Onion Domes And Other Magnificent Architecture

Today I noticed another unintentional sub-collection that was spread out among my other cards: Interesting architecture. I'm a sucker for Beaux Arts and Victorian gingerbread, and have picked up cards just because they looked neat. Fine architecture used to show up in unusual places -- including pumping stations and fish hatcheries. Here is a batch I sifted out.

Great stuff. Your fourth card shows "Saltair" near Salt Lake City, whose fortunes rose and fell along with the water level in Great Salt Lake. There were a few successors to this "pleasure dome" one of which still stands.

Thanks for sharing them.

The Saltair Pavilion has long fascinated me. The original building burned in 1925, but there have been two pavilions since then. I think the one still standing that you referred to would be Saltair III. Here's another view of the original.

I dug up some more...











This last building still exists in Beverly Hills! It was carefully moved from Culver City in the 1930s. It's now known as the Spadena House at the corner of Carmelita Dr. and Walden Ave. I used to drive past it when I lived in L.A. and it always brought a smile.

And let's not forget interior architecture. Hotel lobbies were often showcases for ornamentation.

I know I can't be the only one with postcards of fancy buildings. Can anyone else post a few?

I keep hoping this topic will eventually catch the interest of other members, so here's my latest bump. I picked up two nice examples of Gilded Age architecture. I was surprised to learn that Willard Library is still standing proudly in Evansville, Indiana. This might go on my list of places to visit some day.



Shadow Brook had a fascinating and rather macabre history. Its first owner, the merchant banker Anson Phelps Stokes, spent $1 million to construct it in 1893. With 100 rooms, it was the second largest residential building in the country at the time. But a few years later Stokes lost his leg after it was crushed while riding his horse on the grounds. He lost interest in the property and sold it to Spencer P. Shotter in 1905, for $250,000. Shotter was convicted of violating anti-trust laws and jailed for a short time in 1909. In need of money he eventually put the house on the market, but could find no buyers. It was leased out on occasion, but sat empty until 1918, when Andrew Carnegie bought it for $350,000. Carnegie had little time to enjoy it, however, and he died in Shadow Brook in 1919. Carnegie's widow let it sit abandoned for several years and eventually sold it to the Jesuits for $200,000 to convert into a seminary. In 1956, an explosion of the heating oil sent the building up in flames, with the loss of five lives. Quite a reversal of fortune for what was once a spectacular mansion.