William S. Seward House

At the northern end of Cayuga Lake is the city of Auburn, NY, which was home to William H. Seward and his family. If you’re like me and the name Seward doesn’t ring a bell, he was the man who facilitated the Alaska Purchase and helped Lincoln lead the United States through the Civil War. Born in 1801, Seward purchased the house 1824 and lived there until his death in 1872. The interior is largely as it was in 1872 thanks to William Seward III, who maintained the furnishings and donated the property upon his death. The site occupies a triangular slice of downtown Auburn, and one corner of the property is dedicated to a small park with a towering statue of Seward himself. The house is a New York State Historic Site and on the National Register. It actually began life as a much smaller dwelling and was progressively expanded starting in 1847.

During his storied career, Seward served as an NY State Senator, US Senator, NY Governor, and Secretary of State after loosing the Republican presidential nomination to Abraham Lincoln. His home reflects his travels and pursuits - shelves of books adorn the study and parlor, paintings and prints from around the globe hang from the walls, and artifacts collected from far-off lands sit atop shelves. At one end of the dining rooms is a giant globe, the other a stately portrait of Mrs. Seward. China cabinets filled with fine dinnerware for hosting lavish but crucial dinner parties are posted in the corners. Diplomacy and a good meal often go hand in hand, and Seward would host large dinners to convince other politicians of his positions.

Possibly my favorite collection of Seward’s is the portraits of famous world leaders he encountered that encircle the second floor atrium, often bearing the signature of the subject pictured. While not all of them are authentic (Queen Elizabeth, for example), there’s quite a number of portraits that span from the Middle East to Europe. You can take a guided tour of the entire house from the basement to the 2nd floor where the family lived. My tour guide was great and answered every question I could throw at him.

A series of unfortunate events befell Seward, starting with the assassination of Lincoln and the simultaneous botched assassination attempt on his own life. He had been injured in an accident days before when he jumped from a runaway carriage and broke his arm. The family members staying at his Washington, D.C. apartment encountered the assassin before he could reach Seward, and ultimately 5 would be stabbed including Seward himself. While no-one was killed, his wife Francis died only a short time afterward in 1865. Daughter Fanny, his pride and joy, died in 1866 from tuberculous. He commissioned a painting of her after her untimely death, and it still hangs in the parlor today. The bundle of flowers she clutches and her ghostly pale complexion indicate that the portrait was painted post-mortem. Fanny’s death was a sore subject for Seward, and it was best not to ask about the painting.

Titan II ICBM Site 571-7

Between 1963 and 1984, a complex hosting a 340,000 lb. Titan II missile with a 9 megaton nuclear warhead stood at the ready just 25 miles from Tucson, AZ. One of the six squadrons that operated the Titan II missile across the western United States, the 390th Strategic Missile Wing operated 18 silos in total. With the United State’s entrance into the SALT treaty and having outlived their projected service life, the Titan II missiles were phased out of service starting in 1982. Under an agreement with the Soviet Union, site 571-7 was deactivated and saved as the single remaining example of a 24-hour alert liquid-fueled ICMB missile launch site. The LGM-30 Minuteman III is the only land-based ICBM currently operated by the United States, and is expected to remain in-service until the 2030s.

As the Cold War raged on, the United States turned to a network of Titan II missiles stationed in hardened bunkers to ensure that the threat of nuclear attack remained under control. Mutually assured destruction relies on the Nuclear Triad, which consists of three components: the land, sea, and air based delivery of nuclear weapons. In the post-WWII era, the United States developed their first land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to effectively deliver nuclear payloads to the Soviet Union. The Titan I and SM-65 Atlas both predate the long-lived Titan II by 3 years, and both platforms had the disadvantage of using volatile liquid fuels and oxidizers. These early missiles would be fueled just before launch, leaving the missile exposed outside its silo and delaying any retaliation against a first strike by about 20 minutes.

The Titan II was the answer to the shortcomings of the Titan I and SM-65 Atlas series ICBMs. It used a stable fuel and oxidizer that could be ignited instantly and stored indefinitely at 60º F. The missile resided in an underground silo protected by a 740 ton concrete sliding hatch. The entire facility was hardened, designed to withstand a nearby nuclear strike or seismic event but not a direct hit. 4’ x 3’ thick springs suspend the multi-story launch control center and acted as shock absorbers, with similar measures installed on a smaller scale throughout the complex to protect critical components.

