Into the Woods: Squaxin Park, Olympia, Washington (Oly 02)

Squaxin Park, formerly known as Priest Point Park, is a 314 acre oasis of big trees, mosses, and ferns just north of downtown Olympia on the east shore of Budd Inlet. The Steh-Chass (People of the Water)  settled this land for centuries, living in villages along the shores of Budd Inlet. In 1848, Catholic missionaries, the Oblate Fathers, came to the area with sponsorship or funding by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Oblate Fathers displaced the Steh-Chass, cleared the land, and established the St. Joseph d’Olympia Mission and school. The Mission only lasted until 1860, after which the land lay idle for 45 years. In 1905, a group of land investors deeded some of the land to the City of Olympia to form a park. 

Priest Point Park, early 1910s (from City of Olympia)

The original park name was Priest Point, but the priests were only there for 12 years. Converting heathens must have proven a bit too difficult or not sufficiently lucrative.

The importance of this timeline is that the forest in the park has been largely undisturbed for about 150 years. This is not old growth forest but is as close as you will encounter near an urban area. The dense mosses, ferns, and towering tree trunks hint at what old growth forest must have looked like. Pockets of old growth or at least very old trees exist in the Olympic Peninsula, but Squaxin Park is closer and easier to reach (and it is only a 10 minute walk north of where I now live). 

Ellis Cove at low tide

Woods above Mission Creek

Dusk in Squaxin (1+ sec. exposure)

Trail to Ellis Cove

Rest area at Ellis Cove

I took these pictures with my little Fuji X-E1 digital camera and the compact 27mm ƒ/2.8 Fuji lens. I have not exercised this kit much in the last few years but need to refamiliarize myself with its functions. It is convenient and easy to use. For most of the pictures above, I used the Astia simulation and set the frame to 1:1 to resemble the square frame of a Rolleiflex. This crops off the edges, so you end up with fewer pixels in your files. One of the µ4/3 Panasonic cameras, the GH2, had a multi-aspect ratio sensor, so setting various frame sizes used different parts of the oversized sensor. But I think all current digital cameras simply chop off part of the frame. 

Digital is certainly convenient. The pictures are usually "sharp" (whatever that means), the exposure is usually decent, and the camera adjusts the white balance for many light conditions. You take pictures, go home, download the files, and you are ready to use them. I formerly would open the raw files and adjust them with software, but honestly, the jpeg files that the camera computes look fine for 8-bit web display. I never got into the use of Lightroom or developing a secret formula to manipulate the raw files.

Despite having used 4/3, µ4/3, APS, and compact digital cameras, I think the best digital files in my archives are from a 2005-vintage 10 mpixel Sony DSC R1 camera. Despite being "early" technology, the output was superb.

Mississippi Doors 02

Let's continue exploring Mississippi Doors. What lies behind? Anything interesting? Empty space? Snakes? Memories of long lost customers, children, and shop clerks? Will we ever know?

Rear of 325 Washington Avenue, Greenville

Rear of 323 Washington Avenue, Greenville

343 Washington Avenue, Greenville (Fuji X-E1 camera, 27mm Fuji lens)

Johl & Bergman Shoes once occupied this store. The handsome entrance featured dual doors and large plate glass windows to display their merchandise. Note the black marble panels.

Smith's Appliances, Vicksburg

Smith's Appliances on Magnolia Road in Vicksburg sells old machines, freezers, and odd treasures. It's fun to sniff around places like this. The owner has generously let me photograph inside.

Remnant of theater, 928 John R Lynch Street, Jackson (Fuji X-E1, 18mm ƒ/2 lens)

The theater is on a block of buildings that once were part of a thriving African-American commercial district. The Mississippi Heritage trust included the 900 block of John R. Lynch Street on its 2021 list of 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi.

Former YMCA Club, Monroe Street, Vicksburg (Kodak Royal Gold 25 film, Leica M2, 35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens). (Note: Royal Gold 25 was an astonishing film, but it gone forever)

The former YMCA on Clay Street in Vicksburg continues to deteriorate. Status: unknown. I photographed inside many times in the past.

Hallway in St. Francis Xavier Convent, Vicksburg (Kodachrome 25 film)

The St. Fancis Xavier Convent is now part of the Southern Cultural Heritage Center. This building was home to the nuns who ran the school and helped operate the hospital for over 100 years. Most of the convent building is unused now, but the roof has been repaired to prevent water damage. 

Demolition of 915 Clay Street, Vicksburg (Moto G5 phone)

This was a late 1800s wood building broken up into 5 or 6 apartments. In 2021, I saw that part of the roof had collapsed, which foretold the eventual condemning of the structure. It was demolished in 2022.

 

Deconstructed church, 1205 MLK Blvd., Vicksburg

Someone took apart this little church on Martin Luther King Blvd. I do not know if they recycled the wood or rebuilt the church in another location.

