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The soul united with Christ lives out of his life—however, only in surrender to the Crucified when she has traveled the entire way of the cross with him. Nowhere is this expressed more clearly and more urgently than in the message of St. Paul who already had a well-developed science of the cross, a theology of the cross derived from inner experience.
“Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.… For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” [1 Cor 1:17–18]
“Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” [1 Cor 1:22–24]
The word from the cross is the gospel of Paul—the message he announced to Jews and pagans. It is a plain witness, without a trace of grandiloquence, without any effort to convince on the grounds of reason. It derives its entire force from that which it proclaims.
And that is the cross of Christ, that is, the death of Christ on the cross, and the crucified Christ himself.
Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom not only as one sent by God, as God’s Son who is himself God, but as the Crucified One. For the death on the cross is the salvific solution invented by God’s unfathomable wisdom.
In order to show that human power and human wisdom are incapable of achieving salvation, he gives salvific power to what appears to human estimation to be weak and foolish, to him who wishes to be nothing on his own, but allows the power of God alone to work in him, who has “emptied himself” and “become obedient to death on the cross” [cf. Phil 2:7–8]
The saving power: this is the power that awakens to life those in whom divine life had died through sin. This saving power had entered the Word from the cross and through this word passes over into all who receive it, who open themselves to it, without demanding miraculous signs or human wisdom’s reasons.
In them, it becomes the life-giving and life-forming power that we have named the science of the cross.
Saint Edith Stein
Introduction: The Message of Sacred Scripture
Learn about the relic of St. Thomas Becket’s skull in the Corona Chapel of Canterbury CathedralStein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.
Featured image: The crucifixion of Christ is the central window in the Corona Chapel or Beckett’s Crown in Canterbury Cathedral. The window dates from 1200; the center panel was fully recreated in 1853 and the typological scenes are the original stained glass from the medieval period. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/03/28/edith-scicross/
#cross #crucifixion #death #Gospel #JesusChrist #power #salvation #science #StEdithStein #StPaul #theology #wisdom
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Around noon the shepherds came out of their homes and headed towards the Cova da Iria. They did so with great difficulty because of the huge influx of people who pressed everywhere wanting to see them up close, touching and talking to them.
Lucia said it was a little like what Jesus went through as He walked through Galilee and Judea. She wrote that some gentlemen helped pave a path through the crowd for them:
Lucia: We finally arrived in the Cova da Iria near the holm oak and began praying the Rosary with the people. Shortly afterwards we saw the flash of light and then Our Lady on the holm oak.
Our Lady: Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. St. Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope on, but only to wear it during the daytime.
Lucia: I was told to ask you many things, the cure of some sick people, of a deaf-mute.
Our Lady: Yes, I will cure some, but not others. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.
Then Our Lady began to rise as usual and disappeared. A tender Mother, Our Lady is concerned with her children who have no one to lead them to do penance. Her words were a balm in the midst of all the suffering that would come to them: God is pleased with your sacrifices.
But God would not let any more time pass before sending someone to help them see His will and lead them in the right way. He usually wants His chosen ones to go through human mediation, so they walk safely in the light of obedience according to His will.
On September 13 the Rev. Manuel Nunes Formigão arrived in Fatima. Fr. Formigão came to investigate the shepherds and events at Fatima. He was present at the time of the apparition but saw nothing unusual except a slight decrease in sunlight, which could mean little or nothing. That day he did not speak to the seers or anyone there.
On September 27th he was back in Aljustrel and proceeded with the first interrogation. Lucia was able to breathe easier with the visit of this holy priest who questioned her and her cousins and gave them practical advice for life:
He interrogated me seriously and thoroughly. I liked him very much, for he spoke to me a great deal about the practice of virtue, and taught me various ways of exercising myself in it. He showed me a holy picture of St. Agnes. He told me about her martyrdom and encouraged me to imitate her. His Reverence continued to come every month for an interrogation, and always gave me some good advice, which was of help to me spiritually. One day he said to me: “My child, you must love Our Lord very much in return for so many favors and graces that He is granting you.” These words made such an impression on my soul that, from then on, I acquired the habit of constantly saying to Our Lord: “My God, I love You, in thanksgiving for the graces which You have granted me.
Then she shared this ejaculation with her cousins who recited it frequently. What belonged to one belonged to all—a passion among early Christians who had everything in common, material and spiritual goods, and who walked with each other.
The storm in Lucia’s home intensified after September 13. She had hoped her mother was becoming more convinced of the apparitions during the month of August, but Maria Rose became discouraged and her suffering took on new proportions.
In addition to her painful doubts about the apparitions and Lucia’s truthfulness, the irretrievable loss of crops from their land due to the crowds, and the constant harassment from people coming to their home to see and talk to the little one caused great emptiness in her that was felt in her family.
It was hard for mother and daughter. Lucia suffered silently her personal cross and saw her mother whom she idolized filled with so much pain and without any relief.
In the midst of this dark night, Lucia looked up to Heaven and trusted in the Lord from Whom she knew aid would come (Ps 121:1–2) and repeated in her wounded heart:
O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
How this child grew spiritually inside of just 10 years!
Discalced Carmelites of Coimbra
A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary, Chapter III
No. 15, Apparition of Our Lady on September 13th (excerpt)of St. Teresa Coimbra Portugal, C 2015, A pathway under the gaze of Mary : biography of Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart O.C.D., translated from the Portuguese by Colson, J, World Apostolate of Fatima USA, Washington NJ.
