Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption
It seems that I have failed to tell you about The Castle in Marietta, Ohio. This is an oversight that requires correction. I encountered this picture last night and thought it was just the prettiest combination of light, shadow and colors.
Come back tomorrow for the full scoop about this beautiful old home.
Marietta, Ohio is the place to be if you wish to see the American flag on display.
On this 248th anniversary of the founding of this country, I am reminded that my loyalty lies with the United States of America and the flag that flies over this land. Not with a political party. Not with one man. Certainly not with the fast and loose playing with the facts that appeals to so many.
This flag. My flag. My country.
Long may she wave.
Last summer, I spent a day exploring the Anchorage in Marietta, Ohio. I wrote about that trip here in case you want to know more about this amazing place.
That trip resulted in a ton of pictures that didn’t make the cut here but that I thought you might enjoy today.
The random furniture was a little creepy.
This room was gorgeous. Check out those doors!
Here’s one more. Isn’t the light mesmerizing?
When most normal people visit a place, they look for the amusement park and the kids museum. I look for places like the courthouse, the library and for how people live. Government buildings are rarely open when I’m out adventuring on weekends so it was a treat to be out looking at things in Marietta, Ohio Friday.
The Washington County Courthouse has long fascinated me because I had heard that the decor includes swastikas and I wanted to see for myself.
The modern eye views it as a swastika but that’s not quite true. The symbol is actually part of an Indian motif carried out through tile work in the building. It’s called a sauwistika, and represents balance and good fortune in life. It is different from the swastika because it’s left facing rather than right.
Much like a four leaf clover, this symbol was once associated with good fortune and was commonly used in sports uniforms before the Nazis hijacked it.
Built at the corner of Putnam and Second streets in 1901, this imposing stone building with a clock tower is an important part of Marietta’s historic downtown.
It was designed and constructed by Samuel Hannaford and Sons of Cincinnati. A skylight in the rotunda sends sunlight glimmering throughout the center of the building all the way to the ground floor.
This bell was created by the Verdin Company of Cincinnati during the state’s Bicentennial celebration and is kept in the second floor. Verdin cast a commemorative bell for each of Ohio’s 88 counties using a mobile foundry.
There are other memorials including this one dedicated to the local me list in World War I. Each soldier is memorialized with a framed picture and place of death.
My favorite spot in the building was the courtroom. When I went through security, I made friends with the guard who told me to try to get a glimpse inside the courtroom. So I stopped by the Clerk of Courts office and they let me inside. It felt like stepping back in time a hundred years. It smells old, the light feels like it comes from another time and the room is simply gorgeous.
The entire building feels like a special place to be.
Modern government centers are patched together in old shopping centers and glorified pole barns that have no character or sense of reverence. People used to dress up to conduct their business because it was a special occasion to enter such magnificent spaces as our old courthouses. This building has an air of importance and character that you simply don’t find in many places these days.
I’m so glad I got to see inside. If you go, you do have to go through security so be sure to not carry with you anything inappropriate. Go see it for yourself and be sure to study all the historic pictures throughout the building.
There’s one library in the world that’s built on an Indian mound and it’s in Marietta, Ohio. Funded largely by Andrew Carnegie, it opened in 1918 and has served the neighborhood ever since.
It was originally constructed as one floor with a basement but they have remodeled a couple of times, adding a mezzanine to provide much needed space.
While building atop the Capitolium Mound was acceptable in the early twentieth century, laws have changed and they are now prohibited from building out from the original footprint. The librarian told me that this is not an option due to cost and that they will continue to make do with the current space.
The original oak woodwork is gorgeous. The space is compact but they have packed a lot into it. Plus, a cute little yellow house next door serves as an annex. Here’s the Andrew Carnegie portrait required to hang in every Carnegie library.
Hey, if you donate that kind of money to libraries across the country, it’s not asking too much to have your picture hang in them all!
It’s so light and airy I wanted to sit and get lost in a good book.
This is a beautiful older neighborhood with tree lined streets and kids at play – a perfect setting for this great old Carnegie.
According to this Clio article, no human remains were found in the mound during excavation. So that’s a relief. The mound was constructed by the Hopewell culture and dates to approximately 100 BCE. Another Indian mound in Marietta was preserved as part of an early cemetery that’s a who’s who of history. I’ll tell you about that one sometime soon.