<p>The R. Bruce and May W. Louden House is an historic building located in Fairfield, Iowa, United States. Original construction is in a colonial revival style and the interior was remodeled in an art deco style in 1928. Louden sold the property in 1948, and it was broken into apartments in the 1960s. The house was built in 1905 and was the residence of R. Bruce and May W. Louden until 1948.</p><br>
<p>The house is within walking distance of the Louden Machinery Company, as it was the custom at the time for factory owners to be close to their properties. He was the third president of the company in Fairfield from 1940 to 1951, when he was killed in an auto accident. During that period the company produced overhead handling equipment for American industries during World War II. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.</p><br>
<p>R. Bruce Louden was president of Louden Machinery Company when the firm was contracted to build the assembly line for the worlds first, and also the, during World War II. The atom bomb assembly line project was so secret that Louden was never told of it during construction, and liaison with the Manhattan Project was through Louden Vice President R. R. Louden, as per one of Loudens grandchildren.</p><br>
<p>In its heyday, Louden Machinery Company was one of the world&#39;s largest farm equipment manufacturers and was the largest shipper on the Rock Island Railroad. The founder, William Louden, was a prolific inventor with many inventions to his credit. His hay handling system (the first major invention)was a pulley system on a monorail used to move hay in the mow of the barn, and was the first commercially successful monorail system in the world.</p><br>
<h2>The Billy Sunday Connection</h2><br>
<p>In 1907, world-famous evangelist Billy Sunday held one of his early revivals next to the Louden home, according to local author and historian Susan Fulton. Fulton designates the location as five blocks due west of the Presbyterian church, which is the location of the Louden home. Records were kept of the Fairfield Revival altar call, and 1,018 people came to the altar during the week of the event. When the revival was through, the Revival tabernacle was torn down and re-constructed in, where it served the community for many years until a windstorm destroyed it in the 1930s. Wood from the ruined tabernacle was then used to construct the gazebo on the city square. So the Fairfield Revival Gazebo still stands in the center of the square to this day.</p><br>
<p>Sunday, a native of Ames, Iowa, had been a professional baseball player first for the Chicago White Stockings, then for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys and the Philadelphia Phillies. Hall of Famer Cap Anson was his first coach and mentor. In his final season he had an infinite(0.00) earned run average (ERA) with Pittsburgh.</p><br>
<p>But he left his stellar career in 1890 for the ministry. A Presbyterian and a confirmed ‘dry,’ he became one of the national leaders in the drive for Prohibition. It is said that he preached to over 100 million people in his career in the days before television and most radio.</p><br>
<p>Sunday&#39;s Revival tabernacle in Fairfield was not his first. His marketing technique was to build a wooden tabernacle prior to the revival event—essentially a large wood barn with board bench seats and a sawdust floor. The tabernacle would then become both the forum and the advertising medium as questions about the large construction project would bubble up in the community. Sunday repeated the technique during early revival events throughout Iowa and Illinois.</p><br>
<p>The property has been restored over the years by Bob Krause and his late wife Maryann Mills-Krause (passed in 2005) and by his present wife, Vicky Matthiessen Krause.</p><br>
<p>The Hendrik J. and Wilhelmina H. Van Den Berg Cottage is an historic building located in Pella, Iowa, United States. During the 1840s and the 1850s immigrants moved to Iowa from the Netherlands to escape religious persecution. Hendrik J. Van den Berg was one such person. He built this home in two phases, 1862 and 1880. It exemplifies the first generation of houses built in Pella and exhibits architectural influences of the Netherlands. It is one of only a few such structures that still remain in the town. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.</p><br>
<p>The Porter-Rhynsburger House is an historic building located in Pella, Iowa, United States. The house was built by Joseph Potter in 1855. It was subsequently purchased by C. Rhynsburger who expanded it in 1870. He was born in the Netherlands in 1839 and immigrated to Pella in 1855. He initially was engaged in farming before he began a successful mercantile business in 1861. He married R. Vander Ley and they raised eight children. It is one of only a few houses that were built by Pella&#39;s first settlers. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.</p><br>
<p>Lord House is an historic, American home that is located in Lords Valley, Blooming Grove Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1850, this historic structure is a -story, brick dwelling that sits on a random fieldstone foundation. Designed in a vernacular, Georgian style, it has a -story rear wing, gable roof, and two-story front porch. The Lords Valley Post Office was housed in this dwelling from 1853 to 1955.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The Nearpass House was an historic, American home that was located at Mill Rift in Westfall Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built circa 1820, this historic structure was a small, -story, wooden dwelling of post-and-beam construction. A lean-to addition was built circa 1840, and the building was sided and roofed in the twentieth century. Maintenance was neglected, however, and it was demolished by the current owner, Paul Farrell, around 2007.</p><br>
<p>Also known as the Knickerbocker House and the Padgett Homestead, after subsequent occupants, it was the earliest remaining building from the early settlement of Mill Rift.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.</p><br>
<p>Mill Rift Hall is a historic community center located at Millrift in Westfall Township, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1905, and is a one-story, gable roofed wood frame, clapboard sided building on a bluestone foundation. The interior has an open plan and has an elevated stage and collection of local artifacts.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.</p><br>
<p>Shohola Glen Hotel, also known as Rohman&#39;s Inn and Shohola House, is a historic hotel located in Shohola Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1875, and is a -story, L-shaped, wood-frame, banked building. It is seven bays wide, has a cross-gabled roof, and features a full-width front porch. The building was updated in the 1940s, after a fire, at which time a bowling alley was added.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.</p><br>
<p>The Hotel Fauchere and Annex is an historic hotel which is located in Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>As of 2021, the hotel was sold to and continues to be owned by Milford Hospitality Group.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>The main building was built in 1880 by Louis Fauchère, and is a three-story, square, wood-frame building, which was designed in the Italianate style. It is six bays wide, has a flat roof, and a one-story porch. The annex was built in 1905, and was originally a private home. The rectangular Queen Anne-style building was purchased in 1907 by the hotel.</p><br>
<p>After the death of Louis Fauchère in 1893, the hotel was operated by his descendants until 1976.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>Restoration</h2><br>
<p>In 2001, the property was purchased and restoration started. Local businessmen Richard L. Snyder and Sean Strub finished the restoration and opened the hotel in December 2006.</p><br>
<p>Forester&#39;s Hall, also known as Forest Hall, is a historic commercial building located at Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania. The original section was built in 1886, and expanded in 1904. It is a large three-story, eight-bay wide building constructed of bluestone. It features a steep pointed roof, small towers, gables, dormers, and three bluestone chimneys in a Châteauesque style.</p><br>
<p>The 1904 addition was built to house classrooms and auditoriums for the summer forestry Masters program operated by the Yale School of Forestry at nearby Grey Towers.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is located within the Milford Historic District.</p><br>
<p>The B. Harley Bradley House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home, constructed in the Prairie School style, that was constructed in Kankakee, Illinois in 1900–1901.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>B. Harley Bradley and his wife, Anna Hickox Bradley, were the brother-in-law and sister of Warren Hickox, of the Warren Hickox House, located next to the Bradley House. The Bradley House and the Willits House, also built in 1901 in Highland Park, Illinois and designed by Wright, compete for the title of the first Prairie School residence designed by Wright and built to his specifications.</p><br>
<p>Harley Bradley had inherited means from his grandfather, a local manufacturer of plowshares and other farm and garden implements. The Bradley House is a 12,000 ft&sup2; residential space that includes a 6,000 ft&sup2; residence, a 3,000 ft&sup2; basement, and a 3,000 square-foot stable space connected to the main building by a breezeway. Tours are available for a fee, and the house&#39;s current owner, the nonprofit group Wright in Kankakee, has refitted the stable to serve as a gift shop.</p><br>
<p>The "Prairie Style" is so named because Wright, the styles pioneer architect, worked with his clients to develop architectural spaces that were inspired by the wide, horizontal landscape and natural plant forms of the tallgrass prairie that surrounded Kankakee. This mirroring theme was especially suited to the fenestration of the buildings constructed in this style. USA Today commented that the house, "reveals what would become his hallmark: long rows of windows, stained glass, and a low-pitched roofline." 82 of the Bradley Houses original 90 art glass windows survive. The home, as completed, included fittings and furnishings designed or chosen by Wright. Much of the Bradley family fortune used to build and fit out the house had come from the implements used to plow up the prairie sod that is celebrated by the house.</p><br>
<p>The B. Harley Bradley House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Riverview Historic District on August 22, 1986. On June 2, 2009, it was individually recognized by the National Park Service with a listing.</p><br>
<p>The James Lee House, also known as the Harsson-Goyer-Lee House, is a historic house at 690 Adams Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, together with the adjacent Woodruff-Fontaine House. The two houses are included in the Victorian Village historic district.</p><br>
