Monday, October 02, 2006

Why Blog?!?

Cornerstone Preservation documents and evaluates historic structures and sites in order to facilitate their sensitive care and restoration. Also, since dissemination of information represents a "cornerstone" of our work philosophy, this blog was established as a venue through which to share work in progress, work completed and general observations on related topics.

Buildings do not need to be large to be important. This exterior detail is from a small utilitarian shack that provided shelter to the lock tenders on the Fox River in Appleton, WI since about 1917. The system is one of only a couple in the nation that continues to use hand operated valves to flood the chambers and a tripod with spar to open and close the gates. These navigational features had been "mothballed" by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1980s; they recently were acquired by the State of Wisconsin and currently are being restored and returned to operation.