Church on Sunday: A different view

The back side of the Randolph Street Methodist Church has but three openings: a red door (with sidelights), a small Gothic window, and an even smaller round window up top. Makes you wonder what's up there....

(The front has a much larger window.)

This photo was taken from the east end of the Nelson St. bridge.

13 windows

An overcast sky above the unusual roof line of 103 South Randolph St.

Yesterday's forge shares this building with the stables and carriage house for the Lexington Carriage Company. During the warmer months, and on the occasional weekend afternoon in the winter, the teams of horses are watered and groomed and fed (I suppose - I haven't seen them feeding) between carriage rides here. Then they go north to Augusta County for the night.

I have a fascination with this building. It hardly seems to belong in town. It is certainly not beautiful -- "utilitarian" is the word that comes to mind. I don't remember ever seeing another freestanding building of this size with just one lo-o-o-ng shed roof. The row of windows makes it, of course. (There's another similar row on the other side.) See the building from a distance here.

Pictures of the horses and carriages to come, in the spring.

Forge door

Brown's Forge at 130 South Randolph St., quiet on a Sunday afternoon.

Owned and run by the Brown family for almost 150 years (they are said to have shod Robert E. Lee's famous horse, Traveller), the forge is now operated by blacksmith Jack Chaffee.

I found the following, written by Chaffee, in the March 2007 issue of The Virginian, the newsletter of the Blacksmith Guild of Virginia, online here:

“The goal of BROWN'S FORGE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM is to keep the feeling of a small town smithy at about the turn of the last century. The Shop was established about 1856 and the present building was erected in 1915. From about 1865 to around 1900 it was a carriage-building Shop and there are many dies and sets used to create the fittings typical of carriages of those days. Gradually as gasoline power replaced the horse the Shop converted to repair of automobiles and did a brisk business in that regard up 'til the 50's. But as automotive technology changed the owners chose not to invest in the technology required and the Shop reverted back to being a smithy and repair shop. Now, it is primarily a smithy for architectural iron and secondarily a repair/restoration shop for tools, utensils, and broken cast iron items. Our specialty in that line is the repair and sharpening of the push reel-type lawn mowers. We have the only reel mower sharpening machine (1943) in operation within a 60 mile radius.”

I expect this sign offers an example of Chaffee's work:

Perhaps I will be able to post a photo of Mr. Chaffee in action one of these days.

Church on Sunday: Randolph Street

Window of the Randolph Street Methodist Church.

I can find out very little about this church, other than that it was built in 1892, and suffered a fire in 1929 (according to my copy of "The Architecture of Historic Lexington" by Lyle and Simpson). Like many Methodist churches I have seen, it does not have a spire, but rather a bell tower, which can be seen (from a distance) here.

This graceful window faces the street, and is surrounded by some simple yet imaginative brickwork (of a beautiful, rich orange-red), which makes for nice shadow lines.

10 Things I like about the New Courthouse, #1

The new courthouse nears completion at the corner of Nelson and Randolph streets.

This photo introduces my New Year's resolution, of sorts -- to find ten things I can like about the new courthouse. (It's going to be tough.) Number one: The quality of light on the Nelson street facade in the late afternoon can be breathtaking.

See the old courthouse, soon to be put out to pasture, here.