the world's fair in new york city, 1964

The Statue of Liberty, 1964.

1964 World's Fair in New York City.

The Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit at the World's Fair, 1964.

New York City.

View of the Chrysler Building from the Empire State Building.

New York City from below the Brooklyn Bridge, 1964. If you'd like to see the above photo in the 21st century, check out this shot. Looks a little different, huh?

These photos were taken by my great-grandmother during her trip to the New York World's Fair in 1964. More than 51 million people attended the Fair, which was a showcase of mid-century American culture and technology. I have more photos of the Fair itself, so I'll try to share those soon. I liked these because they showed some great views of New York City.

To go along with these images, I found this blog post about the World Trade Center that was written in Poplar Science in April 1964. 

Happy 4th of July!

rome and florence in 1979

Today we're continuing our vintage photographic tour around Italy with stops in Rome and Florence....

The beautiful Duomo in Florence, Italy.

The Roman Forum. 

My beautiful grandmother Joan at Rome's Forum.

The Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy.

Michelangelo's David in Florence, Italy.

My grandparents Joan and Sid in front of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy.

Just for fun, here's Jonathan in the same spot in August 2010. 

The glorious Trevi Fountain.

I love seeing photos of my grandparents in places Jonathan and I have experienced and loved as well. Time marches on, but some things remain the same. There is comfort in that.

You can see photos from our trip in Rome in 2010 over at my old blog, Painted Pink Roses. 

a tour of the historic tennessee brewery

The historic Tennessee Brewery in Memphis was built in 1890. During its peak production years, it churned out 250,000 barrels of beer per day, making it the largest brewery in the South. It ceased production in 1954, and it became home to a scrap metal company until 1981. It was saved from the wrecking ball by the current owner in 1999. Despite his many efforts to revitalize the building, it has remained empty and he decided it would be demolished at the end of the summer if he hadn't found a buyer for it by that time. In order to help sell the building, a group of local businessmen decided to showcase its potential by opening a beer garden in the building's courtyard for six weeks. The Brewery Untapped features food trucks, acoustic musical acts and fundraisers for local nonprofits, and has attracted tons of patrons. You can read more about the efforts to save the building here. For more really interesting details about the Tennessee Brewery's past, I highly recommend this article from the Commercial Appeal.

Here are some photos from our afternoon at the Tennessee Brewery:

Isn't the white-washed brick lovely? The windows and arches are really incredible as well. 

 We have been so inspired by the efforts to save the Tennessee Brewery, and we hope this neat old building's story has a happy ending. Memphis has so many abandoned architectural gems. It would be such a big win for our city if they were able to save this building and turn it into a sustainable investment.