Featured image: This stained glass window from the Shrine of Our Lady of Tylicz, Poland, depicts the three seers of Our Lady of Fatima. Image credit: Adam Ján Figeľ / Adobe Stock (Stock photo)
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/12/lucia-sept13/
#apparition #children #God #ImmaculateHeartOfMary #Jesus #love #OurLadyOfFatima #Portugal #sacrifices #spiritualDirection #VenerableMariaLuciaOfJesusAndTheImmaculateHeart
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#OpenStreetNYC makes things like this possible. Https://www.BrooklynUnited.org is a #NonProfit organization that helps kids find their way through #music and #dance. Because the area around the #RockefellerTree is closed to traffic, it gave them space for spontaneous performances in front of St Patrick's cathedral and the Rockefeller Christmas tree. Based on the crowd's reaction, it was a net positive.
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On March 30, for the eighth week in a row, a group of activists gathered outside of St. Clair Correctional Facility, near Birmingham, Alabama, to show solidarity with incarcerated organizers, who have been refusing to engage in prison labor since Feb. 6. Organizers want to sustain the shutdown, which entails a full stoppage of all labor inside the prisons that prisoners are forced to do, for at least 90 days.
The organizers, led by the Free Alabama Movement, are living under the boot of the most violent state prison system in the United States – a nation known for having the largest prison population in the world and regularly employing torture and archaic methods of execution against its prisoners.
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has become notorious for running a regime of violence against prisoners, while employing those same prisoners in a system of legalized slavery. Incarcerated organizers in Alabama claim that ADOC keeps parole rates artificially low in order to keep as many prisoners in the labor force as possible.
The Free Alabama Movement has organized many statewide prison shutdowns throughout the years. In 2022, prisoners initiated work stoppages at every single major correctional facility in the state. In 2016, FAM organized a shutdown with participation from reportedly 57,000 prisoners – potentially the largest prison shutdown in US history.
Prisoners are now trying to replicate many of the same tactics as were used in the previous shutdowns, by sustaining and trying to expand the shutdown of St. Clair, which began on Feb. 6, for at least 90 days. The goal is to spread the shutdown to all ADOC facilities.
FAM organizers are intentional about their language, employing the term “prison shutdown” rather than “prison strike.” According to Cecilia Prado, of the Tennessee Student Solidarity Network, which has been organizing in solidarity with FAM, incarcerated organizers “are participating in work stoppages and boycotts, but they do not call it a prison strike, because they know that people on the outside usually have the idea of prison strikes being related to wages or to better benefits.”
Prisoners “do not want just better benefits,” Prado says. Instead, FAM organizers want to dismantle the entire system of prison labor, which they label as slavery. “They want the massive financial incentive of the prison labor economy to go away, because it’s behind the fact that Alabama prisons are the most deadly, most crowded in the country.”
Organizations who have stood in solidarity with FAM include the Tennessee Student Solidarity Network, Birmingham Stands, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Birmingham Democratic Socialists of America, as well as students from nearby universities such as Middle Tennessee State University, Fisk University, Auburn University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Nashville State University, and Vanderbilt University.
Links of solidarity drawn between prison system and genocide in Gaza
Throughout the prison shutdown, FAM organizers have used their platforms to show solidarity with various struggles, including the struggle in Palestine. On March 2, Young Palestinians of Birmingham joined the Tennessee Student Solidarity Network and other organizations standing in solidarity with FAM organizers outside of St. Clair.
“The Young Palestinians of Birmingham support the Free Alabama Movement in their struggle against the prison industrial complex, which is one of several systems that support the Zionist occupation of Palestine and ongoing genocide in Gaza,” Hamza, the president of YPB, told Peoples Dispatch. “The St. Clair Correctional Facility in particular is the largest source of economic output from prison labor in Alabama. If the system can be shut down – if prison labor can be brought to an end – not only can incarcerated workers demand justice for the abuse and repression they experience at the hands of an oppressive system, but it would also be a major hit to the companies that supply ‘Israel’ with the weapons it needs to continue its extirpation of Palestinians in their native land.”
“Arms manufacturers like Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin not only profit from contracts with the US military, but also with the Zionist military. These companies create the jets and rockets that the occupation is armed with. The bombs that kill children in Gaza are made in America. Furthermore, these same corporations, along with many others, make billions of dollars from forced prison labor. Incarcerated workers are paid pennies to do work for companies that play a direct part in sustaining the occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide,” Hamza said.
Peoples Dispatch is an international media project with the mission of publishing voices from people’s movements and organizations across the globe. Since its establishment three years ago, it has sought to ensure that the coverage of news from around the world is not restricted to the rhetoric of politicians and the fortunes of big companies but encompasses the richness and diversity of mobilizations from around the world. You can reach them at [email protected], Also, check out dozens of stories from and about the Free Alabama Movement at https://sfbayview.com/page/4/?s=%22Free+Alabama+Movement%22.
#alabama #endprisonslavery #freeAlabamaMovement #northAmerica #PrisonAbolition #prisonStruggle
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Huh, that didn’t take as long as I expected.
Holy #WhiteSmoke Batman, we have a new #pope!
The identity of the new pontiff is not yet known. #Vatican officials are expected to announce his name in Latin from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica shortly.
Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, a 73-year-old Frenchman born in Morocco, is expected to make the announcement — unless he himself is elected pope.
Then the new pope himself will appear & address the crowd.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5385327/vatican-white-smoke-new-pope-conclave
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Huh, that didn’t take as long as I expected.
Holy #WhiteSmoke Batman, we have a new #pope!
The identity of the new pontiff is not yet known. #Vatican officials are expected to announce his name in Latin from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica shortly.
Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, a 73-year-old Frenchman born in Morocco, is expected to make the announcement — unless he himself is elected pope.
Then the new pope himself will appear & address the crowd.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5385327/vatican-white-smoke-new-pope-conclave
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Huh, that didn’t take as long as I expected.
Holy #WhiteSmoke Batman, we have a new #pope!
The identity of the new pontiff is not yet known. #Vatican officials are expected to announce his name in Latin from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica shortly.
Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, a 73-year-old Frenchman born in Morocco, is expected to make the announcement — unless he himself is elected pope.