<p>The 8,100-square-foot home was constructed by William Harsson in 1848. Harsson&#39;s daughter, Laura, married Charles Wesley Goyer, who bought the house in 1852. Goyer had it expanded by the architecture firm of Edward Culliatt Jones and Matthias H. Baldwin in 1871, after seeing their work in designing the neighboring Woodruff-Fontaine House.</p><br>
<p>James Lee, a riverboat captain who had been educated at Princeton University, bought the house in 1890. In 1925 it became the James Lee Memorial Art Academy, It was used by Canadian indie rock group Tokyo Police Club in a music video for their 2008 song "In a Cave."</p><br>
<p>In 2012 the empty house was purchased by new private owners. The following year, a $2 million construction and renovation project began, converting the house into a luxury bed and breakfast. The city of Memphis provided a property tax abatement to encourage its renovation. The bed and breakfast opened for business in April 2014.</p><br>
<p>The Metz Ice Plant, also known as the Jacob Klaer Gristmill and the Milford Ice and Refrigeration Company, is an historic, American ice manufacturing plant that is located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>This historic structure is a late-nineteenth century grist mill that was converted to an ice manufacturing plant. The oldest section, which was built in 1869, is a -story, wood-frame building with a gambrel roof. Attached to it are two wood frame additions, the first of which was built between 1903 and 1927. Five smaller additions of concrete block construction were built between 1927 and 1950. Also extant is a penstock that carried water to the plant. The former grist mill was converted into an ice plant between 1924 and 1930. It remained in operation into the 1950s.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.</p><br>
<p>The Jervis Gordon Grist Mill Historic District, also known as the Milford Grist Mill and Rowe&#39;s Mill, is an historic grist mill and national historic district that are located in Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>This district includes three contributing buildings and one contributing structure. The buildings are a late-nineteenth century grist mill, blacksmith complex, and miller&#39;s house. The contributing structure consists of the mill pond, dam, head race, and tail race.</p><br>
<p>The Jervis Gordon Grist Mill consists of the original two-story structure that was built in 1882, with a shed addition that was erected in 1904, a rear enclosure covering the water wheel, and a machine shop addition that dates roughly to 1908. The mill includes original grinding machinery.</p><br>
<p>The blacksmith complex consists of three sections built roughly between 1860 and 1870. The miller&#39;s house is a wood-frame structure that dates to the late-eighteenth century, with a two-story addition built in the early- to mid-nineteenth century.</p><br>
<p>The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<p>The Jervis Gordon Grist Mill, now known as the Upper Mill, has been restored and is open for self-guided tours. Admission is free.</p><br>
<p>The Swatara Furnace is a historic iron furnace and 200-acre national historic district located along Mill Creek, a tributary of the Swatara Creek in Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>The first charcoal furnace to be erected in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the Swatara Furnace and its related buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Swatara Furnace and ironmasters mansion, the first two of the structures to be erected along Mill Creek and which now make up part of the Swatara Furnace Historic District, were built circa 1830, creating an "iron plantation," which was typical of the furnace-ironmaster home complexes erected across eastern and central Pennsylvania during the early to mid-nineteenth century. The furnace, which was established sometime around 1830 by Dr. George N. Eckert, a Whig member of the USA House of Representatives, and Simeon Guilford, was "a significant regional furnace from 1830 until its demise c. 1860," according to a 1991 report by Diane B. Reed, a historic preservation specialist with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). A short time later, it was "converted to a forge and foundry where once famous Swatara stoves were cast and finished." According to J. H. Beers Biographical Annals of Lebanon County, "Simeon Guilford … was for many years prominently identified with the iron business of Pennsylvania, and won public approval as a skilled and reliable civil engineer." Employed in that capacity prior to 1823 during the construction of the Erie Canal, he subsequently secured work as the principal assistant to the Union Canals chief engineer, Canvas White. Shortly thereafter, Guilford was employed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, charged with surveying the route of the canal which ran from Clarks Ferry on the Susquehanna River to Northumberland. It was also during this period (between 1825 and 1832) that Guilford "discovered the celebrated Chestnut Hill iron ore, on the Greider farm, near Columbia, Pa., which he owned for some years," according to Beers Annals, as well as "three other fine deposits of hematite ore, in Lebanon County." Partnering with Eckert from 1830 to 1831, Guilford then "erected in the Swatara Valley, in Schuylkill County, the Swatara Furnace&#39; for the manufacture of iron by charcoal, and here pig iron and such castings as stoves, water pipes, etc., were produced in large quantities, this establishment remaining in operation for twenty years."</p><br>
<p>Per Richard C. Taylor, president of the board of directors of the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company in his 1840 reports "on the Coal Lands, Mines and Improvements" of that company, "the Swatara furnace, of Messrs. Guilford & Eckert" was "used with the hot blast" and produced "about twelve hundred tons of iron annually." The ore was "partly brown haematite from Chestnut Hill near Columbia, brought seventy miles, and partly from near Lebanon, about thirty-two miles."</p><br>
<p>Production at the furnace ceased in 1853, ending both the partnership between Guilford and Eckert and roughly two decades of furnace operation.</p><br>
<h3>Listing on the National Register of Historic Places</h3><br>
<p>PHMC historic preservation specialist Diane Reed was the individual who prepared the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for this district; she submitted it to the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior on March 21, 1991. The Swatara Furnace Historic District was then officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 1992. At the time the register listing was announced, newspapers also reported that members of the Pine Grove Historical Society and Pennsylvania Game Commission were working together "to reopen the park and maintain the furnace" as part of regional preservation efforts to preserve the historic structures located along Mill Creek.</p><br>
<h2>Notable structures</h2><br>
<p>The four contributing buildings of the Swatara Furnace Historic District are located along both sides of Mill Creek, and include: the furnace (1830), stone dam breast (c. 1850), ironmasters mansion (c. 1830, c. 1860, c. 1881, and c. 1969), barn (c. 1860), stone foremans house (c. 1830), and stone worker&#39;s double house (c. 1830). The furnace, which was built in 1830 roughly 150 feet south of Mill Creek, was constructed of limestone, and measures 29 feet, 7 inches, wide, 29 feet, 8 inches, deep, and 22 feet high.</p><br>
<p>The original section of the ironmasters mansion, which was built circa 1830 (around the same time as the furnace), was a 2-1/2 story stone structure which was "two bays wide … with six over six windows." The homes 3-1/2 story eastern section, which was subsequently added circa 1860, was "three bays wide, and four bays deep, forming an ell … with six over six windows and with shutters." A frame construction which added 2-1/2 stories to the home&#39;s north side was likely built at roughly the same time (c. 1860), according to PHMC historic preservation specialist Diane Reed.</p><br>
<p>The stone dam breast, which was described on the district planning committee&#39;s application for National Register placement as "one of the most unusual features of the historic district," is a "stone battered-wall dam breast" which was built "to replace an earlier earthen dam which was apparently washed out during one of the periodic floods on the creek." Mostly destroyed by a flood which occurred sometime around 1860, "a substantial portion of the dam breast still remains on the northwest bank of the creek."</p><br>
<p>The two non-contributing buildings in this district are a single pen, one-story log cabin, which was built circa 1933, and the water control house, a brick structure which was erected in 1960 and was still in use by the City of Lebanons water department at the time of the districts 1991 placement on the National Register.</p><br>
<h3>Later changes to the property and existing structures</h3><br>
<p>The ironmasters mansion was altered further, following the propertys 1881 purchase by Mahlon Boyer, who wrapped a porch-veranda around the home&#39;s eastern, southern and western sides. The rear of the original 1830 building was then expanded in 1969 with the addition of a one-story laundry room with flat roof. By 1991 when planners were applying for historic district status with the National Register, the home was being operated as a bed and breakfast. The ironmaster’s mansion was later owned by the Lebanon City Authority until it was sold at auction to Tyler Bouldin in October 2020. Following the sale, the restoration of the mansion was featured in a series of videos on social media under the name The Forge House. As of 2023, the mansion is a private residence.</p><br>
<p>In 2016, the Lebanon City Authority, Swatara State Parks, Pine Grove Historical Society, Friends of Memorial Lake, Oak Grove Sportsmen&#39;s Association, Old Forge Fishing Club, and Pennsylvania Game Commission joined together to launch a preservation initiative to protect and restore the historic Swatara Forge.</p><br>
<p>The Pottsville Armory is an historic, American National Guard armory that is located in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1913, this historic structure is a brick, "T"-plan building that consists of a two-story administration building with a one-and-one-half-story, rear drill hall with an arched roof. It was designed in a combined Romanesque Revival/Late Gothic Revival style. The front elevation features a three-story central tower.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<p>The building is currently used as home to the Schuylkill YMCA. schuylkillymca.org</p><br>
<p>The John O&#39;Hara House is an historic American home that is located in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built circa 1870, this historic structure is a three-story, three-bay-wide, stone building that was designed in the Italianate style. The front elevation features a three-story central tower. The house was built by David Yuengling of the Yuengling brewery family. It was the childhood home of author John O&#39;Hara (1905–1970), whose father purchased the house in 1916 and remained there until 1940.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Burd Patterson House is a historic home located at Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It was built about 1830, and is a -story, brick mansion in the Federal style. A rear addition was built about 1835, connecting the main house to a formerly separate summer kitchen. The main house measures 27 feet by 40 feet. It features a Queen Anne style porch added before 1900.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.</p><br>