Despite its size and destructive power, it only took a 4 man crew to operate the launch site: 2 missile combat officers, an analyst, and a facilities technician. Crews worked 24 hour shifts, and the launch procedure could be executed in under a minute: on order of the President, a 35 character launch code would be transmitted over radio to the missile sites like 571-7. The two missile operators would write down and compare their translation of the code. If the codes matched, they’d open a locked safe to authenticate the launch order. After unlocking the missile with a separate code and inserting the launch keys into the console, the silo doors would open and allow the missile to strike a preprogrammed target. The decrease in launch procedure from 20 minutes to under 1 minute was a major advantage of the Titan II program.

Tours of site 571-7 take you through the blast lock, launch control center, cableway, and missile silo. After a short introductory video in the visitors center, we descended down the 55 steps to the blast lock. Massive 6,000 lb. blast doors guard the entrances to the underground segments of the base. The launch control center looks as it did back when the site was on alert, and you can see the safety suits worn by technicians who maintained the missile in the equipment locker. Back up on the surface, we were able to take a peak at the missile from the top down, thanks to the viewing platform that abuts the silo. Also seen at ground level are the high frequency discharge antenna, fuel and oxidizer hardstands, and TPS antennas used to detect intruders via radar. And while I thought the tour was a little rushed, I was still excited to document such a critical piece of our nation’s nuclear history during my trip through Arizona.

Marconi Tower

One of the many upcoming projects I have planned is focused on documenting what still remains of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company’s network of telegraph receiver stations in the United States. During my research I uncovered numerous sites which remain in various states of preservation, stretching up the East Coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts. I was driving around Binghamton, NY while working on a different project about IBM Endicott when I came across a rusted tower with an NY State Historic Marker nestled under it. Not far from the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western terminal, the marker reads “ERECTED NOVEMBER 1913 BY GUGLIELMO MARCONI TO TEST THE POSSIBILITY OF TRANSMITTED TELEGRAPHIC SIGNALS TO MOVING TRAINS ALONG THE LACKAWANNA RR”.

Patented by Marconi in 1900, wireless communication was still in it’s infancy in November 1912. Less than a year before Marconi’s experiment in Binghamton, Marconi Wireless Telegraph operators onboard the Titanic spent most of their time sending messages from the ship’s wealthy passengers back to shore as a novelty of sorts. The wireless telegraph later proved itself a lifesaving technology when the receiving station at South Wellfleet, MA relayed news of the Titanic’s sinking to RMS Carpathia, facilitating the rescue of survivors left stranded in the Atlantic.

Marconi built two sets of towers in 1913 to test the feasibility of receiving wireless telegraph messages at high speeds. Until this point, the radio telegraph had been used to communicate with ships across great distances, but never something like a train. On November 27, 1913, a 350 word message was successfully transmitted to a Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western railroad train traveling 60 mph using the two test stations in Binghamton and Scranton, PA.

While the experiment was a success, the system Marconi envisioned never came to fruition. Fixed stations were to be spaced every 50 miles along the track to combat poor reception onboard trains, thus incurring prohibitively high infrastructure costs. The railroad would completely replace Marconi’s equipment with radio telephony transmission towers in Hoboken and Buffalo, establishing their system in 1914. While almost all evidence of this experiment is long gone, the rusted remains of one tower that once supported the 150 foot aerial needed to conduct Marconi’s experiment still stands today in Binghamton.

The George Eastman House

I’ve been spending an increasing amount of time in Rochester between visiting the George Eastman Museum, working on my upcoming Kodak series, and exploring the city in general. The George Eastman Museum occupies the original mansion George Eastman lived in until his death in 1932 and is one of my favorite places to visit in Rochester. The mansion was bequeathed to the University of Rochester but was turned over to the George Eastman House museum and became it’s permanent home in 1949. The mansion was built in the Georgian Revival style by Mr. Eastman with all the modern conveniences of the day: electricity, telephones, a central vacuum system, an elevator, and a massive Aeolian pipe organ. Fun fact about the organ - the Aeolian Organ Company’s manufacturing plant was just down the rail line from where I grew up. Located in Garwood, NJ, it was torn down recently for apartments as part of the building craze that seems to be impacting all towns along NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley line. The castle-like facade with the carved stone “Aeolian Organ Company” signage looks to be preserved though, while the apartments themselves haven’t made much progress.

George Eastman, worth millions at the time of his death, spared no expense in the construction of his estate. While he never married, he was incredibly close with his mother Maria and she lived with him until her death in 1907. Given she spend the last two years of her life in a wheelchair and Eastman himself suffered from debilitating pain late in life, the elevator was an undoubtedly useful feature. Small details like the ornate inlaid stained glass depicting different modes of transportation including cars, steam ships, and hot air balloons adorn the windows of the billiard room. Painted murals of animals seen on Eastman’s exotic hunting expeditions trim the built-in bookcases of the library. I found the conservatory, flooded with natural light, particularly spectacular. The space consumes both floors of the building and is notable for a mounted elephant head, likely a trophy acquired by Eastman’s himself. Outside the mansion are multiple gardens, which I hope to visit when the plants are in bloom and the renovation of the east lawn are completed.