Then the new pope himself will appear & address the crowd.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5385327/vatican-white-smoke-new-pope-conclave
-
Huh, that didn’t take as long as I expected.
Holy #WhiteSmoke Batman, we have a new #pope!
The identity of the new pontiff is not yet known. #Vatican officials are expected to announce his name in Latin from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica shortly.
Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, a 73-year-old Frenchman born in Morocco, is expected to make the announcement — unless he himself is elected pope.
Then the new pope himself will appear & address the crowd.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5385327/vatican-white-smoke-new-pope-conclave
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The thread about the excavation of parts of Edinburgh’s old cable tramway system from beneath Leith Walk, what the various pieces of ironmongery were and how it all worked
This thread was originally written and published in bits and pieces between 2000 and 2022 as bits of tramway came out of the ground. It has substantially re-written here to create a coherent story.
In a previous post I covered how (and why) Edinburgh came to use cable-hauled trams in the 1880s and why Leith didn’t, and also some basics of how that system worked.
The principal of operation of a cable hauled tramway is quite simple. Between the tram tracks is a slot, in which there runs an endless loop of moving cable. The cable is powered by steam engines in a winding house, from where it runs around the system under the streets on an ingenious (and complex) series of pulley wheels. The tram car is fitted with a pair of grippers which slide into the slot; to move forward it grabs the cable with a gripper and to stop it releases the cable and applies its brakes. To move across junctions, between different cables or to pass subterranean obstructions such as pulley wheels, it can perform an elaborate ceremony whereby it grabs and releases different cables with the front or rear grippers – often with a little bit of gravity assistance.
1882 American diagram of a hypothetical cable tramway system. The winding house with its steam engines, gearing and cable drums is towards the top. The cables exit the winding house in a tunnel under the street and then head off around the system in the slot between the tracks, guided by a large system of pulleys.One of the most common finds has been sections of old tramway rail. A tramway rail differs from a railway rail in that the rail has a flat top with a groove in the middle of it for the flange of the wheel to run in; a railway rail has a domed top and the wheel flange hangs over the side. The rails were relaid when the move was made from cable traction (or in Leith’s case, horse) to electric, so none of the dug up rail sections will be from cable days.
Tram rails on Leith Walk, notice the dark line on the top which is the groove for the wheel flange to run in. © selfThe next most common item that was seen during excavations were the U-shaped cast iron “chairs” that formed the supporting base of the conduit structure in which the cable ran beneath the street surface. To better understand what were are looking at (and for, underground), a cross-section of a cable tramway is helpful, I can’t find one for Edinburgh so one from San Francisco will do as the two were fairly similar. The chairs are coloured yellow, and sat on the concrete base of the conduit.
San Francisco Cable tramway cross-section. The rails are coloured green; the horizontal ties in blue; the top of the conduit structure in orange; the supporting chairs in yellow; the small cable support pulleys in pink; and the cable gripper in red.The Edinburgh system did not use the orange cast slot shown below; it used old rails laid on top of the cast iron chairs to form the slot. Additionally it did not have the small pink cable support pulleys; it used larger, 14inch diameter pulley wheels spaced every 50 feet.
Section of an illustration of a hypothetical cable tramway system, which seems very similar to the system in use in Edinburgh. Note the cable running through the conduit and over the support pulleyThe picture below shows a pile of these iron chairs dug out from beneath Leith Walk, plus sections of old rail that had been used to form the horizontal ties. Notice the chairs are caked in old concrete, as they were set into the conduit when it was being poured.
Cable conduit support chairs, September 2021 © selfCable conduit support chairs, December 2020 © selfNone of the cast iron chairs are complete; all are missing their top sections; cut and cracked off. However it was not the excavation works of 2021 that caused this, it were those of 1921! A a book kindly provided to me by Chris Wright has a photo of Hanover Street, c. 1921, on the cover. In this scene, a crowd watches workmen digging up the old cable conduit system during the switch over to electric traction (which was apparently the first use of pneumatic drills in the city). The caption explains that for ease, the workmen only removed the top section of the conduit chairs when removing them; the lower sections were left concreted into their bases. There are a couple of broken sections of chair in the pile of rubble below the boy with the cricket bat.
Edwin Catford’s Edinburgh, coverThe cables themselves were driven from the four winding houses at each of the tramway depots; Henderson Row, Tollcross, Portobello and Shrubhill (off Leith Walk). We see the Shrubhill winding house interior in the images below. The engines, each with two cylinders and producing 500hp, are in the foreground. They are connected to the cable system by the ropes strung between the pairs of enormous drums. The larger drums, in the back ground, were connected to the 10 foot diameter cable-driving pulleys.
Interior of Shrubhill winding house, seen from the side of the enginesInterior of Shrubhill winding house. The two wheels in the foreground are those that would drive the traction cables.The cables were tensioned on weighted pulleys hung from the wall of the winding house, before exiting the building down a long tunnel from the winding house off Dryden Street at the northern end of the site to Leith Walk. The below photo shows the remains of one of these tunnels being demolished in the 1960s during works outside Shrubhill.
Brick arch of the cable tunnel on the right.These tunnels ran to large brick chambers beneath the road surface and ran off up and down Leith Walk. Each cable required two pulleys; one for it on its outbound journey and one for it returning back to the winding house. Shrubhill drove two cables, so required two sets of these pulleys in chambers below Leith Walk. The diagram below shows the State Street Cable Car power station in Chicago. The winding engines are in yellow and drive 4 sets of cables. The red and blue cables head off right and left out of the power station. The two green cables are for different lines; they travel to the start of those lines “blind” (i.e. not pulling trams), which is why they are running in between the two sets of tracks, rather than between the rails like the red and blue cables. Each cable reaches the end of its line where it turns around and comes back to the power station. Shrubhill was very similar to this but drove only two cables; one for St. Andrew Square and Leith Walk, which also served the branch to Abbeyhill, the other for the Bridges to Newington.
