In one block on Masonic Street in Rockland are three cupolated houses right next to each other:

Sure looks like the same builder, and there must be a Tale somewhere…

I’m rather pleased with this image:

Outbuildings are usually functional-not-ornamented, and prone to desuetude. I’ll pay closer attention to them as the Project continues.

I’d like to think that I’ll use this medium more, and more creatively. We’ll see how that works itself out in the light of various realities. The vernacular architecture project is the main arrow in the quiver at the moment, and here’s a recent contribution:

within a kilometer of home, along Route 131 in Martinsville:

a summer place:

Pointed Fir, alluding to Sarah Orne Jewett’s Country of the Pointed Firs, written in and about Martinsville [“Dunnet Landing”] ca. 1896 (Jewett rented the schoolhouse building, next door to Pointed Fir -see text of the novella)

a bit of recent renovation:

nice big window:

not the color I’d have chosen:

A variant of the house-connector-barn, various pieces renovated at different times. The old house (ca. 1850) is to the right, 4-over-4 with a center chimney and minimal basement. The middle piece has been the kitchen for many years (and might have been added ca. 1900 or so, to judge by construction details), and the shed on the left was added to the living space only 40 or so years ago.

What with declining birthrates and the effects of global warming, purpose-built units like this schoolbus shelter are now rare in the Midcoast landscape:

Thinking about my own efforts, the 2008 barn renovation stands out:

(I’ll put up other shots as I find them in the archives)

In March 2007 I snapshotted all the houses along about a mile of one of the back roads that I walk frequently. One question to ask: how much have things changed, or not, in five years? Here’s the set.

House-connector-barn is a common theme along Route 131, perhaps reflecting the rigors of Maine winters:

…and this one, the barn/garage of which was built in the last year, is evidence that the basic fashion/process continues: