Today I present The Franklin School, a building that's currently involved in a bit of controversy. For the past few years this historic landmark building has been used as a homeless shelter and now the city is making a major effort to move these men to other locations so that they can close the building until another use can be found for it. according to reports the interior of this building is in a horrible state of disrepair and neglect. It's a really sad state of affairs for such a gorgeous building. At least the exterior has been restored so that we can appreciate all of the fabulous detail.High atop a dormer centered above the entry is a bust of Ben Franklin himself. Behind him you can see the ironwork that adorns the top of the mansard roof.
Look at how ornate the windows and doors are. Everywhere you look on this building there are beautiful little details. Of course the deep red of the brick is a huge plus in my book. Have I mentioned how warm and inviting I find red brick to be? Maybe a time or ten. Well there it is again. I just love the stuff.
At either end of the mansard roof, next to each of the twin cupolas, are weather vanes with 1992 and 1868 carved out of them. As far as I can tell those mark the year that the building was constructed and the year that a major restoration was done.
 |  |
Lets just hope that this building finds a suitable use soon because it would be a shame for it to stand dormant.
What a beautiful building! It always breaks my heart when I see older buildings shuttered in favor of building something new... why renovation is never the first option I'll never understand.
ReplyDeleteMaybe when the dump fees escalate at the same rate as the gas rates people will start rethinking this throw-away society.
Hopefully things can get restored appropriately with that building - it's beautiful.
ReplyDelete