The Street Railway Journal, 1889The illustration below shows a cross section of those cables coming to and from the winding house down the tunnels, running around the pulleys in their chambers and then off around the network. The chambers are brick built, with arched steel plate roofs. This is a conceptual railway, but has two driven cables, rather like Shrubhill. Notice the return pulley is inclined so as to be able to sit underneath the outward pulley.
Cables to and from the winding house and running around the large underground pulleysThe below images show the destruction of the brick walls of one of the Shrubhill pulley chambers under Leith Walk. The dark patches are not tunnels, the one on the left is a recess in the chamber walls and the other seems to be a previous collapse that had been filled in with concrete.
Leith Walk at Shrubhill, November 2020 © selfLeith Walk at Shrubhill, November 2020. Notice the cast iron chair section onwards the middle bottom of the photo © selfThe image below, taken of the same overall excavation hole as those above, shows the huge steel roof section of the chamber – the frame is almost identical to drawings of one for the terminal pulley of one of the Henderson Row cables. There is a supporting structure of steel I-beams that would have sat on the brick walls and foundations, and the metal sheet sections forming the roof on which the road surface lay. The large pulleys that directed the cables in and out of the tunnels to the winding house sat directly below this.
Shrubhill cable chamber roof structure, November 2020 © selfThese chambers, and others around the system (particularly where there were junctions) were manned to make sure the cable was running properly. Children were in the habit of tying a can to a piece of string, then dropping the loose end into the slot in the road, where it would catch the cable and be dragged off up the road creating an amusing racket. If there was any snag or derailment of the cable, they would phone back to the powerhouse, who would disengage the cable until it could be reset or re-spliced, or the offending item untangled from it.
The excavations here also uncovered the structure of the railway tunnel under Leith Walk, where the North British Railway passed beneath. This was incredibly close to the surface (as a result of the tunnel being built after the road surface, and the Town Council refusing to allow the road level to be raised where it passed overhead); the outer skin of the tunnel is about only 30cm or a foot below the surface. Indeed, a special system had to be devised here to support the new tramway as there was not enough space to fit the standard concrete track slab. You will notice a large trough in the tunnel structure here. This, I think, is where the cable for North Bridge to Newington ran, as it was not used for traction purposes here and is described as “running blind” as far as Picardy Place, where it came in to use to go up Leith Street.
Leith Walk railway tunnel, May 2021 © selfThe shallowness of this tunnel totally precludes the urban myths of any tunnels under the road running up Leith Walk towards Elm Row from Shrubhill. Those tunnels are actually a single passageway, just large enough for a man to walk up, that ran under the pavement from Mcdonald Road up to Picardy Place, which was to carry the first electricity cables into the city from the McDonald Road Power Station.
When Edinburgh moved to replace its entire horse-drawn tramway with the cable system across the city, for various reasons Leith declined. Up until the last minute, it had been hoped and assumed that a compromise could be reached and that Leith would join; but it declined to do so. The Shrubhill winding house had a third winding drum for a cable round the Leith rails, but it was never used. Instead, the cable ran from the winding house at Shrubhill, turned left down the hill to the municipal boundary at Pilrig Street, and then ran back up the hill towards Edinburgh again. This meant that passengers had to change onto a Leith tram to proceed any further north (and vice versa). This 24 year inconvenience became known as the Pilrig Muddle. In the below photo, an Edinburgh cable car loads its passengers at the terminus of the line at Pilrig Street. In the background, the electric cars of the Leith system wait for the exchange of passengers heading the other way. exactly where this pit is.
The Pilrig Muddle © Edinburgh City LibrariesThere was another one of these awkward interchanges on the network, at Joppa, which I like to call the Joppa Jumble. Here the cable line from Portobello met Musselburgh’s electric system and again a change had to be made for through travel. But this was at least at the network end, not the middle of a principal route, and traffic here was much lighter
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/5967127413
The terminus of the cable car lines was always on a short, single line siding of track on a slight incline. If the terminus was a downhill incline; the car would disengage from the cable and run by gravity into the siding, where it would pick up the cable running back the other way with its other gripper. The process was reversed for an uphill terminus; it ran into the siding on the cable, and ran out of it by gravity to the return cable. This was required as the cable could not be gripped where the it ran around the huge terminal pulley to change direction. This is shown by the diagram below, where the terminal pulley is in blue, inclined so as to fit below the street surface. The cable (red and white dashed line) is guided to and from it by the orange pulleys.
Terminus of the Edinburgh Northern tramway from Henderson Row.Much excitement erupted at the Pilrig Muddle in August 2021 when unexpectedly (considering this shoul dhave been discovered way back during the first round of tram works), an almost completely intact terminal pulley chamber was uncovered, with not one but two huge pulleys, each totally complete and in remarkable condition. Both were still sitting on their original bearings, just as they had been left almost exactly 100 years before when they were covered up and forgotten about!
Side view of the Pilrig terminal pulley chamber and pulleys © selfOne of the terminal pulleys, approximately 8 feet in diameter. Photo Credit: ACamerunner / @aljaroo1874The Pilrig Muddle pulleys are unusual for two reasons. Firstly, they are mounted vertically, usually they were horizontal. Secondly, they are back to back, which makes little sense for the terminus of the line. I suspect they are vertical as the street is narrower here, so there was less room to fit them in horizontally. And I think there are two back to back in anticipation of the cable being extended down Leith Walk into that burgh (which of course never happened). The red pulley on the right would have returned the Edinburgh red cable back up Leith Walk to Shrubhill. The blue one on the left would have returned the blue Leith Walk cable back down to the Foot of the Walk. If the cable had been extended to Leith, at Pilrig trams coming uphill from Leith would have swapped from the blue to the red cable here as they crossed the civic boundary. Because Leith was never added to the cable system, if I am correct the blue pulley would therefore never have been used.