Warehouse, Railroad Avenue, Hazelhurst

Oops, I could not resist, a door from Fells Point, Baltimore Inner Harbor, Maryland.

Fells Point, Maryland

This ends out short tour of the mysteries of doors. Thank you all for reading.

Semi-Demolished 1800s House on Clay Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Kodak Super-XX film, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar-S II lens

Kodak Super-xx film, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens, 1/2 at ƒ/22.5

Two tall wood houses formerly stood on the north side of Clay Street in downtown Vicksburg just west of the former Clay & LaHatte Appliance store. The west-most house (the grassy lot in the foreground of the photograph above) formerly housed Ocean and Coastal Technologies, a marine engineering company. That building suffered a fire and was demolished about 15 years ago. The second house at 915 was a rental unit with five or six apartments. The roof was collapsing as of 2021 and possibly earlier. That sealed its fate. One day in early summer of 2022, I saw a work crew at the house and I knew the house's demise was ongoing.

I like the old-fashioned front door with the lights to either side and a transom above. I hope the demolition company saved it for reuse. 

View west from Cherry Street.

Time to cook dinner

The original demolition crew stopped work part way through their project. The partly-deconstructed remnants of the house lingered for about 6 months. Then, in early September, heavy equipment crushed the rest. As of October 1, 2022, the house was entirely gone. 

The next building uphill (to the east) was the former home of Wells & LaHatte appliances. They have moved across the street to a larger building. This handsome sign is a classic.

We have lost many other Victorian-era houses. One example that I photographed in 2017 was on Finney Street. Smaller cottages (e.g., on Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd.) are also being demolished as they decay. 

This is how Vicksburg loses its architectural heritage. 

I took the color frames with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera. The Fuji lenses all have excellent resolution. The two black and white photographs are from 4×5" Kodak Super-XX film that I took with my Tachihara wood field camera.

Pinar del Río and the Western Hills, Cuba

2023 Introduction

Dear Readers, I hope you all have a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023. For new readers, welcome and please come back regularly. 

Over the next few months, I want to review some of the photographs in my archives. Later in the year you will see Houston, Wales, Greece, more Mississippi, Romania, and various other places. I have so many negatives in boxes, I will never finish scanning them. And I get enthusiastic when I see new interesting decay and take new pictures (mostly using film now). Then I get even further behind on looking over old negatives.

I started this blog in 2010, with no particular plan or ending date.

Some statistics:

• Total articles: 688
• Total views (some of which are repeat readers): 1,058,500
• Most popular articles:
• Abandoned Rocket Fuel Plant, Redlands, California
• Industrial Architecture, North Conway, New Hampshire
• Mississippi River Floods
• Abandoned Utica High School

Note that I do not have any commercial advertising here or any of the links where you click to buy some product and I get a minor payoff. I consider pop-ups and advertising cheesy, irritating, and an insult to my readers. 

Cuba

Let us return to the archives with Cuba, as good a place as any to start. My wife and I toured western Cuba in early 2017. Type "Cuba" in the search box to see older articles. 

Pinar del Río is a charming provincial capitol of Pinar del Río Province, the westernmost province in Cuba. The architecture jumps out at you with the brilliant colors and ornate neoclassical architectural details. I'd love to spend a month in these smaller towns exploring and photographing. 

Room with a view

After looking around Pinar del Río, we headed into the hills to the west for an all-to-short overnight at a spectacular biosphere reserve. 

Room with a view, Las Terrazas, Vinales

Las Terrazas

Las Terrazas is situated in the limestone hills of Vinales. It's a charming setting. We saw Belted Kingfishers on trees around the lake. Part of the region is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Las Terrazas es una pequeña comunidad turística rural de desarrollo sostenible que te ofrece un entorno único en el conectar con la naturaleza. Situada a 75 kilómetros al oeste de La Habana, este lugar forma parte de la Sierra del Rosario, catalogada por la UNESCO como Reserva de la Biosfera en 1985.

These photographs are from a January 2017 trip to Cuba. We all had a wonderful time and everyone we met was friendly and welcoming. The Covid shut-down must have been devastating to Cuba's tourist industry, coupled with churlish restrictions on American visits that the Trump administration imposed. Regardless, as travel opens up, go visit Cuba! Go before the developers ruin it. It is a photographic paradise.

Type "Cuba"or "Havana" in the search box to see other articles on Cuba.

Exploring John R. Lynch Street and West Jackson, Mississippi

University Boulevard

University Boulevard is a major thoroughfare that takes you from I-20 to just east of Jackson State University and into older residential neighborhoods in West Jackson. 

This former restaurant at 1336 University with the log cabin look resembles road houses and restaurants I have seen in Michigan, Indiana, and other upper Midwest states. The stone facing on the lower part is another unusual decorative element.

