Lokensgard’s Lens

The legend of Orpheus
is well-known.

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was
a troubadour from Thrace.

He charmed even the animals.

His songs diverted his attention
from his wife Eurydice.

Death took her away from him.

He descended
to the netherworld,

and used his charm
to win permission

to return with Eurydice
to the world of the living

on the condition
that he never look at her.

But he looked at her

and was torn away from her
by the Bacchantes.

The Witch’s House

From the Strib Article

“When Paul White was growing up, the big Queen Anne on the corner was known as “the witch’s house,” the one kids avoided on Halloween night. “We were all afraid to trick-or-treat [there],” White recalled. “It looked dark and scary, the bricks were crumbling, and there were vines growing on the side.”

Click!

09/2629/09

Your door opened at my fingertips
all the demons of Pandora’s box
infected me
Desire, rage, weakness, sorrow
possession’s tyrannical victory forbidden

I wandered alone admiring at length
your beauty, so beaten and broken
fire flooded into my eyes and lungs
violence shuffling along behind me

in the tower room your ghosts
gathered round and watched
as I lifted a shattered jeweled window
in my arms
and surrendered it to your new warden

I went out on the roof
stepped over the railings and stood
beside a tall graceful artisan of wood
a dreamer with blue lips
keeper of all old house wisdom
what he advised I had no power to do

We looked up at the fancifully carved symbols of
a Norwegian Scherezade
detaching from their moorings

Afterward
your perfume
stayed fragrant on my skin
for hours
like the scent of a lover I’d never see again
or the most deadly of poisons

The Harrington

2540 Park’s imposing golden presence could be overlooked considering it’s
neighbor is the Turnblad Castle (Swedish Institute.)

A closer look reveals an exterior meticulously restored and attentively
cared for by the Zurah Shriners who have owned the house for many years.

Weddings and events are held at “The Harrington”…if you visit pause
for a moment before you enter and take a deep breath…prepare yourself
for the spectacular main hall…of John Scott Bradstreet’s design…

The most elegant of grand staircases…
enough wood to have populated a forest and frescos…though dark, bronze hewed
resplendent with Japanese maples…

This Western Architect Article shows all as it was…including a state of the art stables….for the “horse perfect!”

Click Here

Remember

Arts and Crafts Bungalow

This Arts and Crafts bungalow was designed by Harry T. Downs and Harold H. Eads in 1911.

Fascinating details make this house a treasure hunt with delightful discoveries,
such as triangle shapes over the porch windows, a pair of minature trio paned bay windows and built in book shelves in the library, four sided hybid arts
and crafts/prairie school oak columns, a combo built in buffet and china
cabinet in the dining room and multi-paned casement windows
that open inward like doors.

Searching 4 Bardwell

The face hath commented before that house history is really house geneaology…identifying each person who lived in a house…

A search for Bardwells on the findagrave.com website retreived
a whole group of Bardwells who lived in Excelsior Minnesota and were
buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Charles S. Bardwell 1835-1892
died at 57
and his three wives (sobering the perils of womanhood in those times)

Eliza Green Bardwell 1843-1864
died at 21
(child Fred Leslie Bardwell 1858-1939)

Annette Jenks Bardwell 1845-1872
died at 27
(child Lamont Jenks Bardwell 1872-1929)

Adele Smith Bardwell 1843-1914
died at 71

Thanks to FindAGrave volunteer Jeffrey Crafton for photographing and recording
info from the headstones.

Okay living Bardwell descendants .

The Face is looking for you.

One of you must rescue your ancestor’s house before it is no more.

WHERE ARE YOU?

The View

August 2008.

It was a year ago today my beautiful Bardwell when you went into foreclosure and all your tenants were evicted.

It was one year ago that neighbors danced in the streets all round you on
National Night Out.

When the neighbors left, the theives broke in and stole your fireplace mantles, shattered your stained glass and began their work to remove all your copper pipes…a task they completed in March 2009.

It was one year ago that Connie and I stood side by side at your very top.

Just for a moment victorious preservation warriors in command and control.

Just for a moment your rescue was possible.

Unhappy anniversary, my vacant, abandoned, beloved Bardwell!

Prindle Estate

The most popular cool old building here is one of the many mansions built by the Pillsbury family…most notably the $53 Million estate near Lake Minnetonka…

Of course there are other Pillsbury family abodes, some extant, some demolished.

Thinking that ya'll might be a bit bored with looking at the Pillsbury/Jundt mansion…

Here's another to rival it…the estate of William and Mina Prindle in Duluth
on the shores of Lake Superior…

Most recently a music academy

The state of the economy is such that these great houses are being abandoned
to…what…greed, ghosts, plunder, ?

Ah yes…interior design by John Scott Bradstreet…anyone know of any

other interiors by him, (I know a few) contact me

Prindle Mansion

Scavenger Carrion Esq.

Welcome to a special pal of “the face”

Scavenger Carrion Esq.

Scavenger digs in the dirt and rummages through the garbage.

He’s got an eye for the bright and shiny … that odd something he sees
which was forgotten long ago.

One day, he was following the path of the old railroad tracks now mostly covered by asphalt and saw many bright and shiny somethings in a patch
of asphalt free dirt near Advance Thresher at 701 S 3rd Street.

Lot o shards of colored glass and mirrors were there.

He thought he’d found the remains of a church, or a stained glass
factory or store.

Municipal Monument, the ever scholarly Paul Clifford Larson’s study of Mpls’ City Hall, mentioned a 1903 fire which destroyed Paulle Showcase…a
purveyor of Art Glass. Alas, this was on 4th and 3rd not 7th and 3rd.

Across the street from Advance Thresher, the former Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. turned loft…still stands. Were the glass remains discards from there?

Mr. Carrion had never seen such glass, transparent but stamped with patterns or various textures, layered and opaque with wavelike ridges or multicolored strands…some pieces had a soap bubble irridescence and the colors were bold and unusual, not seen in modern glass… the mirror fragments were of the brightest genuine silver…no lead or metal plating.

So what did Scavenger Carrion discover?

Could the little bronze medallion with a symbol that resembles a Nike Swish…or swan’s head provide any clues?

Click to enlarge