Side view of the Pilrig terminal pulley chamber and pulleys © selfThe below animation shows how a car would have swapped cables here. A car travels with its front gripper engaging the cable. As it approaches the end of the cable, it is released before the gripper gets dragged into the pulley. To move onto the next cable it can either use its momentum (known as a “fly shunt”), can use gravity if it is running down hill, or it can push itself off the cable onto the next one by using its rear gripper. When the front gripper is over the next cable, it can be re-enaged and the car sets off again. This was a laborious (and potentially hazardous) process, so by design a cable car network keeps junctions and switching between cables to a minimum.
Swapping cables © selfIf you look closely to the left of the archaeologist squatting on the ground peering into the chamber you can see the conduits for electrical wires on the wall along with a box. This is either for electric lighting or the communication telephone.
Electrics in the Pilrig pulley chamber © selfPilrig was not “de-muddled” until 1922 after the amalgamation of the Burgh of Leith and its Tramway into that of the City of Edinburgh. Edinburgh quickly decided to adopt the electric system of Leith and rapidly converted one to the other. The picture below shows the Muddle being converted. A cable car has reached the terminus at Pilrig Street and is about to return back up the hill. You can see the slot between the tracks for the cable. The tracks on the right are being relaid for the electric trams and a new junction to connect down the Leith Corporation tracks on Pilrig Street is being incorporated. The centre poles for the overhead wires are already in place. I suspect the reason that the Pilrig pulley chamber was left in such good condition, with its pulleys still in situ, was the speed with which the switchover was made. There was no time to demolish the chamber, remove its pulleys and infill it. The new tracks were simply built over it and connected together one night to allow for running of the electric trams the next day.
De-muddling the muddle, 1922 at Pilrig Street looking up Leith Walk.When Leith Corporation rebuilt its horse tramway for electric traction in 1904-1905, it constructed a large new depot on Leith Walk. This later became the Leith Depot of Edinburgh Corporation Tramways. Sadly the depot structure was demolished for no good reason about 4 years ago now, but the depot office building remains. During excavations at the rear of this, the brick outlines of inspection pits appeared, where the running gear could have been checked and maintained without having to lift the tram body off of it. The tram rails would have run along the top of these walls, see the lower picture for an example.
Inspection Pits at Leith Depot. These were only ever for electric cars © selfInterior of Leith Depot, pre-1920. © Edinburgh City LibrariesNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
The thread about #NowAndThen photo montages of old railway stations, tramways and bridges around Edinburgh and Leith
This thread was originally written and published in December 2017 and a further part in May 2019.
This thread features #NowAndThen photo-montages of long gone railway stations, tramways and bridges in Edinburgh and Lieth; period photos overlaid on the current streetscape to show just how much or little things have changed over time.
Duke Street in 1954 on the last day of service for the No. 25 tram. This service ran from Corstorphine to Portobello King’s Road via Leith Walk and the Links. Not much else has changed on this side of the road, although the occupants of the buildings certainly have. On the left was the Palace Cinema, with a snooker hall above. It is now a J. D. Wetherspoon pub.
No. 25 Tram at Duke Street. Original image © Kenneth G. WilliamsonCommercial Street in 1955. The No. 17 tram from Granton passes the “Highland Queen” bonded warehouse of MacDonald and Muir. It is running across the railway lines that crossed into the docks from the former North British railway at North Leith / Leith Citadel station. The bond is now flats, through the West Dock Gate where the railway ran is the now the Scottish Government building – Victoria Quay. The Old West and East docks are infilled, unimaginatively used as car parks. The Victoria Dock is cut off from the harbour basin and is a sterile and bleak water feature in front of Victoria Quay.
No. 17 tram at Commercial Street. Original image © Kenneth G. WilliamsonKing’s Road at Portobello in the 1950s. The No. 12 tram from Corstorphine via Leith, it has just passed the ghost of a car heading the other way to Portobello. The background is dominated by the great red brick lump of Ebenenzer J. Macrae’s Corporation electric power station.
No. 12 Tram at the King’s Road. Original image © Kenneth G. WilliamsonTollcross in 1956. There was a tramway depot here – where the central fire station now is – and the route was also a junction where 3 routes from the suburbs converged and then split immediately into two to head into the city by different routes. As such this was always a busy place on the network and this scene is busy with shoppers and tramcars. The tenement on the right and the castle are all that remain of the original buildings in this shot now.
Trams at Tollcross. Original image © Kenneth G. WilliamsonTrinity Crescent in the 1950s. A no. 17 tram squeezes under the bridge carrying the railway from Trinity Station along Lower Granton Road to the docks. The low bridge and tight S-shaped turn of the road meant that the tramway here was single line in the middle of the road, with the overhead line lowered. A set of traffic signals allowed only 1 tram at a time into this short section and warned motor vehicles that a tram was about to pass as their route swung onto the right lane to make the turn.
No. 17 at Trinity Crescent.And Trinity again in 1986. A ghost train crosses Trinity Road on track removal duties. Click on the link to the EdinPhoto website to see more images of this series.
Trinity railway bridge in the 1980s. Original photo © Peter Stubbs.Moving on to animated transitions, here is Balgreen Halt station. A 1934 addition to the suburban railway network by the LNER (London & North Eastern Railway), it was closed in 1968. Estimate the old photo is early 1960s.
Balgreen Halt. Original CC-BY-SA Ben BrooksbankAnd at the end of the line at Corstorphine. Always a hard one to get your head around as no hint of the stations presence is left under the 1980s housing, beyond the name “Station Road”
Corstorphine Station, 1926. Original Image © Edinburgh City LibrariesSide fact, Corstorphine had extraordinarily long platforms for a suburban station (250m, sufficient for a 12 coach train of 60 foot stock), I believe this was because the railway company hoped that a new barracks to replace the Georgian cavalry establishment at Piershill would be built nearby. The new barracks were ultimately built at Redford instead but Corstorphine was left with its overly large station. There were 2 full platforms and 2 full length carriage sidings. As a result it was used to stable and clean coaching stock overnight and on occasions such as rugby and football matchdays.