<p>"Cloud Home" is a historic home located at Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It is a -story fieldstone dwelling in the Greek Revival style. It features a pedimented portico supported by four Corinthian order columns. Surrounding the home are seven acres of landscaped grounds. Located on the property are a contributing large stone barn, stone smokehouse with matching necessary, and an octagonal stone building with subterranean vault. This building was used as John Bannans legal office.</p><br>
<p>The home was built by John Bannan, a local attorney, and his wife Sarah Ridgeway Bannan. The property was deeded to the family in 1826 and the mansion was built in 1851–52.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Currently the home is owned by Friendship House, an organization for housing at risk youth, and is used as a boys home.</p><br>
<p>North Leverett is a historic mill village of Leverett, Massachusetts. Centered on the intersection of North Leverett Road with Chestnut Hill Road and Cave Hill Road it includes predominantly residential buildings that were built during the height of the areas industrial activity between the 1770s and mid-19th century. The architecture is mainly Federal and Greek Revival in style, including the 1832 North Leverett Baptist Church. The Slarrow Mill is the only remaining component of the villages industrial past. The village was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.</p><br>
<p>The town of Leverett was first settled in the mid-18th century, and was incorporated (by separation from Sunderland) in 1774. North Leverett was the site of an early inn (no longer standing) operated by Richard Montague, one of the first settlers. The soil in Leverett was too poor to support market-based agriculture, and the Sawmill River was seen as a good source of water power for industrial use. Joseph Slarrow, another early settler, purchased land on the river in North Leverett, and established the sawmill that still stands today. By the mid-19th century, the village was the most substantial industrial center in the entire town, producing lumber, shingles, and scythes. Industry declined in the early 20th century, and now only archaeological remains and the Slarrow mill survive as a reminder of that activity.</p><br>
<p>The Winooski Falls Mill District is located along the Winooski River in the cities of Winooski and Burlington, Vermont, in the United States of America. It encompasses a major industrial area that developed around two sets of falls on the river in the 19th century.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The Winooski River flows from the southeast into Burlington Bay, Lake Champlain. The city of Burlington in Chittenden County, Vermont is on the south bank and Winooski and Colchester on the north. It is 45 mi from the Canada–US border. There are two sets of falls on the river; the settlement of Winooski is placed between the falls. The historic district refers to the mills built on both banks at the lower falls. The designated district stretches on the northern bank of the river to Center and Canal Streets, including 110 West Canal Street, and on the southern bank including Burlington addresses 485 to 497 Colchester Avenue, 5 to 21 Mill Street and 10 to 32 (even numbers only) Barrett Street. The Burlington addresses represent a 1993 enlargement of the district.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1789, Ira Allen, one of the towns founders built a dam across the upper falls, and used it to power two saw mills to provide cut timber for the British market in Québec. It was in 1835 that the water rights to the Colchester bank were secured and in 1835 the Burlington Woolen Mill was constructed beneath the lower falls. They followed the employment patterns used in Lowell, Massachusetts, and employed single girls to work in the mills. A series of tenement houses were built to house the operatives, on common land on the hill leading to Winooski Falls Village. The second mill, the Winooski Mill, a cotton mill, was built in 1846 by the Winooski Mill Company on the Burlington side of the river. This operated as such until 1888 when it was reorganised into the Burlington Cotton Mill.</p><br>
<p>Wool remained the less profitable fiber until the cotton famine of the 1860. This and improvements in wool cleaning techniques caused rapid expansion and the construction of new mills. Water power systems improved, and new steam powered system expanded capacity. This require more operatives and a large number of French Canadians and Irish workers were employed. The Colchester Merino Mill and the Winooski Worsted Mill were built in the 1880s.</p><br>
<p>In 1902, the American Woolen Company purchased all the mills from the Burlington Woolen Company and refurbished them with modern equipment. The Champlain Mill was built in 1912. By 1922, the American Woolen Company was the state&#39;s largest employer and Winooski Falls split from Colchester, incorporating itself as the City of Winooski.</p><br>
<p>In 1927, there was a major flood where the dams were destroyed and all mills suffered heavy damage, from which some never recovered. The mills closed in 1954.</p><br>
<h3>Child labor</h3><br>
<h3>Lewis Hine</h3><br>
<p>Lewis Hine (September 26, 1874, Oshkosh, Wisconsin – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States. In 1908, he became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), leaving his former teaching position. Over the next decade, Hine documented child labor in American industry to aid the NCLC&#39;s lobbying efforts to end the practice. In 1909 he visited Burlington, and took photographs in Chace Mill. These demonstrate the employment practices where children with French Canadian names are seen to be working in responsible posts, and equally they provide images of the machines in use at the time. Mule spinning was relatively rare in the United States; where ring spinning predominated.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings</h2><br>
<h3>Burlington Woolen Mill</h3><br>
<p>This five-story mill was built of local stone over a canal that drove its centrally placed waterwheel. It was built in 1837 and destroyed by fire in 1961. A timber dam was constructed across the lower falls to provide a head for this wheel. The timber dam was destroyed in the floods of 1927. As of 1921 the Burlington Mills employed 1,500 workers who produced items such as Kerseys, Friezes, Meltons, Thibets and worsted dress goods.</p><br>
<h3>Chace Cotton Mill</h3><br>
<p>A three-story, 34-bay brick-built mill built on the site of a previous mill. Water for the waterwheel entered through two head gates connected to the upper dam. One gate opened to the working wheel, while the other lead to the wheel pit of a former wheel, a wallower passes the rotary motion to each floor, which contain line shafts. The Lewis Hine photograph shows that mill had spinning mules with a short travel. The mill was built by the Burlington Mill Company in 1892, and changed its name when it was purchased by the Chace Mills of Fall River in 1912.</p><br>
<h3>Champlain Mill</h3><br>
<p>A five-story mill, of 28 bays by 8 bays. (280 ft by100 ft.</p><br>
<h3>Colchester Merino Mill</h3><br>
<p>The Colchester Merino Mill built in 1880 and extended in 1902 stands in a group of buildings built on a large rock outcrop. The buildings are dated from 1860 to 1902. The 1902 extension connected it to the Winooski Worsted Mill. Its name tells us that this was a woolen mill built to spin the finest long staple merino wool. It was a 3-story brick built mill with heavy beam construction. The twenty pane windows are topped by segmental brick arches. It was powered by an internal waterwheel which exploited a sliceway from an earlier mill, and used the head provided by the timber dam at the lower falls.</p><br>
<h3>Winooski Worsted Mill</h3><br>
<p>In the same complex as the Colchester Merino Mill, the Winooski Worsted Mill is a similar design. Worsted is a different thread from woolen using combing rather than carding techniques. The building was similar in design to the Merino Mill; the wood beams though were strengthened by metal tie rods.</p><br>
<h3>Carbonizing Mill</h3><br>
<p>This is a 1909, brick built structure built for one process in the cleaning of wool. It is a two-story brick building, with basement, oriented parallel to West Canal Street. It comprises a twenty-by-five bay main block, with projecting center bays, attached engine room and dye house with the typical louvred slat roof lights.</p><br>
<p>Raw wool would be weighed and sorted according to a variety of classifications, and sent on for opening, willowing and pickering. Wool fibers would be spread into smooth open layers, cut into slices and cleared of large pieces of vegetative matter. It would be sent for cleaning, or scouring in large vats containing a solution of water, soap and carbonate of potash, and then dried. Scouring did not remove all vegetative particles. In a carbonizing process the wool passed through bowls or troughs containing a solution of sulfuric acid or aluminum chloride where the remaining burrs were burnt off.</p><br>
<h3>Timber dam</h3><br>
<p>A lattice work of timber was built across the river, in a manner that was common in New England timber crib dams, what is interesting is the infilling. This was a very early example of the use of concrete. It is here that the Chase Mills Hydro-electric project will be situated.</p><br>
<h2>Current use</h2><br>
<p>The Hydropower Reform Coalition has used the water channels to power a 7.4MW Turbo-Generator. Some of the buildings have been converted into loft apartments.</p><br>
<p>The George Ormrod House is an historic home which is located in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built sometime around 1870, the George Ormrod House is a two-and-one-half-story, irregular frame dwelling, which was designed in the Late Victorian style.</p><br>
<p>It features a three-story tower and twenty-seven different angles in the perimeter of the house, including a variety of octagonal and square projecting bays.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<p>Anthracite Bank Building, also known as The Beard Building, is a historic former bank building located in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1850, and is a three-story, three bay wide, brick building in the Italianate style. The first floor exterior is white marble. It housed Tamaqua&#39;s first financial institution until 1865.</p><br>
