Adena Cottage

Adena Cottage is an original Rugby house, built in 1884 for Sara Worthington Pomeroy and her husband, Frederick Wellman. Mrs. Wellman was the granddaughter of Thomas Worthington, the sixth Governor of Ohio and Ohio's first Senator. The house was named for Adena Plantation, the Worthington home near Chillicothe, Ohio. Adena Plantation is itself today a state memorial. The Worthington home, built in 1807, is one of only three houses designed by Benjamin Latrobe still standing in the U.S., and is part of the only plantation-style complex in the state of Ohio. Because of nearby mounds, the name Adena has been applied to a pre-Columbian Indian culture that existed from about 800 BCE into the first century AD.

Adena Cottage was extensively restored and modernized about a decade ago, and includes on the property the original stable and carriage barn that has been modified into guest lodging. But just so the guests won't lose sight of its original purpose, the horse's stall remains!

The Wellman's had a son and two daughters. Mrs. Wellman and both daughters are buried in Rugby's Laurel Dale Cemetery.

Apparently neither daughter married, and both died relatively young. One was only 31 and the other 38.

Adena Cottage is currently being offered for sale.

Sunday Morning

Silent Saturday

Fraternization

A British regiment from WWII invades Rugby! 

OK, maybe that does over dramatize the event a bit. Actually, it was a regiment of WWII reenactors who made their annual visit for their regimental dinner. But as you can see from the photograph, there definitely was a little fraternization going on.

Cedar-Apple Rust

The Junipers this week looked almost as if someone from outer space had decorated them for Christmas. These grotesque decorations are the spore-producing structures of a fungus, Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae, or cedar-apple rust. Inside is a gall, which is inconspicuous for most of the year. These orange, gelatinous horns swell during rainy periods in April and May and produce spores that get carried by the wind. The spores can infect apple trees a mile or more away. Spores are then produced in the leaves of infected apple trees, and in August get carried by the wind to infect new junipers. Both hosts are required for the pathogen to survive. The rust produces lesions on the fruit, which lowers the quality. Control depends upon interrupting the life cycle of the rust either by eradication of junipers or use of a fungicide.

International Friendship Bell

In Oak Ridge, Tennessee's, A. K. Bissell Park there is a Japanese Pagoda-like structure containing a traditional Japanese bell. Nearly 5 feet in diameter and more than six feet tall, it is cast in solid bronze and weighs more than four tons. It is rung by an external striker made of wood, in the Japanese style, rather than the western-style clapper. This is how it came to be:

Oak Ridge is a child of World War II. Before the war, the area was sparsely-settled farm land and small supporting villages. Everyone had to move away when the army chose this spot for the principal site of the Manhattan Project, the race to beat the Germans in the development of an atomic weapon. It was here that the uranium that went into the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was produced. Here was the the pilot plant that led to construction of the plutonium reactors and processing facilities in Hanford, Washington. They produced the plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. No one would blame the Japanese people for hard feelings toward Oak Ridge.

In preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Oak Ridge, civic leaders were looking for a project that would provide a lasting legacy of the celebration. This project was initially suggested by a Japanese-American, Shigeko Uppuluri, whose husband worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was cast by Soutetsu Iwasawa, a bellmaker in Japan. The $200,000 needed for the project came from donations from Oak Ridgers, as well as contributions from Japan, the U.S., and other countries.

The bell stands as a symbol of friendship between former enemies, and when rung proclaims that friendship to all within hearing distance.

Three treasures lost

This was one of those shots that just didn't work in color. But I think in black and white it has a feeling much like The Last Picture Show, the 1971 film by Peter Bogdanovich. When it was taken Brooks Store was open and operated by my friend Bill Jones. The truck belonged to his son-in-law.

Since this photo, Gary has sold the truck and Bill has died. The store is closed, its windows boarded over and its shelves empty. The building is abandoned and being allowed to decay. Three treasures have been lost.