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Grindstone
Ye Older Grindstones
7/8/2002 Prepped 180 images; began the Lake Place pages in earnest.
Finally, just a bit, in addition to substance, the textual display and the
graphic display are about even in amount. The text can suggest an image
long since parted from a written reference; today, two such were rejoined
(see the Parabiographies entry for the Paul Mueller
residence and studio. Really, the studio and residence was not much
more than a chic bachelor pad for the well-off Mueller, who got married, moved
to Chicago, and built a vastly larger house. Elmslie drew up a design for
him, but the materially inclined Mueller fell to the heresy of building HIS new
residence honestly, by gum, in historical terms. He wanted a Tudor-style
house, and would have one with money no object. But he had heard about
integrity in architecture. He paid through the nose for antique building
methods being true to form, spending double or more of what a finely wrought P&E
masterpiece would have cost. But he got his little bit of background to
the much-loved Prairie gardens of Merry Olde England, as Purcell tells the tale.
Still this web site as a whole is obviously moving to the edge of a
period where the contents are useful to researchers. Already I have had
the pleasure of making the e-acquaintance of several visitors to the site, which
has both enhanced and strengthened the details presented on these pages.
Research material has gone back and forth; I have been surprised at the depth of
unpublished but well-studied research for the progressives as a group. Twenty years ago those
informational soundings were not already taken. Obviously, there emerged
out there a
crop of serious scholars waving beyond the generation of the 1960s-1970s,
which was the state-of-the-art in organic architectural history when I started
my journey in 1979. These friendly newcomers can be celebrated as ferrets of recorded
detail previously too miniscule for notice heretofore; even where they think to
look is clever, much of it good digging. Architectural history is, after
all, only a very specialized form of archaeology. Whether out of academic or plain
old personal interest, the quality of information brought to my attention over
the past couple of months was exciting and educating. This note records my appreciation of offering
this web site, which furthers such benefits in return to my mailbox. Sometimes the
monthly expense of a block of fixed IPs, domain names, and a computer on 24/7 is
hard to reconcile, especially in these times, but the pleasure remains to say
for the present moment, it's mine to give. I trust I am paying
forward because right now that feels important. Times are strange and
tough. There seems much destruction in the world. This web site is my hearth
of electronic fire, where those of a particular spiritual clan can gather around
and renew the old stories. Pull up a browser and set aspell. Visit
and contribute,
if you are moved. TOMORROW'S TOPIC: The Prairie School Exchange.
FUTURE TOPIC: THE TATTERED RECORD, or As The Building Churns. EDITOR'S NOTE: I decided tonight to use The Grindstone to
record more of my experience through this electronic prose poem served to you through
HTTP requests. I have joined in partnership with a writer I respect and
admire, both as a craftsman and a spirit, to produce what has long been known in
this continuum as "The Book." I published numerous articles seen in five
languages, several books, and three web sites about Purcell and Elmslie and
organic understanding over the past twenty years. Now is the time to
complete the "monograph," as people refer to such a final rendering.
In many pages of Purcell's writings done in the 1950s, there is constant
reference to the production of The Book. I hope it turns out to be my
pleasure, even at long last. Except now the "monograph" is going to be the "diagraph" (a
self-generated word Purcell would have loved, both the word and the
self-generating), not an individual venture; it
takes on the partnership of a community, in that satisfyingly organic way.
The collaboration is also sustained through the experience of creating this web
site. Hence more of a note at episode ends, rather than just a list of completed
keystrokes. No, they won't always be nearly as long as this inaugural
launch. And we'll see how many people are putting their e-shoulders to The
Grindstone as a nice side effect.
However, the story tonight is of 4D serendipity. I created some more links
today for the files served by the University of Minnesota Images server.
Since the group of images for Minneapolis commissions number 692, I have to go
job by job. So arrives Paul Mueller, an early Minneapolis job number.
In opening the already present Parabiographies page for a template, I saw that
earlier in the month I pasted the entry for the Bullen fireplace remodel, and
not the Mueller commission. I opened another data file to retrieve the
needed text and, of course, read Purcell again after pasting his words to the
correct spot. In the Images query return there were two pictures of a
large half-timbered snowcrested house in the Mueller job file. The
text, which lives in a different box elsewhere, and the images are mates, and I
restored their virtual relationship today on a web page. It was fun to
wonder if Purcell looked at those very pictures the day he wrote that
manuscript. Such are the pleasures of research.
research courtesy mark hammons