Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for U.S. travel
The Merchant’s House
By Linda Tancs
New York City’s Merchant’s House is a National Historic Landmark as well as a state and city landmark. The 19th century row house is considered one of the finest examples of architecture from the period, boasting an 1832 late-Federal brick exterior and Greek Revival interior rooms. The house was purchased by Seabury Tredwell, a prosperous New York City hardware merchant, in 1835. The Tredwell family continued to live in the landmark building for nearly 100 years. Located at 29 East Fourth Street, the house tour includes four floors of period rooms furnished with the family’s original possessions – furniture, decorative objects, household goods, books and clothing. This remarkably preserved home has functioned as a museum for over 80 years now.
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An Iconic Trail’s Highest Peak
By Linda Tancs
The Appalachian Trail stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, following the Appalachian mountain range through 14 states. The trail’s highest peak is Clingmans Dome in Tennessee (at 6,643 feet above sea level) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The observation tower on the summit offers spectacular panoramic views of the Smokies and beyond for visitors willing to climb the steep, half-mile walk. Better be quick about it, though. Although the tower is open year round, the road leading to it is closed from December 1 through March 31.
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Tennessee Pink
By Linda Tancs
Built in 1797, Ramsey House is the first stone home in Knox County, Tennessee. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was built by Knoxville’s first builder, Thomas Hope, for Francis Alexander Ramsey. Constructed of Tennessee pink marble and blue limestone, it’s notable for its original interior and exterior architectural features and its period decorative art collection. Ramsey House also boasts the first attached kitchen in Tennessee, replacing the typical “dog-trot” style of the South where the kitchen was typically stand-alone with a breezeway between it and the house. The pet-friendly grounds are welcoming to picnickers!
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Father of Oklahoma City
By Linda Tancs
Henry Overholser was an Oklahoma businessman and such an important contributor to the development of Oklahoma City that he’s often referred to as the “Father of Oklahoma City.” Among the treasures he left for locals to cherish is the Overholser Mansion, regarded as the first mansion built in the city. Constructed in 1903, the house was once eloquently referred to in the local paper as a “sermon on beauty.” It was built in the Queen Anne and Chateauesque architectural styles, a stark departure from the Mission, Craftsman and Prairie styles of the period. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the home is now owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society. Located on the northwest corner of Hudson & NW 15th Street, it’s open for guided tours.
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An Ancient Pueblo in New Mexico
By Linda Tancs
The history of New Mexico’s southwest Indians is centuries old. Acoma Pueblo, in particular, is regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America, dating to 1150 A.D. Their mesa-top settlement is built atop a sheer-walled, 367-foot sandstone bluff in a valley studded with sacred monoliths. It’s the only Native American site to be designated a Historic Site by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. You can learn more about the tribe at The Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum. Open year-round, the cultural center offers exhibits, guided tours, sought-after Acoma pottery and Native American crafts for sale by local artisans.
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Exploring the Bible in Washington
By Linda Tancs
It’s no secret that America’s Founding Fathers were greatly influenced by the Bible, using it to shape their personal and political views. So it’s perhaps appropriate that the nation’s first museum dedicated to the Bible should be located in Washington, D.C. Opening this Friday, the Museum of the Bible is housed in a 430,000-square-foot building just two blocks from the National Mall and three blocks from the nation’s Capitol. It boasts 40-foot-tall bronze doors at the entrance and a rooftop garden, along with eight floors using modern technology to explain ancient parables. Among its collections are first editions of the King James Bible, fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll, the first Bible to travel to the moon and the largest collection of Torah scrolls.
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Symbol of the American West
By Linda Tancs
The nation’s largest cacti reside in Tucson, Arizona. In particular, that’s the giant saguaro—a large, tree-like columnar cactus that finds protection in Saguaro National Park. A universal symbol of the West, these Sonoran desert sentinels are only found in small portions of the country. The park is uniquely situated around the 500 square miles that make up Tucson. Its two districts—the Tucson Mountain District to the west and the Rincon Mountain District to the east—are separated by the city’s 1 million residents. The western district boasts large stands of saguaro cacti. November through March is the park’s busiest season, when temperatures are cooler and range from the high 50s to the mid-70s.
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Big Snow Country
By Linda Tancs
Ottawa National Forest comprises nearly 1 million acres and is located in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, extending from the south shore of Lake Superior to the Wisconsin border. Along that border is the small town of Ironwood, a gateway to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Once a mining town, it’s now part of “big snow country,” where winters are long with an average snow accumulation of 200 inches. During ski season, there can be as many as 15,000 people in the area frequenting the six area ski hills and resorts with an abundance of snowmobilers plowing over 485 miles of groomed snowmobile trails. Rounding out the winter sports are dog-sledding, cross-country skiing and ice fishing.
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The Lees of Virginia
By Linda Tancs
A successful tobacco planter and land speculator, Thomas Lee purchased property in Virginia in 1717 and began construction on a large brick Great House that survives today. Named Stratford for his grandfather’s home in London, the family homestead gave rise to a series of illustrious family members, counting among them two brothers who signed the Declaration of Independence, diplomats, a women’s rights advocate and one of the first judges elected to the commonwealth’s supreme court. But perhaps the most famous occupant of Stratford Hall Plantation (as it’s known today) is Robert E. Lee, the future General of the Confederate Army, who was born there in 1807. In addition to a tour of the Great House, visitors will enjoy the formal East Garden, restored to a typical 18th century English style. Nature trails follow the garden past the north gate. The south entrance to the house is equally impressive, described by General Lee himself as opening up to a row of poplars. The south lawn terminates in a ha-ha wall, an 18th century device which permits an uninterrupted view of the plantation while preventing the encroachment of livestock.
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An Old Farmstead in Bucks County
By Linda Tancs
The author of more than 300 books and other works, Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes in literature. She gained fame for her books on China, notably The Good Earth, which chronicled the fictional life of the farmer Wang Lung against the backdrop of 20th-century turmoil and revolution in China. Her farmstead, Green Hills Farm, is a National Historic Landmark in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. Dating to 1835, the oldest part of the fieldstone dwelling is a one-story stone summer kitchen. When Ms. Buck purchased the farmstead, she made extensive alternations and additions to the 19th-century farmhouse, including a two-story fieldstone wing added to the east gable. The home is open for guided tours, featuring her Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, the desk where Buck penned her novel The Good Earth, gifts from luminaries like the Dali Lama and President Richard Nixon and paintings from renowned artists.
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