Antique wrought iron for the Twitchell Rowland Homestead Museum
Oxford Homestead Begins Regular Hours Sunday
The Twitchell Rowland Homestead Museum at 60 Towner Lane will be open on a regular basis beginning Sunday, May 20, from 2 to 4 p.m.
The Oxford Historical Society plans to open the 1755 saltbox’s doors to the public on the first and third Sunday of each month.
Current exhibitions include antique maps of Oxford dating to the 1850’s, a “first look” at the museum’s holdings including antique wrought and cast iron from the S. P. Sanford home, photos of local barns and a collection of milk bottles and caps from local dairies.
Tours of the restored house and a brief overview of its history will be given throughout the afternoon.
Originally located on Christian Street and built by Revolutionary War soldier Joseph Twitchell for his children, the home stayed in that family for several generations. It was purchased by Philip and Elizabeth Rowland in the early 1900’s and was part of their farm for 3 generations.
By 2004, the house was slated for demolition to make way for an over 55 community. The Oxford Historical Society moved the building in 2006 and has worked ever since to renovate it as Oxford’s first museum.
Simon Grant Jones and wrought iron screen
TV programme to feature Dorset blacksmith’s work
AN award-winning blacksmith will see his work on screen in a TV documentary tomorrow night.
Simon Grant-Jones is a contributor in the BBC4 programme ‘The Blacksmith’s Tale’ and a piece of ironwork that he made recently will feature in the film.
The Kingston Maurward College blacksmith and forgework tutor said: “When the BBC first called me, they just wanted information.
“They had no idea I was making this wrought iron screen.
“It was made for Kingston Maurward Gardens as a commission and is to reflect the period of Kingston Maurward House, around 1720.
“It just so happens that this fitted perfectly with the programme that the BBC was making on wrought iron.
“Traditional techniques are used throughout and everything is contemporary to the early 18th Century style of working.
“My inspiration for blacksmithing is a man named Robert Bakewell, who was working around 300 years ago.
“One day the producer called me again and said they would be reviewing a Bakewell piece in Derby, would I like to go?
“So we went to Derby and I reviewed the piece and hopefully that will be shown during the programme.
“The crew also came to another event at Finch Foundry, a water-powered forge in Devon, and that should be featured too.” The screen took around 450 hours of work during two years to complete.
Mr Grant-Jones was named Show Champion with the piece at the North Somerset Show last week.
He said: “This was the first of ten shows which will take place this year. At each show, the champion receives ten points and the reserve gets four. The points are added up over the whole series of shows and whoever has the most points will be named National Champion.
“I was National Champion in 2010 and I’ve been Reserve Champion twice. I’ve got off to a good start and it would be really nice to win again.”
The screen will be used as a show piece until September, when it will be permanently installed in the formal gardens at the college.
The programme is the third in the ‘Metalworks!’ series and will be shown tomorrow on BBC4 at 9pm.
from dorsetecho.co.uk
Murringo Cemetery : the century-old wrought iron gates stolen
Cemetery gate theft crook as Rookwood
THIEVES have made off with the century-old wrought-iron gates from Murringo Cemetery (pictured right) – and locals reckon it’s an act as crook as Rookwood.
The gates went missing from the Catholic entrance to the village graveyard, near Young, between April 22 and May 2, according to reports.
“We can’t have a cemetery with no gates,” Mayor of Young, Stuart Freudenstein, is quoted.
“Mind you, we’re not trying to stop anyone getting out.”
Murringo resident Frank Baker, whose wife Helen is buried in the graveyard, has slammed the gate thieves.
“I hope the ghosts eat away at your conscience,” he’s told the crooks via regional media.
Murringo Community Association president, Heather Ritchie, says the thieves probably used angle grinders to remove the gates.
“Anything associated with the cemetery, when it’s interfered with, is taken very personally by people who have relatives there,” she says.
Murringo Cemetery dates back to the early 1850s and attracts many visitors who are tracing their family history or view the historic graves and pay their respects, says Ms Ritchie.
“If your conscience has gotten the better of you – just drop them back at the site and no questions asked – we just want the gates back,” she says.
Wagga Wagga antiques dealer, John Wigg, says the gates may be sold on, possibly at Sydney or Melbourne auction houses.
Dismantled wrought iron gate surrounding the United Palace Cathedral in Washington Heights
United Palace Cathedral may see new life as community arts center Rev. Ike’s son trying to bring church into ‘next chapter’
BY BRUCE DIAMOND
In recent weeks, workers at the United Palace Cathedral in Washington Heights have dismantled nearly 500 feet of wrought-iron gate surrounding the building’s square-block perimeter.
Over the upcoming month, the hulking, 3,300-seat auditorium at W. 175th St. and Broadway will serve as the site for the opening of the annual Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Uptown Arts Stroll and host a public screening of a documentary film, “To Be Heard.”
Those associated with the UPC say the events are both a symbolic and literal prelude to a development that — if their plans come to fruition could see this 32,000-square-foot complex transformed into a community arts center, a change that could provide badly needed space for upper Manhattan and introduce programs to benefit thousands of children.