Fort Stanwix

Fort Stanwix National Monument, managed by the National Park Service, is a modern day recreation of the circa 1762 Revolutionary War fort. The reconstruction was completed as part of urban revitalization efforts in 1974 atop the original fort’s location, then the historic downtown section of Rome, NY. It was a unseasonably hot day in early fall when I visited, and there were few people at the fort. I had the opportunity to speak with a ranger about the fort’s construction, and she explained how the city of Rome, NY asked the NPS to come in and reconstruct the fort. Congress authorized the National Monument in 1935, but the real push for its construction came with the Revolutionary War fervor of the bicentennial. The National Parks Service, not in the business of bulldozing historic structures (of which downtown Rome had many examples), politely declined the city’s initial request to bulldoze the site and reconstruct the fort. The city used eminent domain to demolish the dilapidated downtown section anyway, and a 3 year archeological survey of the property commenced before construction began. The fort was opened in 1976 for the bicentennial and construction was wrapped up in 1978.

So why is Fort Stanwix a National Monument? The story begins back in 1777 when Continental forces occupied the fort and repelled the British, earning the nickname of “the fort that never surrendered” after enduring a prolonged siege. The fort was eventually abandoned after the war and razed as the city of Rome expanded with the success of the Eerie Canal. While I was only able to poke my head inside recreated areas of the fort like the barracks and officers quarters due to COVID-19 precautions, I was impressed by the craftsmanship put into the reconstruction. I wonder if there will be another resurgence of interest in the Revolutionary War when the tricentennial rolls around. I’ll be 80 in 2076, so hopefully I’ll still be around to experience it. With so many historic sites from that time period in the tri-state area, I’d be curious to see what other projects might gain traction if there is a resurgence in Revolutionary War interest.

The Holmdel Horn Antenna

One of the many ways that I research new locations to shoot is by combing through properties listed on the National Register. These properties have a level of historical significance and are often nominated through the hard work of history loving folks like myself. I was sifting through sites listed in Monmouth County, NJ when I saw something odd that immediately caught my attention - a property listed as the “Horn Antenna”. Nestled atop a hill overlooking the Garden State Parkway, the Horn Antenna sits in a mothballed state on the former Bell Telephone Laboratories (Crawford Hill) Facility in Holmdel, NJ. I decided to take a trip this past fall to Holmdel and document what was left of the site.

Fabricated mostly on-site by Bell engineers under the direction of Mr. A. B. Crawford, the giant radio telescope was designed by astronomers to detect radio waves bounced off Echo balloon satellites. In 1965, Dr. Arno Penzias and Dr. Robert Wilson were conducting research with the antenna when they stumbled across the residual microwave background radiation that resulted from what we now know as the Big Bang. Publishing their research alongside three astrophysicists from Princeton University, Penzias and Wilson were able to detect the tremendous blast of radiation released by the Big Bang which the astrophysicists had theorized. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint discovery in 1978.

The Horn Antenna and the Crawford Hill Facility itself were mothballed when research operations were consolidated to the global headquarters of Nokia Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ. Crawford Hill was an annex of the larger Bell Labs Holmdel Complex located a short drive away, known today as Bell Works. I’ve also visited this behemoth of an office building, which you can read about in my Bell Works blog post. Researching the history of the antenna gave me the inspiration for some ongoing projects I’m working on around other former American titans of industry like General Electric, Westinghouse, Kodak, Xerox, and more.

All equipment from inside the antenna and the nearby utility shed which housed the controls has been stripped out. The facility was sold by Nokia Bell Labs in early 2020, and the site’s future remains uncertain. A decaying 7 meter dish antenna, workshops, and towers for communications and radar equipment dot the landscape as reminders of the research once conducted at Crawford Hill. I’m not sure when exactly Nokia Bell Labs abandoned the site, but I did find a laminated sign warning that the locker rooms for the volleyball pits were closed due to COVID-19. This mean that somebody occasionally visited the facilities until 2020 at the latest, but both visits I made in 2021 showed the complex abandoned. The Horn Antenna represents the heyday of communications research and design in America, a victim of the mergers and acquisitions that have whittled away at Bell Labs and shuttered the Crawford Hill Facility. I’m just glad I was able to document things before any significant redevelopment erased what is left of this important piece of scientific history.