The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA) has issued its Endangered Historic Places List for 2013. The list includes six endangered properties that exemplify the vast diversity and character of Long Island’s historic resources. Read more
The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities
New Exhibit: Long Island at Work and Play
Long Island’s story of work and play comes to life when a farmer, dust flying, rushes to market, a boy swings a baseball bat, a peddler sells fish door to door and a family, wearing their Sunday best, poses for a portrait in their new car.
The remarkable images, many of which have never been exhibited, are just some of the gems in the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA) collections and feature the work of such turn of the 20th century photographers as Clarence A. Purchase, Arthur S. Greene and Harry R. Gelwicks. Read more
James Howard Kunstler On Rescuing the American Townscape
The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA) will present a lecture “Rescuing the American Townscape from its Own Recent History” by author James Howard Kunstler.
James Howard Kunstler is a vocal critic of American architecture and urban planning which he describes as a tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities and ravaged countryside. For two decades, Kunstler has examined the growth of urban and suburban America. Read more
SPLIA to Present 2012 Preservation Awards
As an advocate, the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA) works to promote the appreciation and protection of regional cultural heritage. To encourage standards of excellence and raise public awareness, their 2012 Preservation Awards recognize individuals, organizations and projects that demonstrate extraordinary achievement in the field of historic preservation on Long Island.
This year’s honorees include Robert A. M. Stern Architects, Seatuck Environmental Association, the Town of Southampton, and the Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception School.
The 2012 SPLIA Preservation Awards will be held on Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 3:00 pm at SPLIA Headquarters (161 Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724). The event is free, but registration is required by calling SPLIA at 631-692-4664, Monday – Friday.
Rabbit Goody: A Rare American Ingrain Carpet
Ingrain or Scotch carpeting was a main stay of early 19th century carpeting for households both common and wealthy. Woven as a two layer double cloth with geometric or curvilinear designs, ingrain carpeting became popular through the last half of the 18th century and blossomed in the 19th century.
One of only four known American produced ingrain carpets is in the collection of The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA). It also has the most supporting information about its manufacture at Jones Mill, located in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Advertisements from Jones Mill appear in the newspapers during the 1830′-s and document the production of figured ingrain carpeting among other fabrics.
Ingrain carpeting woven by American fancy weavers in the first half of the 19th century is distinct from the imported Scotch and Kidderminster carpets. The American versions use locally produced softer grades of wool and have a slightly different structure, more akin to the structure of woven coverlets of the same period.
It has been extremely difficult to document the American carpets because with the use of soft wools, the carpets were less durable and ended up being worn out, cut up and used for smaller rugs, and simply disappeared.
We’ve been working at Thistle Hill Weavers to reproduce the Jones Mill example both in its original color, and in a blue and white version which will be installed in SPLIA’s restored Sherwood Jayne House.
Master Weaver Rabbit Goody write about historic textiles. Her weaving studio, Thistle Hill Weavers, in Cherry Valley, NY, is a small mill modeled after the trade shops of the 19th century.