Tea at Trianon: Virginia’s Lost Architectural Gems

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Virginia’s Lost Architectural Gems

From Style Weekly:

Virginia has a very rich architectural heritage, but you can’t know the full extent of it just by looking at what’s currently standing,” says Loth, the retired senior architectural historian of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and coauthor of the 2001 book “Lost Virginia: Vanished Architecture of the Old Dominion.” “In order to get a complete picture, you need to be aware of important architectural and historic resources that have been lost.”
Loth’s lecture isn’t simply about bemoaning Virginia’s vanished architectural treasures; it’s also intended as a call to action to preserve what we have left.

“I wanted to use it as a way of raising awareness of why we lose things, whether it’s war or fire or neglect or development,” says Loth of his lecture. “In other words, what are the pressures on historic resources and how we can deal with such pressures on existing landmarks?”

The lecture will take place at the Branch, which recently eliminated the word “architecture” from its title and named former Martin Agency CEO Kristen Cavallo as its new executive director. (Read more.)