John R. Lynch Street

The 900 block of John R. Lynch Street is on the 2021 list of 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi. From 10 Most:

Named for the first African American elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, John R. Lynch Street is the gateway to Jackson State University.  Significant historic sites along the corridor include the COFO Office, Mt. Olive Cemetery, Masonic Temple, Ayer Hall, and NAACP Headquarters.  To the east of campus, Lynch Street now consists mostly of vacant lots, with four buildings in yjr 900 block serving as a reminder of what was once a bustling African American commercial district.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Chambliss Shoe Hospital was operated by Jesse R. Chambliss from 1936 until the 1970s.  A prominent leader in the African American community, Chambliss was a founding member of the Jackson Negro Chamber of Commerce and State Mutual Savings and Loan and organized the first African American Boy Scout Troup in Jackson.  The central building once housed the Ebony Theater, which was opened in 1947 by Dr. A.H. McCoy, who also owned the Ritz Theater on Farish Street.  Following the shooting deaths of Philip Gibbs and James Green by Jackson police in 1970, Lynch Street was closed off and the once-thriving African American business district entered a decline.  Today, the buildings of the 900 Block of John R. Lynch Street stand vacant, damaged by fire and the ravages of time.   

Unfortunately, little is left of the Ebony Theater and the adjoining shops.

The east end of the 900 block is anchored by a closed gas station. I assume there were once commercial buildings where you now see concrete and the former island for the gasoline pumps.

Rose Street

Corner store, 545 Rose Street

Convenience store, 602 Rose Street

Store and apartment, 546 Rose Street

No gas today, 1005 Robinson Road at Rose

Head north on Rose Street after turning off from John R. Lynch Street and the scene becomes seriously depressing. Most of the commercial establishments were closed. I was struck by how little traffic I saw. An occasional car came by with the driver looking at me curiously or totally engaged with her phone. Old-fashioned corner stores attest to once-busy neighborhoods. Where has everyone gone? Where do the current residents buy groceries?

Adjacent to 1005 Robinson Road at Rose

Razor wire on the roof? To keep thieves from repelling down the face of the shop? Very mysterious.

West Capitol and West Monument Streets

Art strip mall, 1204 West Capitol Street at Monument

Side of 1204 West Capitol Street

Plumbing supply company, 800 West Monument Street

Head east on West Monument Street and you soon cross under the railroad tracks and get into downtown Jackson. Monument must have once been a major arterial. Traffic still thumps by on the rutted pavement.

I took these photographs with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera and a Fujinon Super EBC 18mm ƒ/2 lens, all hand-held. This is a lens that "photographers" on digital reviewing sites claimed was not "sharp." OK.....

The Fan Store of Hanoi

 

 Fan repair shop on Hàng Bồ, Hanoi

One afternoon, my wife and I were walking down Hàng Bồ in Hanoi's Old Quarter, and we came across this amazing little corner store full of fans. The old gent who ran the shop generously let us look around. I would not be surprised if some of his fans and parts date back to the Indochine Française era. He might have dated back to the French era, too.

Walk up and down the tangle of streets, and the French influence on the architecture is all around you in the form of mouldering buildings, some with impossibly ornate decorative elements. As noted in the StarTribune, "The past lives on in the tree-lined avenues, grand villas and sidewalk society of the Paris of Vietnam."

Well, possibly the wiring lacks a bit of the elegance that the French might have preferred. But the internet worked.

What to do after visiting the fan shop and the Hanoi Hilton? Select one of the hundreds of small restaurants or snack shops and eat lunch. The cook will stir-fry your fish and vegetables on the table right in front of you. It does not get much better than this. 

In Season 5 of Bizarre Foods, Andrew Zimmern dined at a restaurant where you can choose your own snake, and they skin it for you right there. We missed that place. 

An afternoon at Tạ Hiện, Hanoi

Snacks and a WiFi signal at Nhà Chung, Hanoi

Cafe society Hanoi style. My back could not handle the low chairs and tables, but the youngsters seemed unfazed.

Hanoi is a fascinating and fun destination. The city is thriving. It looks much better than many mid-continent US cities. The people are energetic and busy with small shops, repairs, banks, restaurants, and restoration projects. Go there.

If you want to see an epic and beautifully-filmed movie about the war for independence in colonial Vietnam, watch "Indochine" (1992, in French), starring Catherine Deneuve. 

And if you want to read how we slipped into war in a post-French Vietnam, read Graham Green's The Quiet American. Mr. Pyle is the naive young American who thinks he can bring "democracy" to Vietnam by backing a certain general. “He was impregnably armored by his good intentions and his ignorance.” The 2003 movie version stars Michael Caine.

I took these photographs with a Fuji X-E1 digital camera. I do not use it often, but when I revive older files, both jpeg or RAW, I am pleased with the optical quality and the uniform performance of the Fuji lenses.