The modern homes hidden inside ancient ruins
ft.com65 points by Stratoscope 8 days ago
65 points by Stratoscope 8 days ago
My grandparents did something like this when they retired, and bought a property with a long-derelict 19th church on it. They kept the stone walls intact, and built a modern structure over and through it, which turned out to be stunning.
Early in the project a neighbor drove up and introduced himself as the great-(great?)-grandson of the founder of the church, and the last minister who had served in it. He was grateful for their care for the history of the space, and when my grandparents inaugurated the house they invited the few remaining members of the congregation to the party, and asked the former minister to offer a blessing. Their appreciation for the building gave them an entrée into a (famously insular) community, which became a source of happiness and support for the rest of their lives.
That’s an amazing story and often the thing that people overlook; respect and appreciation for the things that have gone before.
I would love to see photos if they are online anywhere.
I don't know if I have good pictures to hand, and would rather not (potentially) dox myself by posting them. However:
Picture a 9-foot (~3m) wall of local stone (so local, in fact, that they'd been pulled out of the creek that ran along the far end of the property), with a row of glass bricks on top, and then a vaulted ceiling whose peak was at 25' (~7.5m). The walls weren't actually supported by the glass (it was steel pillars), but it looked like they were.
If you're standing in that "great room", facing the wood stove and clerestory windows, behind you would be a transverse balcony, in steel and light wood, with a study and bedroom and bathroom off of it. The stairs to the upstairs are behind and to your left, running through a generous landing off which the front door opens. There's an open-plan kitchen and back door to your right (technically "outside" the footprint of the church), and a master bed and bath under the balcony.
That doesn't nearly do it justice, because you'd also have to picture all of my grandparents' furniture and rugs and art and antiques, around which (quite literally: doors were moved to accommodate certain pieces) the house had been designed.
It's been a decade since they died, and we pulled everything out of that house, but I miss them (and it) every day. Hold your family close, HN.
It's nice to have a lot of money
I thought I’d be horrified by this, but when done tastefully and respectfully it can revive the sites as living history instead of dead ruins.
It's interesting how different people's perception of what is ancient or not.
From the title I was assuming something around about 0 BCE, but it turns out to be a 17th century factory.
Wikipedia lists the cutoff for ancient at 500AD so I don’t think this comes down to perception. Insofar as words have meaning, TFA is using “ancient” incorrectly. Then again, language always seems to slouch towards the extremes. If literally dead can mean slightly amused, maybe ancient can mean a couple hundred years old.
> Wikipedia lists the cutoff for ancient at 500AD
That's just the rough point at which historians stop referring to things as "ancient history", it's not some kind of definition for the word "ancient". Ancient just means really really old. You need to use the context to know exactly how old.
For example if I said "your dad is ancient" I obviously don't mean he was born before 500AD.
That said I think "ancient ruins" is so commonly used to refer to ruins from ancient history (i.e. before 500AD) that it is a pretty odd choice for the headline.
Ancient? Most of the barns in my village are older than these "ancient ruines"
At what point does a long abandoned manure shed become worthy of being a listed building?
As soon as anyone proposes repurposing or demolishing the shed, it’s instantly transformed by the heritage industrial complex into an archetype of working class vernacular architecture.