – a walk down into the basement and through the underground storage areas.  This is the final footage to complete the tour of this magnificent property.

You can watch the tour via the video below or watch in the recommended method – full-screen high-definition by clicking here and once there, click on the four arrows in the lower right to expand to full screen.

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