Another overlooked Edinburgh suburban station; the awkwardly located Piershill at the foot of Smokey Brae, between Meadowbank and Restalrig. The road here running under the bridge is Clockmill Road, which connected to the Clockmill Lane. This was the ancient route from the Canongate to Restalrig, cut in two by the London Road when it was built in the early 1820s. The road was obliterated and the bridge cut off by the groundworks for the 1970s Commonwealth Games stadium, the velodrome being built on top of the road. The bridge is now blocked up as a garage, but may be re-opened as a through route in the future when the eastern end of the stadium site is redeveloped as housing.
Piershill Station. Original Image © CanmoreLeith Walk station – no, not the big one at the Foot, but the one called Leith Walk towards the top.The demolished tenements of Shrub Hill and Shrub Place are in the background, plus an intriguing belfry. I’m guessing it was the old school next to Pilrig Model Buildings, which later became the “Royal Caledonian Bazaar”.
Leith Walk station, 1890s. Original from The Story of Leith by John RussellNow the site of the Inchkeith House multi-storey flats, the Royal Caledonian Bazaar was a “posting and livery establishment”; basically a horse transport depot. The proprietor was one John Croall. The Croalls were established in the horse business and were pioneers of motoring in Edinburgh. They gave their name, unsurprisingly, to Croall Place, the tenement at the top of Leith Walk where it meets Macdonald Road. Croall & Croall later built car and bus bodies and had a number of works around the West Port and Lothian Road. They later became part of the SMT (Scottish Motor Transport) empire.
Granton Road, once an important suburban commuter station and tram route. It was much more conveniently located for the wealthy suburb of Trinity than the station of that name, and later for the big new housing scheme at Boswall.
Granton Road station, 1955. Original image © Kenneth G. WilliamsonThere’s an old cast iron column just outside where the station was, I always assumed it was a tramway pole for the overhead wires. This photo shows it supported no wires – there’s an actual tramway pole right behind it – and it had a crown-shaped vent cap. It’s not a pole or a lamp post at all, it’s actually a sewer vent – a stink pipe – which is why it has survived.
We move on to Granton station itself. One of the first in Edinburgh and originally the site of a pioneering train ferry to Burntisland before the Forth was bridged. It closed in 1925 as an economy as there was little need by this time for a passenger station in the middle of the docks – most people taking the ferry across the Forth found the electric tramway much more convenient to get into the city than taking the train.
Granton Station, pre-1925. Original image © Kenneth G. WilliamsonThe slip for the train ferries is still used by the Royal Forth Yacht Club. Thomas Bouch’s Floating Railway was an ingenious and effective solution to bridging the Forth before the technology allowed a permanent structure. Basically an early, steam-raised linkspan that lowered a ramp on to a special ferry boat, allowing wagons and carriages to be run aboard. The whole apparatus, rails and all, was on a great wheeled carriage, allowing it to move with the tides. The rails were in short sections, bolted together in such a way that they could flex.
Bouch’s “floating railway”, a rather ingenious solution to the problem of bridging the Forth by railThomas Bouch is an engineer remembered for his greatest and most infamous creation, the first Tay Bridge, but he had a long career in which he constructed many pioneering and innovative solutions to the problems of getting railways across obstacles.
I’m quite chuffed with this image, which shows the evolution of the Upper Drawbridge at Sandport Place. Not only is the river much higher now since the docks were dammed, but the deck was widened and the central arch of the current bridge replaced the lifting section.
The “Upper Drawbridge” over the Water of Leith. Original Image © Peter StubbsThe Water of Leith is no longer a tidal river, as in the 1960s a set of lock gates were installed at the mouth of the docks to keep the dock basin always filled with water to allow bigger and deeper ships to use the port, and not be so restricted by the tides when coming and going. The water level these days is frequently within a foot of the central arch but you can still see the “river bed” in the right conditions only a few feet below that, there must be a good 20 foot of mud and silt and sludge built up on the river bed, unable to be washed out by the tide.
The next image is the same spot as before but looking the other way, to St. Ninian’s Wharf (named for the old North Leith Kirk behind, with its distinctive Dutch tower). The site of a dry dock and boatbuilding yard in the 1850s and 60s.
St. Ninian’s Wharf, original image by Thomas Vernon Begbie, taken in the 1850s. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe photo confused me for a good while, as I assumed that the ship must be in the dry dock, which was one of the first dry dock in Scotland so pre-dated the photo by about 100 years. I later realised that the ship being built in the picture is not in the dry dock at all, but on a building slip alongside, with a temporary coffer dam following the line of the river wall – marked in red on the Town Plan below.
OS 1849 Town Plan. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandThat ship may even be on a “patent slip”, a Leith invention.
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The thread about Edinburgh and Leith under occupation; when “Gardyloo”, Christmas and being rude to Frenchmen were banned
From 1548 to 1560, the Port of Leith was occupied by a French garrison in support of the Queen Regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise. During that time the French fortified the town and made themselves generally unpopular with the locals. Such was the mutual bad feeling that in 1555 Mary of Guise’s Parliament made it an offence to speak ill of Frenchmen. I am not sure if this act has been repealed yet…
The arms of Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland (Maria de Loraine, Regina Scotie) in South Leith Kirk. CC-BY-SA 3.0 Kim TraynorOne of the reasons for the French being so unpopular was their constant requisitioning of ships – this was a town that relied on the sea for its prosperity and in doing so the occupiers were directly impoverishing its occupants. As a result of this, shipowners were in the habit of making their vessels be spontaneously elsewhere whenever they got wind that the French might need them, which created logistical problems for the garrison commander. In 1550, the French governor in Leith employed two pynours (porters) to remove and impound all the rudders of the ships of Leith to prevent them from slipping away without his say-so. Twelve days later, all Scottish vessels from Kinghorn to Crail were ordered to leave for Leith within three hours or face being forfeited with their masters put to death.
