Tag: William Daniel Ross
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What’s In A Name?
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc. Rosslyn’s *possibly* Scottish Gaelic etymology *possibly* refers to being located on a waterway and/or *possibly* refers to being located on a promontory. There are other possibilities as well. Old German. Latin. A rose by any other name… Word-wonder wandering is seductive but in the case…
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Kestrel at Rosslyn Boathouse
This evening I return to a nostalgic snapshot steeped in the sepia tones of yesteryear. An artifact from our Rosslyn collection, this old photo was featured on February 24, 2014 in the Essex Community blog by Katie Shepard. As often, the discourse generated by this visual time, capsule provided valuable insight to the Kestrel, a…
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Willsboro Paper Mill, circa 1900 and 1920
We return today to Willsboro’s industrial Boquet River shoreline a century and more ago. This follow-up to “Willsboro Mills Circa 1912: Grist Mill, Saw Mill, and Paper Mill” includes three intriguing glimpses of this once thriving site of which only a hint remains today. The aerial photograph on this vintage postcard above offers a birds-eye…
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Willsboro Mills Circa 1912: Grist Mill, Saw Mill, and Paper Mill
My October 19, 2023 look at the Phoenix Mills (through the lens of “preservation by neglect“) incited some interesting feedback. I’m planning a post to pass along some interesting new tidbits including the building’s name. (Think about the concept of “phoenix from ashes“, a myth that resonates with me personally and that surfaces frequently in…
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Preservation by Neglect: Phoenix Mills
Today I return to the topic of preservation by neglect with a personally poignant look at Phoenix Mills, an historic stone building located down river from the bridge (and former DEC fish ladder) in Willsboro, New York. As I understand it, Phoenix Mills was a grist mill originally built and operated by W.D. Ross in…
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Horse Ferry
I’ve just returned to Essex via ferry from Charlotte, Vermont. This waterway commute is an integral component of our life in Essex, New York. 30 minutes from ferry dock to ferry dock. Sometimes a little less. Sometimes a little more. No longer a sail ferry or horse ferry, but in some ways virtually unchanged across…
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Rosslyn & Reinvention
Reinvention is woven intricately, inextricably into Rosslyn’s DNA. This home, this property, this history endure some two hundred years (and more) after W.D. Ross first built his home on the Champlain Valley’s fertile shore in no small part because of this legacy of renewal. It’s as if Rosslyn, in addition to historic buildings and generous…
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Old House Journaling
Yesterday marked ten weeks of old house journaling. Every. Single. Day. Two months and ten days back at the helm of this wayward, meandering, sometimes unruly experiment I call Rosslyn Redux. I emphasize the daily component of this benchmark because it’s been an important part of the goal I committed to at the end of…
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The Ross Mansion, circa 1910
I present to you a rather well captured (and equally well preserved) photograph of The Ross Mansion (aka Hickory Hill) circa 1910. It’s always a joy to come across another Essex photo postcard, especially when there’s a direct connection to Rosslyn. In this case, the link is that the Ross Mansion in the photograph above was…
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Holistic Orcharding: Michael Phillips
For several years I’ve been absorbing holistic orcharding and gardening wisdom from Michael Phillips. I no longer recall how I came across the pied piper of organic, non-toxic fruit tree propagation, but it’s quite possible that my first introduction was an article in Mother Earth News titled, “Organic Apple Growing: Advice From Michael Phillips“. If you’re…