You begin to interest me…vaguely
First time visiting the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. While the refuge extends over 50 miles along the Jersey Shore, the eight-mile Wildlife Drive loops around just a small portion of it.
Egret
Cool fonts: LA Apartment signs from the Los Angeles Times, naturally.
Featured image: Willem Verbeek/The Los Angeles Times.
Saving (or not) Modernism in the Hamptons and What Historic Preservation is Doing to American Cities
Two different perspectives on houses and preservation that should have more of an overlap in Long Island, New York
Featured image: The Geller I house by Marcel Breuer in Lawrence, New York. Demolished 2022. Source: Docomomo/Syracuse University.
Tales from a short-lived road Rallye of the 1950s: A Classic New England Rally is Revived, Minus the Mud (New York Times article). Here’s the link to the resurrected rally: Great American Mountain Rally Revival.
“We were boggled they felt they could handle it without chains and backwards at a fairly high speed”
Peter Bullard
Perfect Spring day for walking the trails at Woolsey Park in Hopewell Township, New Jersey. Green up is well underway here. The total length of trails is only about two miles, but there are multiple crossings of Woolsey Brook, wetlands, uplands, and rows of tangled Bois d’Arc (better known as Osage Orange now).
The Osage Orange tree was only found in Texas and some surrounding states. Early French explorers called it Bois d’Arc because the Osage and other Native American tribes used its wood to make bows. By the 1800s, the tree (Maclura pomifera) was planted throughout the United States because it would quickly grow into thick, twisted, thorn-encrusted natural fences good for keeping livestock in (or out).
Woolsey Park also includes remnants of the short-lived shortline Mercer and Somerset Railroad (1874-1879) in the form of the earthen embankment that briefly carried the train tracks over Woolsey Brook. Just southwest of the park, Woolsey Brook joins Jacob’s Creek. The original M & R alignment is now Jacob’s Creek Road.
Featured image: Osage Orange along the trail.