<p>The building later served as home of Civil War hero Col. Henry L. Cake and wife Eliza. Cake commanded the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, rose to the rank of brigadier general, and later served as a member of the fortieth and forty-first USA Congress. For several years beginning in 2002, the building served as the Anthracite Inn Bed and Breakfast, operated by owner Donald Serfass.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>The Central City Commercial Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Central City, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The historic district exemplifies the importance transportation played in the development of the central business district.</p><br>
<p>Central City was established in 1857. East Main Street and North Fourth Street were part of an early overland road system that was an important transportation corridor in Eastern Iowa. It linked the cities of Marion, Manchester, and Dubuque. Early business leaders in the community were successful in getting the Illinois Central Railroad to lay its tracks through town, which were completed in 1887. Two years later the commercial district was destroyed in a fire. Local entrepreneurs rebuilt the area as quickly as possible. Paul Sigmund, a noted local contractor-builder, built a group of buildings after the fire. The buildings are one- and two-stories in height and are of masonry construction, either brick or concrete block. Several buildings are constructed of wood frame. Several architectural styles are featured in the district including Late Victorian, Prairie School, Commercial style, and Art Deco. All of the buildings were constructed for commercial purposes, but a couple of them have been converted for residential use.</p><br>
<p>Frank D. Yuengling Mansion is a historic home located in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1913, and is a large three-story dwelling in the Tudor-Jacobean style. It is constructed of brick, stucco, and half-timbering and contains 20-plus rooms. It features side and rear porches, a front portico, stone facing, and many gables, overhanging balconies, and brick chimneys. Also located on the property are a contributing Jacobean style garage, formal garden with decorative statuary and sundial, and sunken garden with gazebo. The house was the first house to have a telephone and electricity in at Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It was built by Frank D. Yuengling of the Yuengling brewery, grandson of David Yuengling. The house is used as a cultural center and education facility, managed by the Schuylkill County Council For The Arts.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<p>The Dows Street Historic District is located in Ely, Iowa, United States. The area exemplifies the importance the railroad and transportation in general played in the development of the town&#39;s central business district. Community members revitalized a plat of land the railroad had abandoned into a commercial and residential corridor. The historic district is made up of several frame buildings typical of the Late Victorian style. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2003.</p><br>
<h2>Contributing properties</h2><br>
<p>The Historic Ely Elevator is the only light-industrial property in the district which includes mostly small commercial buildings and residences.</p><br>
<p>The Ely School House is a historic building located in Ely, Iowa, United States. The building was built in 1923 in the Tudor Revival style. After the building served as a school building it became the community center for the town of Ely. It now houses city government offices, City Council Chambers, a senior dining facility, meeting rooms and The History Center and archives. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2006.</p><br>
<p>The Reeve Electric Association Plant, now known as the REA Power Plant Museum, is a historic structure located near Hampton, Iowa, United States. In the 1930s only 10% of rural homes and farms in the United States had electricity. The first mention of rural electrification in Hampton came in March 1936.</p><br>
<p>It was the first farmer-owned power plant in the United States to receive an REA grant in 1937 and in 1938 it was the second to go on-line. There were four generators powered by diesel engines when the plant was in full production. In 1988 the building was given to the Franklin County Historical Society. It opened a rural and electrical museum in the former plant in 1990. The same year it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>The Leander Reeve House, also known as the Old Stone House, is a historic structure located near Geneva, Iowa in the United States. Leander Reeve came to Franklin County from Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1853. He initially worked as a trapper until he acquired 10 acre of land from Allison Phelps and began to farm. He built the stone house in 1854 and brought his family from Ohio the same year. It is the first permanent structure built in the county. His wife did not care for the pioneer lifestyle and they returned to Ohio three years later. Although some said she wanted to have her last child at her Ohio home, and she also didn&#39;t get along with her sister in law. Simeon Carter bought the house from the Reeves. His daughter and son-in-law, a lawyer named D. W. Dow, were the next people to live in the house. They were followed by 13 other families. The floor plan of the house has never been altered and it did not have electricity until the restoration committee had plug-ins installed. The house is still in excellent shape, and an Old Stone House Committee remains active through the Franklin County Historical Society. The house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.</p><br>
<p>Nutting Hall is a historic home located at 205 South Tulpehocken Street in the Borough of Pine Grove, in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Erected between 1823 and 1825 for Christian Lay who had, as a boy, met and come to know American President George Washington, it was built by Peter Filbert, a pioneering industrialist who was involved in Pine Grove&#39;s founding.</p><br>
<p>Currently owned by Margery Wheeler Mattox, who purchased it after it had been converted to rental apartments by the former owner, it was restored over a period of 25 years by Mattox before being placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 1980. The home still retains its original wood siding.</p><br>
<h2>Architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built between 1823 and 1825, Nutting Hall is a -story, five bay wide frame dwelling, with a -story rear ell and gable roof. Measuring 40 feet by 60 feet, it sits on a stone foundation on its lot at 205 South Tulpehocken Street in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>A historic home which was awarded National Register status in 1980, Nutting Hall is tied to both the late 18th century mass emigration of German Palatines to the American Colonies and to George Washington, the first President of the United States through its association with the Ley family, whose patriarch, Christopher Ley (1695-1745), came to America from the German Palatinate in 1732. Ley, who would ultimately become the grandfather of Nutting Halls first owner (Christian Ley, Sr.), began his family with wife Barbara in what is now Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Among their nine children was son Michael Ley (1739-1824), who built Myerstowns historic Tulpehocken Manor Plantation, where Washington stayed during three visits to Lebanon County between 1777 and 1794.</p><br>
<p>It was Michael Leys son, Christian Ley (1762-1831), who went on to build what would eventually become "Nutting Hall," and to also serve in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1799 to 1802 and then, for one year, in the Pennsylvania Senate. Thirty-two years old at the time that Washington made his final visit to Tulpehocken Manor, Christian Ley was representing Lebanon and Dauphin Counties in the Pennsylvania House during this time. He then relocated to Pine Grove in Schuylkill County, where he became one of that countys prominent businessmen due to his buying and selling of land. It was during this period that Christian Ley contracted with Peter Filbert to erect a new residence for his wife, Anna Catherine Koppenhoffer (1769-1822), and their three children, Christian Jr., John and Catherine.</p><br>
<p>Completed by Filbert between 1823 and 1825, that home was occupied by Christian Ley and his family until Leys death in 1831. It was then sold in 1837 to William Graeff, a tanner who had opened a large general store in Pine Grove. Following Graeffs death in 1873, the home was then inherited by his daughter, Barbara Ann, who had married Bowdoin College graduate James L. Nutting (1818-1880), the owner of a large farm in nearby Brookside, Pennsylvania who went on to become a public and private school teacher and school director in Pine Grove. Barbara Ann (Graeff) Nutting and her husband, who also had interests in the coal and iron industry, had three children, only one of whom (Anne) survived to adulthood.</p><br>
<p>That child, Anne Nutting, then went on to marry Richard Wigton in the backyard at Nutting Hall and, following her fathers death in 1880, became the next to inherit the historic home. She and her husband subsequently had three children of their own: Jeanette (born in 1882), Kathryn, Nutting, Elizabeth and Richard (born in 1883). Her son, Richard, then became the homes sole owner, and continued to maintain ownership until his death in 1952.</p><br>
<p>At this point, the home was sold to Reuben and Anne Riggen. This was the first time in the history of Nutting Hall that the home and property had left the family. Owned by the Riggens for ten years, it was then sold to Glenn Schell in 1963, who converted parts of the home into individual apartments.</p><br>
<h3>Later history</h3><br>
<p>Nutting Halls construction date and name of its builder, Peter Filbert, reportedly were still visible on the homes original plaster from its completion in 1825 until the 1963 apartment conversion.</p><br>
<p>In 1974, Margery Wheeler Mattox purchased Nutting Hall from Glenn Schell, and launched a 25-year restoration initiative. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, Mattox had fond memories of watching Decoration Day parades across the street from Nutting Hall while visiting relatives in Pine Grove during her childhood, and had previously restored historic homes in New Smithville (near Allentown) and Aspers (near Gettysburg). Following its restoration, the home was then placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 1980.</p><br>
<p>In 1997, Mattox&#39;s brother, Richard "Dick" Wheeler, came to live with Mattox at Nutting Hall. A World War II veteran who went on to become a military historian and author of 17 books, including The Bloody Battle for Suribachi, Dick Wheeler was frequently contacted for technical advice about the Battle of Iwo Jima by film and television writers and directors, including those involved with the development and release of Flags of Our Fathers, and continued to reside with Mattox at Nutting Hall until his death there in 2008.</p><br>
<p>In 2011, Aperture Press published Mattox&#39;s book, A Lifetime of Illusions.</p><br>
