Site Visit Notes

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 18^th 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