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Wow! The inside must be fabulous!

Magical ...

I thought this place looked familiar, and I was right -- it's featured in architect Arrol Gellner's fascinating and beautiful book, "Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the Twenties":

http://www.amazon.com/Storybook-Style-Arrol-Gellner/dp/0670893854/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/103-2931436-8939045

It's on the back cover and pp. 38-39 if you use Amazon's "search inside" tool.

Best,

Leah

Oooh -- I just found some interior pano shots of the Gaytonia here:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Gaytonia&w=41901599%40N00

Leah

Leah - thanks for posting the links. It's always a treat to look inside these marvels of imagination and craftmanship and wonder about what life was like for the people who lived there when they were new.

oceandreamer

If you like this architecture, you'd like a vacation to the town of Leavenworth, Washington.

http://www.leavenworth.org/

It gets really hot there in summer, being on the eastern side of the Cascades. Winters there are spectacular. Definitely the better part of the year (I detest hot weather).

I've been there once and it was a nice place, very scenic. There's nice places to camp, fish and hike nearby in the mountains near Icicle Creek.

http://www.gonorthwest.com/Washington/cascades/Leavenworth/camp_icicle.htm

Thanks Boomer - the link to the Kennedy School that you'd given me was great, too.

I guess one of the things that I really like about these old buildings is that (for the most part) they were well built, and with care will last for such a long time. I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Philadelphia a couple of years ago and (probably because I was born and raised in California) was awestruck at the age of the buildings there. (Can't imagine what I'd feel if I were ever to go to Europe!) Maybe I'm weird, but knowing I was sitting in the same place (the pews had been replaced, but same spot) that George Washington did when he attended church services - well, I don't know how to describe my feelings. I sat there and tried to imagine all the people who'd lived, walked the aisle of that church and those streets, conducted their lives and business when those buildings were new.. and in a city as old as that it was facinating to walk a block or two and see the differences in architecture as new ideas came into vogue.

Guess that's one reason I've never really cared for tract homes...

dreamer - that's one of the things I liked about living on the east coast. There's no history here on the Left coast to speak of. I once ate dinner in a building in Frederick, MD that Francis Scott Key had been in. At Harper's Ferry (W.VA) the town is kept in a time warp as a historic site (the whole town is a living museum as well as great place to walk along the Potomac and hike up the cliffs overlooking the town).

It's also the only place I've seen fog in 70 degree plus weather. I almost miss the winters, and the thunderstorms. There's no weather om the west coast either. Here they think rain is "bad weather". Makes me laugh. I *don't* miss the humidity. Think LA has bad air, LA is *nothing* when it comes to air quality. In DC when it gets bad they'll tell you to bring your own oxygen if you plan to exercise out doors. I am not making that up. I still have pictures of joggers wearing respirators.

I know there are pockets of history on the west coast - my own hometown is a prime example:

http://www.inn-california.com/southcoast/venturaC/ventura4.html

The numbers above the door of the mission is the year it was founded - not the street numbers.

And the house my grandparents lived in when they first relocated there is on the Historic Registory. But for some reason, it seems so much more difficult to visualize the age and antiquity of this side of the country. Too much familiarity, perhaps?

Cool. I always did like the missions. I shot (photographed) a Scottish ceremony in a mission in Monterey almost 20 years ago. I loved the architecture of the place. It's funny - I was an assistant to a commercial shooter who was the official photographer for the gig, but all he did was perch in a balcony and take only a couple of shots. AT least I got to keep the negatives and contact sheets (6x6). Now that I remember it, I shot all the candids afterwards, too, while the boss mingled (schmoozed & boozed ;->).

Anyway - in Oregon you can still see ruts in the ground from years of wagon wheels on the Lewis & Clark Trail, but that's "recent" history.

In Maryland, the longest national park in the country stretches for hundreds of miles - but is less than 1/4 mile wide - the C&O Canal Towpath along the Potomac. There are wagon ruts there much older than the Lewis & Clark trail.

One of these days I want to go to the Middle East where they say it all started. I'd love to see the stone lions of Hamedan (Iran) and see the Bosphorus Straight where one of the largest pontoon bridges was built by the Persian army long before the last stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. I'd like to go to the town of Saveh (Iran) where they say two of the magi that visited the baby Jesus are buried...

Hey! My fiancé and I just bought a condo RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from Gaytonia! I'm so excited that now I get to look at it all the time! Now I need to make friends with the neighbors so I can get inside and look around ;]

Mlasswell - take pictures! Share! Nosey people want to know!

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