<p>The Pine Grove Historic District is a national historic district located in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, it encompasses 1,770 acres, 233 contributing buildings, one contributing site, and one contributing structure in a residential section of Pine Grove, and is bordered by South Tulpehocken and Mill streets and the Swatara Creek.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Pine Grove Historic District encompasses 1,770 acres, 233 contributing buildings, one contributing site, and one contributing structure in a residential area within the Borough of Pine Grove in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and is bordered by South Tulpehocken and Mill streets and the Swatara Creek.</p><br>
<p>The completion of the National Register of Historic Places Registration Sheet was done by Gabrielle Ramsauer, a planner with the Economic Development Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and William Sisson of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and submitted to the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior in 1987 in preparation for the district&#39;s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This district was then officially added to the National Register of later that same year.</p><br>
<h2>Notable buildings and other structures</h2><br>
<p>The majority of contributing buildings that are included in this district are 2- to -story frame residences (single family and duplex) which were primarily constructed in Craftsman/Bungalow, Federal, Queen Anne, or Second Empire architectural styles, and which date to the 19th and early-20th century. Other historic structures were built in Beaux-Arts, Eastlake, Georgian, Gothic Revival, Italianate, or Tudor Revival styles. Most of this historic district&#39;s structures were erected between 1850 and 1937; the oldest dwelling was built circa 1750. Additional features of the vernacular buildings include gable roofs with chimneys, weatherboard siding, double hung windows, paneled doors with plain wooden frames, and shed roof front porches supported by simple rounded or squared columns. Most of these homes are also two to five bays wide.</p><br>
<p>A -story Bungalow-style home, which was erected during the 1920s and is located at 286 South Tulpehocken Street, features a small wooden dormer and a porch with square posts and wooden balustrade.</p><br>
<p>Nutting Hall, a -story wood-frame home located at 205 South Tulpehocken Street, was designed in the Federal style, and built between 1823 and 1825. Five bays wide, it features a standing seam metal-covered gable roof, six over six windows with paneled shutters, and an entry portico flanked by two columns.</p><br>
<p>Another Federal-style home is the 1830s-era Barto residence at 159 South Tulpehocken Street. A -story brick structure which is three bays wide with a gable roof, it is distinguished by its two round-headed dormers, windows with period shutters, and front entrance with entablature and pilasters.</p><br>
<p>The Miller mansion, which was built circa 1870 and is located at 191 South Tulpehocken Street, is one of several Second Empire-style, three-story homes that were designed with mansard roofs, round-headed dormers, and cornices with carved brackets. A brick structure, its most distinguishing features are its elaborately decorated front porch and balcony with openwork panels and turned posts.</p><br>
<p>Highspire, the brick, three-story, three-bay-wide, Queen Anne home which was built in 1900, is one of the more prominent structures in this district. Located at 177 South Tulpehocken Street, it features a period door with transom, Queen Anne-style decorative glass windows, a large, column-flanked, side porch with decorative balustrade, and a three-story tower topped by a pointed slate roof and cast iron finial.</p><br>
<p>Also included in the district are seven commercial buildings, four churches, and a school. The sole factory located in this historic district, the Summit Station Manufacturing Company, a two-story, wood-frame vernacular, is located at 194-196 South Tulpehocken Street. Located nearby at 213 South Tulpehocken, the brick, -story Pine Theater was designed in the Beaux-Arts style. The brick, two-story, Federal-style structure, which stands at 209 South Tulpehocken, served as office space for a coal company before being converted into apartments. Redesigned for use as a bakery, its function was subsequently changed to that of a Masonic Hall.</p><br>
<p>Saint Peters Evangelical Lutheran Church, which had its beginnings in another church that had been erected across the street from the present-day stone structure located at 312 South Tulpehocken Street, was established by Jacob Gunkle in 1782. The foundation for the "new" stone church at 312 S. Tulpehocken was then laid in the spring of 1816. Topped by a shingle roof, it featured a tall, white pulpit, which was accessible by a flight of steep, winding stairs. In 1851, the churchs congregation added a bell tower; the bell, which was tuned to B-flat, was produced by the Meneeby Bell Foundry in Troy, New York. It lasted 60 years. The church building was then remodeled between 1870 and 1872 to add a basement, replace the existing pulpit and gallery, replace existing windows while enclosing others in stone, raise the ceiling, add two new stairways, and improve the bell tower. A reed organ was added in 1901. The church was then remodeled again between 1914 and 1915 to add a stone chancel at the buildings south end, remove the gallery, install new art glass windows, Fresco the walls of the church auditorium, replace the altar, pews, pulpit and lectern, add new carpeting, install a new steam heating system, and erect a new stone bell tower above the buildings northeast corner. The existing bell was replaced with a duplicate B-flat-toned bell from the same manufacturer, the Meneeby Bell Foundry, and the church was rededicated on November 21, 1915. The bell tower was then shored up with steel girders in 1926; church leaders also added a new hardwood floor in the Sunday school room that same year, enlarged the primary room, and upgraded the heating system. A decade later, the reed organ was replaced with a pipe organ. Sidewalks, curbs and a stone wall were added to the property&#39;s grounds in 1941. The church was then expanded again, beginning with the construction of a one-story addition to the rear of the church in 1955, which extended the building 40 feet on the north side. The sanctuary was then renovated, the pipe organ was rebuilt, and new Sunday school rooms were also added before the existing bell tower was replaced with a new stone bell tower, and the existing parsonage was relocated to the upper lot behind the church. Additional improvements have continued to be made since that time.</p><br>
<p>The Pine Grove Armory, which is located at 143 South Tulpehocken Street, is a 10,182-square-foot brick, castellated, Gothic Revival structure which was built circa 1908. It was once home to the 228th Brigade Support Battalion&#39;s D Company. In 2015, newspapers reported that the Borough of Pine Grove purchased the former armory building.</p><br>
<p>In addition, the eastern side of this historic district is home to a former Union Canal basin while the southern section of South Tulpehocken Street borders a small cemetery.</p><br>
<p>Pine Grove, Pennsylvania (8482508283).jpgPine Grove Armory, 143 S. Tulpehocken (Armory: brick building, right; H.L. Snyder Funeral Home: white building, left)</p><br>
<p>Pine Grove, Pennsylvania.jpgPine Theater, 213 S. Tulpehocken</p><br>
<p>Pine Grove, Pennsylvania (5657329278).jpgResidence, 240 S. Tulpehocken</p><br>
<p>Pine Grove, Pennsylvania (5657328158).jpgSt. Peter&#39;s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 312 S. Tulpehocken</p><br>
<p>The Tamaqua Historic District is a national historic district that is located in Schuylkill Township and Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>This district includes 944 contributing buildings, three contributing sites, eight contributing structures, and three contributing objects that are located in the central business district and surrounding residential areas of Tamaqua.</p><br>
<p>The residential buildings principally date to the early twentieth century and are mostly two-story structures of brick and frame construction that were designed in a variety of popular architectural styles, including Queen Anne, Late Victorian, Italianate, and Colonial Revival.</p><br>
<p>Notable non-residential buildings include the Little Schuylkill Hotel (1827), White Swan (c. 1845), Washington House (c. 1842-1850), Shepp Building, Elks Lodge, Peoples Trust Company Building (c. 1915), Tamaqua National Bank (1908), First National Bank of Tamaqua (1905, 1919), USA Post Office (1932), Majestic Theater and Hotel, Hegarty Blacksmith Shop (1848), Conrad Biscoff Planing Mill and Furniture Factory (1865), Tamaqua Manufacturing Company (1910), Calvary Episcopal Church (1851), First Methodist Church (1852), St. Jerome&#39;s Roman Catholic Church (1856), American Hose Company (1881), East End Fire Co. (1923), and the former Tamaqua Armory.</p><br>
<p>The contributing sites are St. Jerome&#39;s Cemetery (c. 1837), Odd Fellows Cemetery (1865), and the foundation of the Fitzpatrick Shirt Factory (1888). Contributing structures include three runs of iron steps and five bridges.</p><br>
<p>Located in the district and separately listed are the Anthracite Bank Building, George Ormrod House, and Tamaqua station.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.</p><br>
<p>The Pottsville Downtown Historic District is a national historic district located in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Bordered roughly by Laurel Boulevard and Railroad, Morris and 4th streets, it encompasses 336 contributing buildings in the central business district and surrounding residential areas of the city of Pottsville.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Preservation consultant Thomas E. Jones prepared the nomination form for this historic districts proposed placement on the National Register of Historic Places. Prior to Jones involvement, the importance of historic structures and properties in this section of Pottsville were documented in the Historic Pottsville Survey, which was conducted between October 1979 and April 1980. According to Jones, the records of this prior survey were maintained by the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts at the time of his NRHP application preparation. This district was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<h2>Notable buildings</h2><br>
<p>The Pottsville Downtown Historic District encompasses 336 contributing buildings in the city of Pottsville&#39;s central business district, as well as surrounding residential areas of the city, which were built in mid-19th Century Revival, late 19th and 20th Century Revival, and late Victorian architectural styles. Among the structures included in this district are the:</p><br>
<p>Reading Freight Station: Built circa 1851; and</p><br>
