I miss functional public art.
bezt
I’m reminded of Charles Pierce’s column about the Geneva post office. https://www.esquire.com/news-pol...
I know every dot by heart. But I wonder why those particular ones were chosen in 1938. They're not the most populous. There's plenty more county seats. If you were getting blood drawn ... maybe they were state hospital locations?
I am also at the age when I try to figure out how long ago something I did really was. Last time I was in Geneva (at a stag party for a cousin who went to Hobart) was in 1981. That's closer to when this art was installed than it is to now. Sheesh.
@BooBounder I found out last night that this building was built as a high school. So, its repurposing had me kafoodled. Still, it’s so pretty.
@bezt That is much closer to my home in Rochester. And I’ve been there as well. My oldest graduated from William Smith.
This fascinated me. Mostly because I can't figure out what it's supposed to say. So I spent sometime researching. First, I from NY, and I'm a geography buff, so I can name the dots. But, why these? This building was originally a high school, so it's seemingly educational. But it's not showing rival high schools: there's many more, and several on here are hours away. But these cities aren't the most populous either, then or now. They're not county seats, because there'd be more of them. They don't seem to pop out as important to railroads. More specifically, Utica is bigger than many of the cities on the map; but it is covered by the compass rose. Rome too. Niagara Falls is out too, although it might be too close to Buffalo (which might be bigger than the rest?) for tilework. Why Jamestown, instead of comparable Dunkirk, Olean, or Salamanca? Yonkers should be right where the edge of the photo is. Any place in the Champlain region: Plattsburgh? Saratoga Springs? Glens Falls? Lake Placid, if only for recent history? And why are other places on there? Ogdensburg? Anyway, here's the list going roughly west to east: Jamestown, Buffalo, Rochester, Geneva, Auburn, Syracuse, Elmira, Ithaca, Binghamton, Oswego, Watertown, Ogdensburg, Schenectady, Albany, Troy, Kingston, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie.
Well, could it be sports rivals? The building’s cornerstone was 1938 but that doesn’t mean the terrazzo was completed then. I worked in high schools and middle schools for three decades. Whatever else you want to say about schools, inter-mural sports drive all sorts of renovations and building.
I wouldn't think so. Even that part of upstate is fairly densely populated. My guess is that whatever leagues the school was in didn't require travel more than 50-60 miles. It would take most of the day to get from Jamestown on the left to Kingston on the right.
@BooBounder More investigation needed.