what about the plastic animals?

Fallingwater

Fallingwater was the weekend home of Pittsburgh businessman Edgar Kaufmann, Sr. and family from 1937 to 1963.  As probably everybody knows, the house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to sit over a waterfall on Bear Run in southwestern Pennsylvania.

I couldn't imagine living there, but the house is well worth a visit!  The setting is absolutely beautiful and Wright's idiosyncratic design is interesting.  If you can, go on a dry day.  As I found out a humid morning = a stinky Fallingwater.  Despite several fans the house had an intense mildew smell.

A Little Snow

View out of the office this morning.  The ride up 9W was equally snowy.

You Are Beautiful

Electric Windows.  On the windows of the old electric blanket factory in Beacon.

Leaving Connellsville

These two buildings were just over the hill from the motel I was staying at in Connellsville.  The highway split and there were businesses in the median.  I was looking at Google Maps to refresh my memory and look what was there (scroll backwards and forwards to see the car overtake the googlemobile).

The world needs more buildings shaped like the Rose Equipment building.

Connellsville Signs

I didn't notice it at the time but Connellsville has a very popular sign painter.  The same person who painted the Molinaro Law Building must have also painted the signs for Meidel's and Dr. Perez.  That sign painter had no problems painting both a flying BBQ Ham sandwich and "lose extra weight... and live longer".

Whoever the painter, they didn't get the job for The Dump Restaurant.  Wait a sec... Let's zoom in on that sign:

Yes, yes it does say "Freddy the Freeloader Goin' to the DUMP".  Appetizing!

Did you know that appetizing is also used as a noun?

Dum Dum

In the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples at the American Museum of Natural History.  He didn't talk.  I was very disappointed.  All the kids that made it this far into the museum wanted to have their picture taken with him.

Settepani Goes Dark

It appears that the Settepani Bakery at 120th and Lenox has closed.  I had heard a rumor they weren't doing too well and might close temporarily (in New York restaurant talk "temporarily closed" and "under renovation" are usually euphemisms for "permanently closed").  The rumor surprised me because they always seemed busy.  I walked by this evening and the place was shuttered.

Settepani opened a few months after I moved to the neighborhood.  It, along with Native, was one of the first new businesses on Lenox Ave south of 125th Street.  I went there often for about a year after they opened but it has probably been a least a year since I last visited.  The service gave the impression of being intentionally awkward.  I never did figure out if you were supposed to order at the register and take your pastry to a seat or take a seat and be served.

I do have one fond memory of eating there.  This would have been the first summer they were open, before they had their sidewalk permit and just had a couple of tables and chairs outside.  It was early on a Sunday morning, around 8 o'clock.  I was sitting outside reading the paper and enjoying an iced tea and a croissant*.  A guy stops at the corner, opens up his case and starts playing the trumpet.  Really, really LOUD and not with a lot of skill.  He was blowing as hard as he could and pressing whatever buttons pleased him.  It was simultaneously irritating and wonderful.  A guy working at Settepani came out and said "Please stop."  There was a half-hearted protest about constitutional rights that was trumped by the suggestion that the NYPD would be called to see who was correct.  The trumpet player packed up his horn and went on his merry way.

*I don't remember what I ate or drank but iced tea and a croissant sound good.

Molinaro Law Building, etc.

Molinaro Law Building

Molinaro Band

Molinaro's Bicentennial Wall

Geo. Washington at Jumonville

While I didn't really care for Connellsville I loved the Molinaro Law Building and associated artwork.  The art on the building celebrates the Molinaro Band, a family-led community band.  The U.S. Bicentennial wall contains scenes of local history and interest.

Unrelated:  Joe Schumacher opened a Vietnamese restaurant in Greeley, Colorado.  As far as I know it is a different Joe Schumacher.

Welcome to Connellsville

Welcome to Connellsville

Youghiogheny Station

Adelaide Coke Ovens

Bigg Sixx Tavern

Title and Trust Co. of Western Pennsylvania building

Learning from previous trips, I decided to have a couple of minimal driving days on last fall's vacation.  I didn't do much planning but Connellsville, Pennsylvania wasn't too far from where I was headed to next. It was also on the Great Allegheny Passage bicycle trail so I could on a bike ride.

Connellsville sits astride the Youghiogheny River.  Good luck pronouncing Youghiogheny.  Connellsville reached its peak about a century ago, when Henry Clay Frick had 375 coke ovens lining the river at the mile-long complex named after his wife, Adelaide.  The population of Connellsville was over 20,000 back then, it is less than half that today.  Allegedly, when Connellsville was the king of coke it more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world.

The place must have been hopping with railroads.  The Bigg Sixx Tavern is built into the support for an elevated railway that ran parallel to the Youghiogheny Station.  The station today showcases glasswork from local artisans.

As you might expect with a formerly wealthy town that's lost more than half its population there were lots of decrepit, but beautiful old buildings downtown.

One of a Pair

Posting this as a public service in case anyone is missing the other one of the pair.