<p>Sovereign Majestic Theater: A 224-seat theater located on North Centre Street, which is a contributing structure within the Pottsville Downtown Historic District, according to the National Registers of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere Historic District is a national historic district in the mountain lake resort of Eagles Mere in Shrewsbury Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. The resort area was founded in the late nineteenth century and popular through the first half of the twentieth century. It surrounds Eagles Mere Lake. </p><br>
<h2>Architecture and history</h2><br>
<p>The kidney-shaped Eagles Mere Lake ("Lake" here is redundant but common vernacular) covers 230 acres and is about 3/4 mile long. It is a natural spring-fed lake with exceptionally clear water in the Allegheny Mountains at an elevation of 2100 feet. Early resort promoters prohibited construction and tree cutting within 100 feet of the lake to protect the shoreline. The shoreline continues to be forested and is now owned by the Eagles Mere Association. Pristine forested areas with hiking trails surround the lake, and they are in turn surrounded by several thousand acres of more forest.</p><br>
<p>The village sits at the south end of the lake; there is a small beach at the north end. Just north of the beach is the neighborhood called Eagles Mere Park. This neighborhood developed out of a Chatauqua which lasted from 1897 to 1902. The twelve houses of the original Chatauqua are still extant and 42 similar houses were built before 1930.</p><br>
<p>The district includes 234 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 6 contributing structures in the resort community of Eagles Mere. The buildings date to the late-19th and early-20th century and include cottages, boat houses, commercial buildings, churches, and outbuildings. Cottage architecture reflects a number of popular styles including Queen Anne, Bungalow / American craftsman, and Prairie School. Notable non-residential buildings include the "beach house" (1890), Flora Villa Inn (1892), Eagles Mere Inn (1887), "The Crestmont" (1926), former Post Office (1902), Miller Drug Store (1903), Sweet Shop (1885), Eagles Mere Fire Company and Community Hall (1942), St. Johns-in-the-Wilderness Episcopal Church, and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church (1905, 1916, 1923).</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere Historic District 10.JPG</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere Historic District 3.JPG</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere Historic District 8.JPG</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania (4099790137).jpg</p><br>
<p>St. Francis of Assissi RC Church, Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania.JPGSt. Francis of Assisi Church</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere HD Sign Aug 09.jpgEagles Mere Historic District Sign</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere, PA Keystone Marker.jpgKeystone marker</p><br>
<p>Eagles Mere - The Lake (NYPL b12647398-79532).tiffEarly view of the lake</p><br>
<p>The Sylvanus Mulford House, also known as the John Lyons House, is an historic, American home that is located in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1818, this historic structure is a two-story, frame, Saltbox-style dwelling that sits on a stone foundation and measures forty feet by forty-seven feet. It has a full-width front porch that is supported by four large columns. Connected to the house is a two-story, frame barn that was built in 1856.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Lewisburg is a historic railroad freight station located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1884, this historic train station is a one-and-one-half-story, brick and frame building that was created in an eclectic Late Victorian style. The roof consists of a hipped form at the north end and jerkin head gable at the south. Featuring wide, overhanging eaves, exposed rafters, and a freight platform, it was abandoned by Conrail during the 1970s, and then restored and adapted for office use in 1986.</p><br>
<p>The freight building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 as the Reading Railroad Freight Station. It is located in the Lewisburg Historic District, near Hufnagle Park.</p><br>
<p>The Packwood House-American Hotel, also known as the Packwood House Museum, is historic inn and tavern that is located in Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania, United States.</p><br>
<p>Located on Market Street in the Lewisburg Historic District, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built circa 1813 and expanded circa 1866, this historic structure is a three-story, log and frame building with a gable roof. It has a two-story, pent roof, rear addition. It has housed a decorative arts museum since 1972.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It is located in the Lewisburg Historic District.</p><br>
<p>Chamberlin Iron Front Building is a historic commercial building located on Market Street in Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1868, and is a three-story, brick building with a two-story rear addition in the Italianate style. It measures 56 feet wide and 160 feet deep. The main section has a flat roof and the addition a gable roof. It features a cast-iron front manufactured in Danville, Pennsylvania. Over the years the building has housed a general store, shoe store, feed store, and post office, as well as fraternal organizations on the upper floors.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is located in the Lewisburg Historic District.</p><br>
<p>The Old Union County Courthouse is an historic, American courthouse that is located at Vine and Market Streets in New Berlin, Union County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1815 and renovated between 1855 and 1857 in order to convert the building to a schoolhouse, it was used as a school until 1952, and is a -story, brick building that is three bays wide and four bays deep with a gable roof. The roof features a center cupola.</p><br>
<p>It now houses the New Berlin Heritage Museum, also known as the New Berlin Post Office and the Courthouse Museum. The museum is open by appointment and on New Berlin Day, a street festival held each year at the end of August.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.</p><br>
<p>The Lewisburg Armory is an historic National Guard armory that is located in East Buffalo Township, Union County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1938, this historic structure is an "I-plan" building consisting of a two-story administration section with one-story wings, a one-and-one-half-story drill hall, and a two-story stable. The building was built with brick and concrete block, and was designed in the Moderne style. The administration section has a hipped roof; the drill hall has an arched roof and stable a flat roof.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<p>Slifer House, also known as the Administration Building-Evangelical Home, is a historic home that is located in Kelly Township, Pennsylvania, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Designed by noted Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan, this historic structure was built in 1861 as a country home for Lewisburg merchant Eli Slifer (1818–1888). It has a -story, brick, square main section, with two rectangular rear wings. The main section has a hipped roof with cross gables and was designed in a Victorian style. It features wraparound and two-story porches and a four-story square tower, and has housed elder care facilities since 1916, when it was purchased by the Evangelical Association.</p><br>
<p>This house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and is now owned by Albright Care Services, which operated it as a Victorian-era historic house museum until the museum&#39;s closure in 2022. It featured artifacts from its use over the years as a home for seniors, orphanage and community hospital.</p><br>
<p>Benjamin Griffey House is a historic home located at Gregg Township, Union County, Pennsylvania. It was built about 1886, and is a -story, rectangular stuccoed brick dwelling with a rear ell, in a Late Victorian style. It features a two-story bay window with flanking porches and a steep pitched gable.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The house was badly damaged in a fire in 1980. As of December 2012, the house is still in the original location.</p><br>
<p>The William A. Heiss House and Buggy Shop is an historic, American home that is located in Mifflinburg, Union County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>This historic property includes three buildings: the house, the buggy shop, and the display-storage center. The house was built in 1870, and is a two-story, five-bay, frame dwelling with a rear ell. The buggy shop was built in 1889, and is a two-story, rectangular, wood-frame building that is sixty-three feet long and twenty-four feet wide. The display-storage center was built in 1895, and is a two-story, rectangular, wood-frame building that is thirty-three feet long and fifty feet wide. It is representative of the buggy manufacturers who once had a notable presence in Mifflinburg.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<p>The property is the Mifflinburg Buggy Museum. Visitors may tour the Heiss family home, reconstructed carriage house, the original buggy factory with carriages, wagons, and sleighs and tools, and original showroom. There is a visitor center with an introductory video, self-guided exhibit and hands-on workbench.</p><br>
<p>The Hassenplug Bridge is an historic wooden covered bridge which is located in Mifflinburg, Union County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>The oldest covered bridge in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (the American state with the most covered bridges), it is also purportedly the oldest covered bridge in the United States, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>This historic structure is an 80 ft, Burr Truss bridge, which was erected in 1825 and overhauled in 1959. It was the restored again in 2021, a reconstruction effort which, once again, replaced the 1959 steel grate floor with historically authentic, wide, wood planks.</p><br>
<p>This covered bridge crosses the west or south branch of Buffalo Creek, and was named for the Hassenplug family of the early nineteenth century who lived in the brick homestead that is located on the north side of the bridge. The Hassenplugs were well known locally for their production of German beer.</p><br>
<p>It is the oldest covered bridge in Pennsylvania, and is purportedly the oldest covered bridge in the United States. However, this distinction is also claimed for the Hyde Hall Bridge in New York.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The Lewisburg Historic District is a national historic district that is located in Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>This district includes 853 contributing buildings, two contributing sites, eleven contributing structures, and two contributing objects that are located in the central business district and surrounding residential areas of Lewisburg. Notable buildings in this district are: the Derr House (1773), nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Bucknell University buildings, including Old Main and Bucknell Hall, the Union County Courthouse (1856), the USA Post Office and Court House (1933), Himmelreich Library (1902), the First Presbyterian Church (1856), Christ Lutheran Church (1901), Union National Bank (1899), the McClure Building (1913), Campus Theatre (1941), and the Buffalo Mills (1883).</p><br>
