In the 19th century, America had vast forests of virgin timber, unlike Europe, which during the Middle Ages had used up most of its largest trees. (The remaining were saved for ships’ masts.)
One of the first developments of the Industrial Revolution was powered sawmills. Thus was born the covered bridge, made of heavy structural timbers for trusses, and sheathed with easily-replaceable wood sheathing to protect the structure members from rotting. (This was years before creosote was used to protect exposed wood.) [Read more…] about Downtown Troy’s First Bridge Over The Hudson: A Short History
In popular culture, “Victorian” is considered an architectural style, but historians are quick to point out that there were actually several very distinctive and different styles that make up Victorian.
The term “red light district” is believed to have first appeared in print in Ohio in 1894.
When I was growing up in the 1950s, my mother had one of those old Maytags. The washing machine agitated the clothes in the soapy water until she turned it off.
The Beacon Oil Company was formed in 1919 in Boston, and named for the city’s Beacon Hill.
The first photo here is of the Division Street end of the Saratoga Springs, NY, rail depot. Behind it looms the back wing of the United States Hotel, which ran two full blocks down to Broadway and then back again, enclosing several acres. 
The Goths, Visagoths, and Vandals were the infamous three tribes that sacked Rome. More than a thousand years later, during the rebuilding of London after their great fire of 1666, Christopher Wren sought to introduce the latest styles from Italy. He termed that what had burned “Gothic,” a disparaging term, similar to “vandalism” from the name of the other tribe, as a way to promote his new designs. 
With the dawn of the 20th century came the race to build the tallest skyscrapers. Such wonders were made possible in part by the new technologies afforded by steel girders.
The prevailing architectural style at the time of the 
Here is a photo of an