Art in My Local Area

Part 1

Local Architecture that is encompassed in the area I live has lots of late Victorian 19th century that was built in the first three decades of the 20th century. Hagerstown City and that is within Washington County Maryland that caught my eye is this type of architecture. Architecture is not just in the building but many of the local churches like the one that comes too many of the locals' minds who know the brilliant work in architecture is St. John's Episcopal Church Mount Prospect. St. John's Neo-Gothic in style, the current church was built in 1872 and was an American adaptation of the Oxford movement in sanctuary design. In December 1871, the present church building is built of coursed rows of rough-hewn blue limestone with string courses, sills and lintels of brownstone. Gothic windows are filled with stained-glass; and a bell tower, topped with a stone steeple, rises from the north corner of the church and the roof is slate. Two heavy oak doors, painted red, are covered with elaborate scrolled pattern in bronze reminiscent of the Lichfield Cathedral in England. These doors open into a foyer at the base of the tower that is decorated in the Arts & Crafts style, the ceiling has sixty small six-point stars cut into the ceiling and illuminated from above (Stjohnshagerstown.org, 2011).

In the 19th century and according to the reading area that I live in is more of a Modernism refers to a particular movement in the 19th and 20th century and by the late 19th century in America and especially in my home town a change occurred called Columbian Exposition of 1893 that started in Chicago/ Known as the "White City", it presented a classical architecture, by adding gardens, public art and then modern transportation. Hagerstown had the electric train car that added to the everyday life architecture that designers built and developed beautiful cities. Hagerstown in 1890 acquired land that was called the West End Movement referring to that part of the town. The land would become known as City Park and by public pressure paved the way to make City Park one the most beautiful city parks in the nation. Modernism was in and with all the Victorian Homes and all the Religious art and as the chapter states places of worship were among the finest architectural achievements in the world. William Singer and his wife who traveled the world, as Mr. William Singer was a renowned artist who has worked with many of the world's finest artists came to Hagerstown to live and founded the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, built a building to hold all the art he collected as well bought. There are over a hundred pieces of art from European, 16th Renaissance era art, abstract and many more like sculptures and decorative early 16th, 18h and 19th century furniture.

Part 2

One piece of art that I found memorizing was painting by Norman Rockwell in 1956 "The Oculist". I believe shows how Norman Rockwell felt about his paintings of how we should feel as a kid going the optimist while we could be playing baseball. His work on the "The Oculist" was bought for thousand dollars in 1956 and given to the museum in 1957. Norman Rockwell other