<p>Also located in the district are the separately listed Chamberlin Iron Front Building, Packwood House-American Hotel, and Reading Railroad Freight Station. Contributing sites are the Lewisburg Cemetery and Soldiers Memorial Field. The contributing structures include five railroad bridges and the contributing objects are the Soldiers Memorial Monument (1901) and a commemorative plaque.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.</p><br>
<p>Oil City Armory is a historic National Guard armory located at Oil City, Venango County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1914, and consists of a two-story administration section with a taller two-story drill hall in a Late Victorian style. The administration section has a taller three-story, corner, polygonal office tower with Gothic-influenced window surrounds. The drill hall measures 70 by 72 feet and has a roof supported by Pratt trusses.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. It is located in the Oil City South Side Historic District.</p><br>
<p>The United States Post Office, also known as the USA Federal Building, is an historic, American post office building that is located in Oil City, Venango County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under the direction of James Knox Taylor, it was built in 1906, with extensions added in 1912 and 1928. Designed in the Beaux Arts style, it is a steel frame building faced with limestone ashlar.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<p>Connely-Holeman House is a historic home located at Pleasantville, Venango County, Pennsylvania. It was built between 1869 and 1871, and is a large three-story, square wood-frame building in the Second Empire style. It measures 50 feet by 50 feet and features two projecting bays, covered porches with Corinthian order columns, and a mansard roof with cast iron cresting. A rear addition was built in 1887.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.</p><br>
<p>The Samuel F. Dale House is an historic, American home that is located in Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1875, his historic structure is a large two-story, brick dwelling that was designed in the Second Empire style. It has a gabled wing with solarium and sleeping porch, and features a slate-covered mansard roof, a two-story projecting bay, and porches across the front and rear facades. Also located on the property is a contributing carriage house that was converted to a garage.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.</p><br>
<p>The National Transit Building is an historic, American commercial building that is located at 206 Seneca Street, Oil City, Venango County, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>It is part of the Oil City Downtown Commercial Historic District.</p><br>
<h2>History and architectural features</h2><br>
<p>The main block was built in 1890, and is a four-story, stone and brick building. An adjacent annex building was built in 1896. The annex is connected by an enclosed bridgeway at the second, third, and fourth levels. The main entrance features a sandstone archway.</p><br>
<p>Part of the Oil City Downtown Commercial Historic District, which was once the hub of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, it has been transformed by the Oil City Civic Center into artists’ studios. Architects of the building were Curtis & Archer of Fredonia, New York. The builder of the structure, Horace B. Robinson of Oil City, etched his initials into a window on the second floor of the building with his diamond ring. At a cost of $90,000.00, it was the first building in the nation with offices for companies specializing in the transportation of oil by pipeline.</p><br>
<p>Located at Center and Seneca Streets, the red brick structure opened in 1890, followed six years later by the yellow brick Annex. The two structures were connected by an architectural “bridge” for a total of 25,880 square feet. The foundation of the building was constructed from cut stone taken from the Humboldt Refining Company near Plumer. The round corners of the original building were achieved by using curved bricks, with decorative bricks providing various patterns in other areas of the building. Between the main building and the Annex is the beautiful wrought iron, spiral fire escape.</p><br>
<p>Great attention to detail was paid in the construction of The National Transit Building. The main entrance floors are marble. Wall paneling is solid oak. The banisters and newel posts are wrought iron with ornate brass and bronze appliques. American Civil War cannonballs were fashioned into doorknobs. Another impressive site is the water-powered elevator in the Annex. It is modeled after an elevator built in the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The elevator was operable until this type of elevator was banned by the state, although the intricate mechanism is still visible.</p><br>
<p>In 1978 The National Transit Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. After several owner transitions, the building was purchased by Ralph Nader’s organization and later donated to the Oil City Civic Center. In 2005 a wrap-around lobby mural, printed on vinyl, was dedicated. At a cost of $33,000.00, the mural is based on historical research and focuses on the crude oil and natural gas exploration of this region.</p><br>
<p>According to a National Transit tenant, who was involved in the development of the arts:</p><br>
<p>"It has an amazing history – at the turn of the last century, as the national headquarters for the oil industry under John D. Rockefeller and more recently, as the focus of a growing arts movement in Oil City. This magnificent historic building went through some hard times in the late 1980s and 1990s. At one point there were plans to tear it down and put up a CVS! Ralph Nader heard about it, bought the building and several years later turned it over to a non-profit corporation founded to manage it, the Oil City Civic Center. It has been restored chiefly through the efforts of volunteers."</p><br>
<p>Today it is the hub of Oil City&#39;s arts revitalization and it offers work and teaching spaces for visual artists, musicians, dancers, two galleries and a performance space. The Oil City Civic Center, Inc. is charged with preserving the historic complex and to provide affordable space for nonprofit organizations.</p><br>
<p>In 2016, the building hosted the inaugural Oil Valley Film Festival.</p><br>
<p>The William R. Dowse House, more commonly known as the Dowse Sod House, is a sod house in Custer County in the central portion of the state of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. It was built in 1900 and occupied until 1959. After a long period of neglect, it was restored beginning in about 1981, and opened as a museum in 1982.</p><br>
<p>The house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as "an excellent example of the sod house phenomenon", and as one of the few surviving sod houses in Nebraska.</p><br>
<h2>Sod houses on the Great Plains</h2><br>
<p>The Homestead Act of 1862 was a major factor in opening the Great Plains to white settlement. Under the provisions of the Act, settlers could obtain title to a quarter-section (160 acres, or 160 acre) of land for a nominal fee, provided that they built a house, made certain improvements, farmed the land, and occupied the site for at least five years.</p><br>
<p>Settlers in the regions east of the Missouri River had found ample trees with which to build log houses. The eastern quarter of Nebraska was also well supplied with timber. However, as settlers moved further west, they encountered the treelessness that had led Major Stephen H. Long, exploring the region in 1820, to label it the "Great American Desert". Especially before the arrival of the railroad, the cost of importing building materials was prohibitive; and many homesteaders had spent all that they had on farming equipment, and could barely afford the filing fees for their land claims.</p><br>
<p>There is no consensus among scholars regarding the origin of sod construction on the Plains. Some maintain that the inspiration came from the earth lodges of the local native peoples, including the Omahas and the Pawnees. However, these earth lodges were circular in cross-section, and built upon heavy timber frameworks. It has also been suggested that the idea of building with sod came from European immigrants, either Russian-Germans, who are known to have built rammed earth dwellings in the Plains, or immigrants from the British Isles, particularly from Ireland, where turf houses were built with stone foundations and frames to support the turf. None of these closely resembled the unframed sod-block houses built in the Midwestern United States, but they might have engendered the idea of building with earth.</p><br>
<p>A simple sod house could be built in about a week, and for a cost of less than five dollars. Cost was not the only advantage. The thick walls provided insulation against summer heat and winter cold; the latter was particularly important in light of the dearth of firewood on the plains, which forced the early settlers to burn corncobs, twisted grass, or dried buffalo dung. The walls also withstood prairie winds better than framed walls; even sod houses struck by tornadoes generally survived with no worse damage than the loss of the roof, leaving the walls standing. Sod houses also provided a safe refuge against prairie fires, especially when surrounded by a plowed and back-burned firebreak.</p><br>
<p>The sod house was not without its disadvantages, however. Initially, at least, most had dirt floors, which had to be sprinkled with water to abate dust. To protect against invasion by rodents, insects, and snakes, the interior walls were often shaved smooth and plastered with lime, or with a mixture of local clay and sand or ashes; the lower portions of the exterior walls could also be reinforced, with planks or concrete if they were available, or with a second layer of sod to thicken them. Leaky roofs were also a problem; to protect the inhabitants and the interior furnishings from falling water, dirt, and vermin, it was common to make a ceiling of a white muslin sheet tacked to the walls. Since windows were one of the most expensive elements of a sod house, pioneers on a budget were often forced to make do with windows that were small and few in number; a light muslin ceiling and plastered walls helped to illuminate the house by reflecting daylight through the interior.</p><br>
<p>Sod houses continued to be occupied and built even after wood for construction became available. A number of contemporary photographs show occupied sod houses adjacent to frame barns and outbuildings. The Dowse house was built in 1900, although the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad had reached the nearby town of Comstock in 1899, and a lumber company was available there. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, several Custer County farmers who had lost their homes relocated to vacant land and built sod houses there. As late as 1940, a sod house was built near Dunning, Nebraska.</p><br>
