Long Street in Cape Town

27 June 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Discott/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Discott/cc-by-sa-3.0

Long Street is a major street located in the City Bowl section of Cape Town, South Africa. It is famous as a bohemian hang out and the street is lined with many book stores, various ethnic restaurants and bars. Restaurants include African restaurants such as Zula, and Indian restaurants such as Masala Dosa. Long Street exhibits a diversified culture and attracts tourists from all over the world. It also has a number of youth hostels which provide accommodation to an international roster of guests. Several theatres which showed anti-apartheid plays were located on the street during the 1970s and 1980s, although most have now closed and been replaced by restaurants or stores.   read more…

Ferndale in California

3 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture Reading Time:  7 minutes

Main Street © Ellin Beltz/cc-by-sa-3.0

Main Street © Ellin Beltz/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ferndale is a city in Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 1,371 at the 2010 census, down from 1,382 at the 2000 census. The city contains dozens of well-preserved Victorian storefronts and homes. Ferndale is the northern gateway to California’s Lost Coast and the city, which is sited on the edge of a wide plain near the mouth of the Eel River, is also located near the extensive preserves of coast redwood forests. Before American settlement, Ferndale was a glade of giant ferns reaching more than six feet, surrounded by alder, willow, Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, coast redwood, swampy land, and windswept prairies. The area was populated by the southern Wiyot people, and centered along the Eel River, where they caught lamprey eels, salmon and sturgeon in iris leaf fish nets, collected shellfish along the river and at its mouth, while cultivating only a California species of tobacco. The town was established in 1852 from settlement by Willard Allard, Seth Louis Shaw, and his brother, Stephen W. Shaw.   read more…

Painted Ladies in San Francisco

1 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  6 minutes

© panoramio.com - MARELBU/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – MARELBU/cc-by-3.0

In American architecture, painted ladies are Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings repainted, starting in the 1960s, in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies: San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians. Although polychrome decoration was common in the Victorian era, the colors used on these houses are not based on historical precedent.   read more…

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