Mill Neighborhoods
- · Community self-contained / self-sustaining ecosystem
o
Mills acted as community centerpieces –
operational until 1986
o
Deliberately removal from the “sins” of the city
allowed for greater control of the workers
o
Self-sustaining economy as money earned at mills
was spent at shops owned and run by mill owners
- · Community Pride – poor yet obtained identity from the neighborhood (this continued until recently when houses were rented rather than owned)
- · “lintheads” pejorative term referring to cotton lint that collected around mills
- · Railroad as dividing line from the city
- · Whaley’s house was nowhere near the mill (unlike other models of owners overseeing the entire neighborhood)
Granby Neighborhood
- · Houses are typically a salt-box duplex
o
Front porch close to street frontage acted as a
transitional gateway from the public exterior to the private interior
o
These porches were a means for community
connectivity as everyone would sit outside and witness their neighbors’
activities
- · Desire for single family / young professional ownership rather than renters
Olympia Neighborhood
- · Outside city limits / lax zoning regulations allow for unsavory buildings
- · Original design allowed for variety in house types
Vulcan Quarry
- · First operated in 1880 (before Olympia-Granby neighborhoods)
- · 10,000 tons of rock mined daily
o
holes are drilled in a grid pattern to create
50’ benches
o
catch bench width must be 20% of bench’s heigh
o
65 ton trucks used
o
produces about 1000 tons per/hour
o
25 ton trucks haul off-site (filled in under a minute)
o
strict dust control keeps surrounding
neighborhoods clean
o
original access road was through neighborhood
but new access road was added along river in 2004
o
river levy holds river at bay and only failed in
one spot
- · Built along a Fall Line
o
line at which igneous and sedimentary rock meet
o
formally the ocean shore
o
temps are typically higher
- · Rocky branch watershed runs north of the quarry
- · Currently about 375’ below sea level (licensed to -800’)
- · Quarry will be closed in about 15 years not due to lack of rock but cost of pumping accumulating water at bottom
- · Reclamation Plan is to allow quarry to fill naturally and landscape the surrounding edges
Columbia
- · Designed on grid layout
- · First buildings were in the 18th Century
- · House separation was due to fear of spread of sickness
- · Northern part of the city was burned during union occupation (although not an act of aggression)
- · City is located at the furthest travelable point inland along river
Impressions
- · Deceptive scale – understandable with a scale figure but quickly becomes confusing without one (MIT Simmons Hall)
- · Insularity and Self-sufficiency – no desire to be a part of the city and the ability to provide for the needs of the immediate community
- · Walkability – not for health reasons but because it is more convenient than driving
- · Dichotomy between the empty vastness of the quarry and the protective enclosure of the communities. Both provide a sense of enclosure but evoke two entirely different feelings
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