<p>The sod houses of Custer County are particularly well documented, owing to the efforts of Solomon Butcher. An itinerant photographer, Butcher conceived the idea of creating a photographic history of pioneer life in Nebraska. Between 1886 and 1912, he produced nearly 3,500 glass plate negatives; over 1,800 of these were taken in Custer County, and over 1,500 show sod houses. Butcher&#39;s photographs are now owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society.</p><br>
<h3>Sod construction</h3><br>
<p>In constructing a sod house, a site had to be chosen that was close to good sources of sod. All prairie grasses were not alike for purposes of construction sod; the best were those with a strong and dense root network to hold the blocks together. Preferred species included buffalo grass (Bouteloua dactyloides), slough grass (Spartina pectinata), and big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi).</p><br>
<p>At the house site, the grass was removed. Often, the soil was excavated one to two feet (1 to 2 ft) below ground level; this reduced the height of the walls, and thus the amount of sod that had to be cut. The ground that would form the house floor was moistened and then tamped with a fencepost to flatten and harden it. Footings were rarely laid, due to the cost or unavailability of material.</p><br>
<p>Before the sod blocks were cut, the grass was mown short or burned off. At times, the surface was scored with a cutter or disc; the blocks could then be removed with a spade. This approach, however, tended to produce rough and non-uniform blocks, which complicated the task of laying them in even courses. Blocks could also be cut with a plow. An ordinary plow could be used, given considerable skill and care on the part of the operator; however, the mouldboard tended to turn over and break up the blocks; even if intact blocks were produced, they were generally not of uniform thickness. In the late 19th century, a modified plow designed specifically for sod cutting was invented: this "grasshopper plow" replaced the mouldboard with a set of adjustable rods, which allowed the operator to cut a uniform strip of sod three to six inches (3 to 6 in) deep and 12 to 18 in wide. This strip could then be cut into blocks. The dimensions of these depended, among other things, on the strength of the builder&mdash;the blocks were dense, and had to be sized so that the builders could lift them. Typical blocks cut with a grasshopper plow might measure four inches (4 in) deep by 12 in wide by 24 to 36 in long.</p><br>
<p>In building the walls, the sod blocks were laid one course at a time; each course was completed before the next was begun. Walls were generally two or three wythes thick; the vertical joints were staggered to avoid creating a direct path through the wall for wind and vermin. To bind the wythes and increase the stability of the wall, every second, third, or fourth course was laid crosswise.</p><br>
<p>Early sod houses were roofed with sod. The weight of the roof helped to keep it from blowing away in strong winds, and the insulating power of such a roof helped to moderate temperatures within the house. However, the sod roof&#39;s weight also posed the risk of collapse if there was insufficient wood support for it, and sod roofs tended to drip water, mud, and insects. In later sod houses, for which the material was more readily available, roofs were shingled or covered with tarpaper, boards, or metal.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first homestead established in Custer County was that of Lewis R. and Sarah M. Dowse, who in August 1873 occupied a site on the Middle Loup River. Lewis Dowse was born in 1845 in Sherborn, Massachusetts. After service in the Civil War, he moved to Iowa in 1868. In the following year, he married Sarah Wagner, who was born in 1854 in Auglaize County, Ohio. In 1871, their oldest child, William R. Dowse, was born. The family moved to Nebraska in 1873, accompanied by Sarah Dowse&#39;s parents; the latter remained in Loup City while their daughter and son-in-law established their homestead, then moved to Custer County in 1874. The Dowses initially occupied a dugout on their claim; in 1874, they built a slab house, using material brought from Loup City. There, they raised nine children, including an adopted daughter.</p><br>
<h3>Building the house</h3><br>
<p>In October 1900, William Dowse married 18-year-old Florence Murphy, daughter of John and Leah Thrist Murphy. At the beginning of that year, he was living in a dugout just south of his parents’ farm; by April 1900, a sod house was under construction, to be occupied by the couple. John Murphy was an experienced builder of sod houses, and the William Dowse house was built with his aid and that of neighbors and friends.</p><br>
<p>The new house was located northwest of the homestead of the senior Dowses. William Dowse did not homestead the site. The property was originally acquired in 1884 by Kate Prescott, under the provisions of the Timber Culture Act of 1873; it is not known whether Prescott had built a dwelling on the parcel.</p><br>
<p>The blocks for the house were cut from bluestem sod, probably obtained from a site very close to the house. The grass was mown to a height of 1/4 inch (0.25 in); the blocks were then cut with a grasshopper plow, to dimensions of about 24 in long by 16 in wide by 3 - thick. Blocks were laid with the grass side down, in a one-course common bond; the walls were battered, measuring 27 in thick at ground level and 20 in thick at the top.</p><br>
<p>The plan of the house was L-shaped, with stems projecting to the east and to the south. It occupied a rectangle measuring 29 feet by 31 feet 3 inches (29 ft by 31 ft); each stem of the L was approximately 6 m wide. The single-story house was topped with a steeply-pitched wood-shingled hip roof.</p><br>
<p>The interior was divided by wood partition walls into three rooms. A small bedroom occupied the northwest corner, at the angle of the L. The eastward projection contained a large kitchen and hall; the southward projection, a somewhat smaller parlor and dining room. A steep stairway led up to an unfinished attic. The floors were packed dirt; the ceiling was muslin tacked beneath boards. The interior of the sod walls was plastered with a mixture of clay, straw, and hog hair.</p><br>
<p>Two east-facing doors led into the house. One, at the end of the eastern projection of the L, led into the kitchen-hall. A second, on the east side of the southern projection, led from the space enclosed by the arms of the L into the parlor-dining room. Two windows faced northward: one from the kitchen-hall, one from the bedroom. Two more faced southward: one from the kitchen-hall and one from the parlor-dining room. A single window faced eastward from the kitchen-hall. Windows were flush with the exterior walls of the house. The window wells were beveled, widening toward the interior of the house; this admitted more light to the house. The configuration of the west wall is not known, since the wall was removed in 1924.</p><br>
<h3>Living in the house</h3><br>
<p>William and Florence Dowse raised five sons, born between 1905 and 1919: Harold, William Jr., Philip, Curtis, and Kermit. After occupying a crib in his parents&#39; bedroom, each son moved up to the attic room, where they slept on straw ticks.</p><br>
<p>As the family expanded, the house was enlarged and improved. In 1915, the muslin ceiling was replaced with plaster. Two years later, wood tongue-and-groove flooring was installed. In 1924, two additions were made. The space between the two arms of the L was framed in and covered with a shed roof; the resulting southeast corner room was left unfinished and used as a laundry room. The west sod wall of the house was removed completely, and a second shed-roofed addition constructed to extend the house to the west. Both additions were clad in wooden shingles. William Dowse, Jr. and his wife Inez occupied the western addition.</p><br>
<p>At some point, the house was wired for electricity. Plumbing was never installed.</p><br>
<p>The last major alteration to the house took place in 1935, when it was realized that the projection of the eaves was not sufficient to protect the house&#39;s walls from erosion. At that time, concrete was applied to the lower portion of the exterior sod walls: boards were placed against the wall and concrete poured into the space between board and wall, then allowed to dry before the boards were raised and the process repeated.</p><br>
<p>The durability of the house was tested in the early 1940s, when a tornado struck the farmstead. All of the farm&#39;s outbuildings were destroyed; but the house escaped undamaged, apart from a sawhorse blown through one of the windows.</p><br>
<p>William Dowse lived in the house until his death in 1951. Florence Dowse remained for another two years before moving to Comstock; she died in 1969. The final occupants of the house were the family of William Dowse, Jr., who remained there until 1959, the year before his death.</p><br>
<h3>Restoring the house</h3><br>
<p>After the departure of the last occupants, the house stood neglected for over two decades. Fire damaged the roof and shingles were blown off, allowing leakage; all of the windows and doors were broken or destroyed. With nothing to bar their entrance, cattle passed through the house, leaving a foot (30 cm) of manure on the floors.</p><br>
<p>In about 1981, descendants of William and Florence Dowse decided to restore the house. The project was spearheaded by two of the Dowse sons, Philip and Curtis, and supported by the Comstock Community Club. In the course of several years, over $6,000 was raised for the project. A fence was built to exclude cattle from the house. The roof was repaired and reshingled. The exterior walls were reinforced and repaired with new sod blocks, cut with a horse-drawn plow about 600 ft from the house; additional concrete coating was applied in places. The porch walls were re-shingled, and doors and windows were replaced. Inside the house, the manure covering the floors was removed, and the wood flooring repaired; the plaster on the walls was patched or replaced, up to 20 layers of old wallpaper was removed, and new wallpaper applied in places. Pioneer-era interior furnishings such as a cast-iron stove were installed. In May 1982, the house was opened as a museum.</p><br>
<p>In 1986, the house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, under the name "William R. Dowse House". In the form nominating it for the register, it was described as "an excellent example of the sod house phenomenon", and as one of the few surviving sod houses in the state. For their efforts in restoring the house and opening it to the public, Philip and Curtis Dowse received the Nebraska State Historical Society&#39;s Nebraska Preservation Award in 1990. In the 21st century, the Dowse Sod House is promoted as a tourist destination by the village of Comstock and by the Nebraska Division of Travel and Tourism.</p><br>
