civilized ku # 2077 ~ full circle?

House entrance ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenThere's a village, Keeseville, just down the road a piece (12 miles?) from Au Sable Forks. At one time, late 1700s - early 1900s, the village prospered as an industrial area devoted, in part, to lumber, iron processing and milling. As those industries faded, literally out of existence (through the mid 1900s), the village went into decline to the point where it is now considered to be an economically depressed area.

According to the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the village was $32,813, and the median income for a family was $36,181. Males had a median income of $28,229 versus $21,500 for females. The per capita income for the village was $13,939. About 10.9% of families and 15.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.5% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over. The reality in 2012 is certainly worse than that.

However, despite that state of affairs, the village is home to quite a number of homes and building of architectural significance. Unfortunately, because of the village poverty rate and relatively high crime rate (for this area), much of this rich architectural heritage is in the state of decline. The flat out truth is, for the most part, it is not an especially attractive area for a family home and consequently there is little investment being made in the village's architectural heritage.

That said, and not coincidentally, Keeseville is also home the Adirondack Architectural Heritage organization. While the organization is devoted to architectural preservation, education, advocacy throughout the entire Adirondack Park, it's presence in Keeseville - in a recently acquired historic mill property - provides a much needed ray of hope for the village.

All of that said, here's a fact that few, if any, Landscapist followers might know - I began my university studies with the intent of pursuing a career as an architect. While that didn't come to pass - I lost interest after starting to wade through the ... let's call it the minutia of the trade - I have, nevertheless, maintained a life-long interest in things architectural. Therefore, it has not escaped my keen eye (and intellect) that nearby Keeseville is an architectural goldmine in more ways than one.

So, sometime over the next couple weeks, I will be assembling a small Keeseville architectural folio to present to the AARCH organization with the idea of instigating, one way or another, a picture project of one kind or another.

BTW & FYI, Keeseville was the birthplace of the famous picture making pioneer, William Henry Jackson.

Comments

[John Linn]

Interesting bit of trivia regarding Jackson. Of course his work is not associated with the Adirondacks like Seneca Ray Stoddard or Bierstadt. Not sure if you agree, but their work was more in tune with your MO than most contemporary photographers. Search Google for "adirondack photographer" and you will get lots of pretty picture sites, but not much which is "being true" to use your words.

So thinking about this, do you feel any responsibility for documenting life in the Adirondacks in our time (your hundreds or thousands of pictures surely will be of interest to historians in the future). How accessible will your pictures be in 50 or 100 years? Your computer hard drive will long be reduced to dust, your blog will likely be deleted if no one pays your hosting fees, but will your prints survive?

Do you ever think about this?