They’re calling it the “next chapter” in the life of this former vaudeville house and Loews movie palace, which has served for the last 43 years as the base for the late minister Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II — better known as Rev. Ike — and his multimillion-dollar televangelistic United Church Science of Living Institute.
It would share the building with what remains of Rev. Ike’s church congregation, and a third operation that handles commercial bookings.
The auditorium has been rented as a concert venue for years recent performances by the likes of Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop and Adele have helped keep the UPC afloat.
The plans are being driven by Xavier Eikerenkoetter Eikerenkoetter , Rev. Ike’s son and sole heir, who lives in Malibu, Calif., and says that since his father’s death three years ago, he’s been searching for a way to realize his own artistic vision for the United Palace.
“It really just seems like the next step for me on a personal level,” says Xavier, 47. “And I really feel the space calling for the next phase of its evolution, because it’s got such great potential.”
In California, Xavier works with delinquents and other minors who are wards of the state, introducing them to traditional African drumming.
Rev. Ike purchased the UPC from Loews in 1969, and painstakingly restored the stylings of its Moorish/Rococo motif.
At its peak, the United Palace drew nearly 5,000 congregants each Sunday — few from the neighborhood while their pastor reached many millions more over the airwaves.
As executor of the building and head of his father’s ministry, Xavier assumed control of the Palace. He had worked in his father’s church for most of his life, but had no intention of trying to assume his mantle.
to be continued
from nydailynews.com
The dead London plane trees and wrought iron grates
Tree stumps on ‘Mink Mile’ latest embarrassment
JOHN LORINC
On Bloor Street’s Mink Mile this week, landscaping crews began chopping down more than 20 dead street trees, leaving a series of waist-high stumps poking out of the high-concept black marble planters and wrought-iron grates on the widened sidewalks.
With hundreds of red, yellow and purple flowers now in full bloom along Bloor, this latest horticultural repair job is yet another embarrassment in a long-delayed project that dragged on over four years and cost the local business improvement area more than $24-million.
Merchants who support the costly beautification project are disappointed. “It’s unfortunate they’ve had some problems,” said Larry Rosen, chairman and CEO of Harry Rosen, adding that it’s “critical” for the city’s premiere shopping district to look its best. “Let’s get it fixed up as quickly as possible.”
Don Knight, general manager of Frank Stollery Ltd., observed that his staff complained to the Bloor Yorkville BIA as far back as last year about a dead tree that had been left standing in front of Holt Renfrew, sometimes with stray plastic bags caught in its branches. “No one came to clean it out,” he said. “That [says] the street doesn’t give a damn.”
That tree has not yet been cut down.
The dead London plane trees, mostly located on the block between Yonge and Church, died because they were planted at the wrong time of year, against the advice of city arborists, following numerous construction delays and a strike. The Globe and Mail counted several more dying or dead street trees still standing west of Yonge, a few as far west as Avenue Road.
The deciduous species can grow up to 40 metres, has a smooth, grey-green bark, and is not indigenous to southern Ontario.
“When a professional landscaper tells us the appropriate season is not upon us, perhaps the learning is that we follow their advice,” said Kristyn Wong-Tam, the local councillor.
The trees, installed in 2009 and still under warranty, died because they were planted in the fall rather than the spring, said Briar de Lang, executive director of the Bloor-Yorkville BIA. “Essentially, they were put in the ground too soon and now they’re being replaced.”
The maintenance of all the new landscaping is the responsibility of the BIA, and Ms. de Lang stressed that no public funds have been spent on this latest repair.
Ms. Wong-Tam added she’s confident the organization, which has 1,700 members, is moving quickly to deal with the problem. “The BIA has every interest in making sure the street looks great,” she said.
The BIA and its architects worked hard to create an elaborate network of soil trenches specifically designed to sustain trees and a rotating assortment of annuals.
Many freshly planted street trees in Toronto succumb because they are inserted in tiny apertures in the sidewalk under heavy slabs of poured concrete. The trees die because the soil beneath the concrete becomes too packed to allow nutrients and water to circulate through the root network.
On Bloor, however, the trees were planted in “silva-cells” constructed beneath the sidewalk and engineered to resist compaction as well as the freeze-thaw cycle. During the reconstruction of Roncesvalles Avenue, the city relied on a variation on the theme, using pre-cast concrete pavers that sit on supports instead of resting directly on the soil.
Both Bloor and Roncesvalles were pilot projects, said urban forestry planner Peter Simon, noting that such specially designed structures are costly to install, unless the street is already being dug up for other reasons, such as the burial of hydro or gas lines.
The goal, said Mr. Simon, who will deliver a lecture next week on boulevard trees, is to provide roots with 30 cubic metres of soil. The current average is about half that, while the old so-called “tree coffins” – the old concrete planters that can be seen in areas like the Annex – have little more than three cubic metres.
from theglobeandmail.com