Opposing the French in Leith were Scottish Protestant lords – the grandiosely titled Lords of the Congregation, or The Faithful – backed by an English army. An English general, Randolph, noted in 1560 that “in no other country were ever seen so many particular quarrels, which daily cause many to keep off who mortally hate the French“: Randolph could not understand how the Scots resented the French occupiers so much but yet were so reluctant to fight with the English against them. He had money to finance 2-3,000 Scots troops to eject the French but could not get them “for love nor money“. The English ended up assaulting Leith under an incompetent commander, with untrained recruits and ladders that were too short to scale the walls. This amateurish attack was repulsed by the stretched, starving but competent and well entrenched French garrison. Further bloodshed was spared when Mary of Guise died shortly thereafter and a short peace was agreed, allowing the French to leave.
“Incident in the Siege of Leith”. It is not clear which party is which here and what they are fighting over. But nobody seemed to be getting along.Less than 100 years after the exit of the French, Leith would find itself once again under military occupation after the calamitous defeat in 1650 of the Scottish Covenanter forces at the hands of Oliver Cromwell in the Battle of Dunbar. Relations between occupier and occupied this time were less strained; although English rule was firm and uncompromising there appeared to be more mutual tolerance on both sides, probably both were just exhausted from nearly 12 years of bloody warfare. The population and economy of Leith had also been shattered by a plague in 1645 that killed nearly half its population.
Cromwell at the head of his Army at Dunbar, a 19th century painting by Andrew Carrick Gow. CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 Tate GalleryCromwell entered Edinburgh on Saturday 7th December, just days after victory at Dunbar. Although the remnants of the Scottish army fought on it had abandoned the city to wage a protracted war of retreat across the country. The occupation was initially marked by restraint on the part of the victors and under Cromwell’s direct orders on 27th December three of his men were publicly flogged through the town by the “Provest marschellis men” for the offence of plundering houses without orders. Another unfortunate Roundhead was strapped to a horse with a pint jug tied around his neck, his hands bound and muskets tied to his feet, and ridden around the town for 2 hours for the offence of drunkenness. In May 1652, an English officer had his ear nailed to the public gallows and thereafter cut off for toasting the King’s health.
Cromwell enters Edinburgh, from an 1886 souvenir of the Edinburgh International Exhibition telling the history of the cityCivilian administration in those days was relatively limited, but the English were sensible enough to allow that of Edinburgh to continue to function – under close observation. Leith however had no such local authority of its own beyond that of Edinburgh and so was ruled directly through military courts headed by English officers “without partiality or favour“. In November 1651 they hung one of their own troopers at the Market Cross “a gallant, stout fellow” for robbing a butcher. A soldier found drunk and swearing in Leith was bound, hit repeatedly in the mouth and tied to a pillar with “a paper bound to his breast” specifying his crimes. Relations in Leith with the English seemed to be downright cordial at times (perhaps because the locals were pleased to be relieved of the constant political and economic interference from Edinburgh) but things ended up becoming too cordial. In October 1651 English soldiers had to be forbidden from marrying Leith women without the written permission of their Major and in February 1652 this prohibition was extended to the keeping of female servants!
In Edinburgh, although the town itself had been easily taken, the Castle garrison had held out and was being besieged by Cromwell’s New Model Army. Anyone found treating with the garrison was dealt with severely. A gardener at the West Kirk (now St. Cuthbert’s Parish Church) was accused of giving intelligence to the Castle; he was taken to the city guardhouse and hung from his thumbs with burning slow matches (the sort used in matchlock firearms) between his fingers until they were “burnt to the bone“.
“Cromwell’s Bartizan, Edinburgh”, by James Drummond RSA, 1861. Oliver Cromwell surveys his newly conquered lands from a rooftop in the Old Town of Edinburgh after the Battle of Dunbar. A bartizan is an overhanging projection from a defensive wall. The solider in the background has a matchlock firearm over his shoulder, and the slow match is the fine cord that can be seen above his gloved hand. The auction listing suggests this is Cromwell at the Castle, but it was then under siege and he is lower than surrounding buildings. The original RSA listing confirms he is actually stood on a housetop.In March 1651 the English soldiers in Edinburgh mutinied due to the lack of provisions and pay; what had been sent to them by sea had been turned back by unfavourable weather. They put their own commanders in jail and “ran through the markets of Edinburgh, plundering and robbing the people of the town, so that few would go out on the streets“. General John Lambert arrived in Edinburgh at the end of November that year to restore order and to make arrangements for quartering of his army in the city over winter. He seems to have made a positive impression with the locals; on finding out that there was no local magistrate in place to dispense justice, he reinstated some of the old ones. He also ordered the Incorporated Trades to choose their own Deacons (the principal officers of the Trades, who formed a core of the Town Council). He did however maintain a right of veto over appointments and kept the appointment of the Castle’s governor to his personal choice.
Oliver Cromwell (left) and Lieutenant General John Lambert (right), 1745 mezzotint by Andrew Miller after Robert Walker, 1650. © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG D32974In December, Lambert ordered citizens in both Edinburgh and Leith to hang out lanterns and place candles in their windows or doors from 6PM to 9PM on account of the disorder being committed by the soldiers. This was observed but cost the inhabitants dearly as candles were an expensive commodity. Anybody found not complying was to be fined 4 shillings sterling, with the master or mistress of the house being thrown in the city guardhouse until it was paid. He also set about the perhaps impossible task of the cleaning up of Auld Reekie. Orders were given on the 24th December that the streets, closes and wynds in Edinburgh were be cleansed within 13 days and “no filth or water should be thrown forth from their windows upon pain of paying immediately 4 shillings sterling“. The proceeds of such fines were to be split equally between the informant and the poor of the town. Clearly it did not have a long lasting effect as just three years later the city was ordered to procure carts and horses for the carrying away of the filth.
