The first Frick

This past weekend in Pennsylvania, I was happy to show some of my friends around one of my favorite places from childhood, Clayton House: the original Frick mansion in Pittsburgh.

The grounds house a really fine art museum, amazing antique car & carriage museum (recently renovated), an orchid filled conservatory, a playhouse turned giftshop (complete with bowling alley), a delicious cafe and wonderful grounds, not to mention a beautiful victorian home.Many things on the property bare the name Clayton. The name is derived from Henry CLAY Frick: The 'ton' relates to the word town.Part of the carriagehouse.The playhouse was built for the children and is the size of a normal house. It held rooms for the children's toys as well as a bowling alley! Lucky kids! It now holds the giftshop: this is where you will start your tour.The conservatory lies next door.Across the walkway is an old caretakers cottage which now houses a pretty great restaurant. We didn't get a chance to eat here but I highly recommend it based on past experiences.

This stone house is now part of the property but wasn't owned by the Fricks till after Helen's Death in the 1980s when it was bought by the foundation for the administration offices. The main house was renovated after the Frick's purchase of a typical Victorian which they renovated into a gracious family home. The only original piece left was the porte cochere seen here below an amazing stained glass & copper bay.A closeup of the port cochere columns.A shot of the backdoor to end the tour. If you find yourself in Pittsburgh, don't forget to visit, the interiors are spectacular!

Western PA

Three house tours in three days. This past weekend I spent 'camping' with some friends in Western Pennsylvania on the grounds of Fallingwater.

We also visited nearby Kentuck Knob, another Frank Lloyd Wright house, which was totally amazing! Seen here is Cucumber Falls, a really charming waterfall near the two houses.Having roots from the area may bias me, but I think Western Pennsylvania in the fall is the most beautiful place on earth. Above, a charming church in Ohiopyle.

We spent another day exploring my hometown, Pittsburgh: The original Frick mansion, Clayton house and my old stomping grounds while in college.The field behind our house was a meadow filled with wildflowers and views over the surrounding hills. Each night we had these amazing sunsets which I tried to capture here in photographs to no avail.I say 'cabin' loosely, it was actually a house from the 1960s which used to belong to the lawyers of the Kaufmann Family.

Look forward to some posts on these amazing places in the upcoming weeks!

Meridian Hill Park

After the interest shown in my post about the old yellow mansion, I thought I would share some more pictures of Meridian Hill Park and a little of its' history.Also known as 'Malcolm X Park', the park was officially named Meridian Hill because it was on the exact longitude of the original District of Columbia milestone marker. This land has had many purposes over the years, including being home to the campus of George Washington University (known as Columbian college at the time).

The park is large, 14 acres, and lies between 15th & 16th streets NW running north and south and W & Euclid streets in Columbia Heights, not far from Dupont circle. Dc is known for some of it's art deco apartment buildings, including this one on 16th street facing the park.Many grand old mansions line this part of town which mostly now house embassies and organization headquarters.The lucky ones are really kept up well and retain a lot of their original details, such as this canopy on one embassy bordering the park.I've always loved this community group building which looks a lot like an English country manor plopped down in the city!

The concrete work is made up of very small patterns of stones or aggregate -a very rough texture popular in the 1930s at the time of the parks inception.Love these obelisks too!

This fine bronze statue of Joan of Arc from 1922 is a copy of one done by Paul Dubois. It was donated by the 'Ladies of France in Exile in New York' (isn't that a bit odd -who were they and how did it end up in DC I wonder?).

This marble statue of 'Serenity' by Jose Clara has seen better days but retains her serene composure.

The park is planned formally with a series of fountains and rows of trees surrounding a lawn on the upper half of the park and terraced water gardens on the lower half (seen at the top of the post).

On lucky days the fountains play and drown out the sound of cars rushing by. An oasis in the middle of urban DC!

Chapel at Versailles

My favorite space in Versailles was the Chapel. Completed by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart in 1710 under king Louis XIV, this was the last of 5 chapels built.

As the chapel was built later than much of the palace, it is bordering on the Neoclassical design that was becoming popular in the 18th century. It proved to not be popular with many of the courtiers of the time because it towered over the very horizontal lines of Versailles as you see above.If you take the tour of private Versailles, this will be your final stop. Other visitors only get to admire the chapel from the doorway. The balcony above the door was where the highest royals and the King would attend services.The ceiling mural was recently restored and is truly breathtaking (and not just because you're staring straight above you!).

The stonework was left ungilded as France was beginning to experience financial problems. If this is cheap construction, sign me up: Still totally amazing! If you've seen the movie 'Marie Antoinette' (one of my favorites), you're familiar with the space and how large it is! Left empty; it almost feels intimate without items for scale.

If lucky, you'll catch one of the concerts held weekly as the space has excellent acoustics!

The old yellow mansion

A few weekends ago I attended a wedding at a beautiful mansion along 15th street here in Washington DC. If you're not familiar with the area - it's right along Meridian Hill park: one of the hidden gems here in DC. Now in a bustling urban residential area above U street in Columbia Heights, for years the park was overrun with drug dealers and prostitutes. Designed in 1914 by George Burnap to copy the city parks in Europe, it soon became lined with grand mansions which now house embassies and beautiful apartment buildings. One of these mansions is now home to the Josephine Butler Parks Center. This 18,000 SF Italian renaissance revival mansion had been home to two embassies, Hungary & Brazil. Designed in 1927 by George Oakley Totten Jr., a prominent local architect who designed numerous embassies, it now it houses a diverse range of community groups and can be rented for private events.What better place for a wedding than a lovely mansion facing a park! The yellow walls with white stone trim are magnificent against the greenery.

The distinctive yellow stucco makes the mansion stand out along a street of imposing buildings. The exterior has been recently renovated and really was well done.The house still features a lot of its original ironwork which is really impressive.A circular drive takes you to the entrance under this grand portico. The roof is a balcony facing the park.
The drive is bordered by this beautiful terra cotta guardrail - amazing details!

I love the figures on the scrolls at the bottom of the drive.Even the backside of the scrolls have this beautiful detailing -only the black eyed susans get to enjoy these though! Lets go inside.The building has been renovated many times but still has really great porportions and beautiful light due to the huge windows. Above is the rather utilitarian entrance which brings you to the grand stair.The home has a piano nobile design (the main floor is what we Americans would call the 2nd story) , a typical Italian renaissance feature; all the better to enjoy views of the park. At the top of the stair is a more grand foyer with entry to the portico's balcony.To the left is a room now used as the dining room. These main public rooms still feature the original fireplaces and mouldings and have huge french doors looking over the park. Behind those doors flanking the fireplace is a corner study which is practically a conservatory because of the amount of glass.Here you see through the foyer into the ballroom from the dining room.

This room has all you could ever want: tall ceilings, huge windows facing a park and beautiful detailing. The distinctive yellow color from the exterior continues all throughout the interior.

The antique chandeliers are a bit under-scaled but still a nice touch. I assume they're not original.In other rooms you can see this has been a busy, functional building, altered over the years. Walls have been moved and details stripped as needed. Here you can see a little bit of former glory above a fireplace.In other areas you can see where new walls have been added - the crown moulding here dies into the new wall.The servants staircase still has these original sconces. I was happy to see they're using energy efficient bulbs but wow, aren't they ugly? It was so exciting for me to explore this old mansion and the dreams of retoring it to its former glamour filled my dreams for nights to come!