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I don't know what all kinds of happy or horrifying memories people might have, if any, of things that have occurred inside the building during its existence, but from out here the building was good-looking.
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In downtown Valparaiso, Indiana, on June 8th, 2024, was McMahan Center on the east side of Michigan Avenue, south of Jefferson Street.
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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:
• Porter (county) (1002798)
• Valparaiso (2033971)
Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:
• additions (building components) (300445666)
• beige (color) (300266234)
• cast stone (300254121)
• commercial buildings (300005147)
• concrete blocks (300374976)
• gray (color) (300130811)
• masonry veneer (300444225)
• oblique views (300015503)
• office buildings (300007043)
• paint (coating) (300015029)
• quoins (300002748)
• random ashlar (300343357)
• signs (declatory or advertising artifacts) (300123013)
Wikidata items:
• 8 June 2024 (Q69307193)
• Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI Combined Statistical Area (Q117557957)
• Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area (Q1754965)
• June 8 (Q2621)
• June 2024 (Q61312789)
• McMahan (Q21511329)
• Northern Indiana (Q7058433)
• Northwest Indiana (Q7060084)
• stone veneer (Q2470272)
• Treaty of Tippecanoe (Q7837259)
Library of Congress Subject Headings:
• Concrete masonry (sh85030722)
(Updated on January 20, 2025)
Facing southeastward.
This is Fayette's Machine Shop. Like most utilitarian buildings of its kind, it was not intended as a major statement of architectural design. True, it was given one ornamental conceit, the pediment's octagonal oculus. But its stonework, which is mostly a random-set ashlar, seems to be about as artless as it ever could be without falling down five minutes after it was erected.
That stone, once again, is very locally quarried Regional Silurian Dolostone taken from the Burnt Bluff Group at the foot of nearby Middle Bluff.
As I've noted in other posts of this set, I've found reliable sources that state that the red brick used here and elsewhere in the settlement had to be imported, But from whence it came, exactly, no one so far has said.
Regardless, in the Machine Shop exterior the skillful use of that brick reaches its absolute nadir—or, if you prefer, its greatest quirky creativity. Just look at the structure's quoins (corner masonry). These seem to have been the work of a crew inspired by an abundant supply of distilled grain products.
Quoins can be made of stone, brick, and other materials as well. And they can be purely ornamental or play a vital structural role. When the latter is the case, as I suspect it is here, the quoins provide bracing for walls composed of inferior or badly mortared rock.
The brick quoins on view in this shot seem to want to form right triangles on both their faces, but are mostly deformed. I actually wonder if the walls were originally made entirely of the dolostone that started to crumble at the edges in a way that necessitated irregular, ex post facto brick patchwork.
Or it could be that the people who built the Machine Shop just weren't trained masons. In any event, I like the funky outcome.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Integrative Natural History of Fayette Historic State Park album.
For this one, the people of Menominee County, Michigan, have invited us to casually associate the operations of their county government with horrifying applications of skin-shredding violence, screaming people bleeding all over.
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In downtown Menominee, Michigan, on May 24th, 2024, was the Menominee County Courthouse (built in 1875, designed by Gurdon P. Randall, 75000958 on the National Register of Historic Places) on the south side of 10th Avenue, opposite 9th Street.
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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:
• Menominee (2052633)
• Menominee (county) (2000978)
• Upper Peninsula (7016058)
Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:
• county courthouses (300005979)
• cupolas (300002230)
• fences (site elements) (300005044)
• historic buildings (300008063)
• jails (buildings) (300006457)
• Neoclassical (300021477)
• oblique views (300015503)
• pink (color) (300124707)
• red brick (material) (300444202)
Wikidata items:
• 24 May 2024 (Q69307178)
• 1870s in architecture (Q74241498)
• 1875 in architecture (Q2744708)
• concertina wire (Q89556)
• Gurdon P. Randall (Q5619943)
• Marinette-Iron Mountain, WI-MI Combined Statistical Area (Q126131459)
• May 24 (Q2584)
• May 2024 (Q61312957)
• Menominee County Courthouse (Q6817254)
• National Register of Historic Places (Q3719)
• neoclassical architecture (Q54111)
• razor wire (Q89575)
• Treaty of the Cedars (Q7837316)
Library of Congress Subject Headings:
• Courthouses—Michigan (sh94008985)
renaissance architecture of the main Hussite church
Žižkovo náměstí (Tábor, Czechia)
20241003_143116