“The Flowers of Edinburgh”, a satirical 18th century print on the traditional manner of “flushing the toilet” in Old Town Edinburgh. © The Trustees of the British MuseumOn December 25th 1651 the English authorities in Leith ordered that Christmas should be banned. The point being made here was probably moot however given it was not something that would have been openly observed or celebrated in Presbyterian Scotland. Indeed the Kirk, the usual incumbent authority on moral matters in Scottish towns and burghs, had banned its celebration back in 1640. However ten years later it had nothing like its former authority, especially in Leith where it had been evicted from its church buildings and relieved of its civic duties by the occupiers.
Entry for 2th December 1651 from the Diary of John NicollOn February 7th 1652, under orders of the Commissioners of the English Parliament who were at that time resident in Dalkeith, the symbols of the Stuart Kings’ arms, crowns and royal unicorns of the city were taken down wherever they were to be found. They were stripped from the King’s pew at St. Giles’ Kirk, from the Mercat cross, the Netherbow Port, Parliament House, Edinburgh Castle and the palace of Holyroodhouse. They were then taken to the gallows and publicly hung.
In May 1654 General Monck, who had been Cromwell’s military commander in Scotland until 1652, came once again to Edinburgh to proclaim the union of England and Scotland as the Commonwealth. He was received by the Lord Provost and Bailies of the Town Council (the most senior members of the civilian authority) in their finery. Perhaps they were mindful of the rape and pillage of Dundee committed by Monck’s men back in 1651 and set out to woo the General lest they incur his wrath. They conveyed him to a “sumptuous dinner and feast, prepared by the Town of Edinburgh for him and his special officers. This feast was six days in preparing, and the bailies of Edinburgh did stand and serve the whole time of that dinner“. They also laid on a “great preparation” of fireworks which were set off from the Mercat Cross between 9PM and midnight, “to the admiration of many people“.
George Monck by Peter Lely, c. 1665Cromwell also left it to Monck to resolve the interminable squabbles between the city of Edinburgh and Port of Leith. The latter wanted freedom to trade without interference from its neighbour, the former wanted to assert its historic legal rights to her port. An English merchant in Leith at the time said that the town had been “under the greatest slavery that I ever knew” and should subject to under Edinburgh no more than “Westminster to London.” As part of his overall strategy to pacify and control Scotland, Monck proposed enclosing Leith in fortifications as a garrison town – probably reconstructing the 1560 walls and bastions. The prospect of this terrified Edinburgh, as it would make it substantially easier for Leith to act independently. Edinburgh shrewdly counter-offered that it would pay £5,000 instead for a standalone Citadel outside of Leith – or it may be that the it was Monck being shrewd and he had played Edinburgh off against Leith to get them to finance his scheme. In the end the £5,000 citadel apparently cost many times that to build. The city would later buy it back for a further £5,000 from Charles II, so ended up paying for it twice. Although it was well engineered it was soon abandoned as a defensive fortification; the seaward walls and bastions had been impossible to protect from erosion by the sea and had collapsed within 30 years.
By May 1660, the Commonwealth was over (assisted in no small part by Monck) and the Houses of Parliament had proclaimed Charles II to be King. Orders were sent to the Governor of Edinburgh castle to fire 3 volleys from the guns, one for each of the Three Kingdoms. The chief gunner at the Castle gave the orders to his men but one refused saying that “The devil [would] blow him in the air that loosed a cannon for that purpose” and “if he loosed any cannon that day sum man should repent it“. The complainant was transferred to a gun overlooking the West Kirk. The first volley was duly fired and when this man went to reload his weapon, he recharged it with powder only for it to spontaneously discharge while he was doing so, there being a smouldering ember in the barrel. He was blown clean over the castle walls and off the Castle Rock itself, falling over 250 feet to his death. He was buried near where he landed in the West Kirk.
“The Prospect of the Castle and City of Edinburgh from the Nor’ Loch”, by John Slezer in 1693. The unfortunate gunner met his end by falling from the walls on this, the north side of the castle. © Edinburgh City LibrariesNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
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The thread about exploring Cromwell’s enigmatic Citadel of Leith
I was quite very excited to find this image in the Edinburgh City Libraries collection that I’d somehow missed before. It’s the “Gate of the Old Citadel of Leith“, an 1818 watercolour by the lawyer and prolific cityscape artist of Edinburgh, James Skene.
“Gate of the Old Citadel of Leith“, James Skene, 1818 © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe Citadel was part of Oliver Cromwell’s plan to subdue and control Scotland during his occupation of the country after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650.
It acted not just as a base for the occupying forces, but by protecting and controlling the Port of Leith it guarded the supply lines and meant the Army could be provisioned. Its construction was ordered in 1653, overseen by Cromwell’s man on the ground, General Monck, and was reluctantly financed by the city of Edinburgh to the tune of £60,000 Scots (£5,000). According to Nicoll’s Diary, construction began on May 26th 1656. The occupiers brought with them a printing press to churn out official declarations and propaganda and so it’s no coincidence that the first newspaper in Scotland is said to have been printed on an English press within the Citadel; “The Mercurius Caledonius – Comprising The Affairs now in Agitation in Scotland With A Survey of Forraign Intelligence“. It only ran for 12 issues from Dec 1660 – Jan 1661 and is not to be confused with the later Caledonian Mercury. It printed reports from Parliament, “Forraign Intelligence” and other stories sourced from the London papers. Monck also encouraged other English merchants and industrialists to set up in the safety of The Citadel and they introduced the craft of glassmaking, something Leith would later become famous for.
Mercurius Caledonius, edition of the first week of 1661.As I may have said many times before, as far as I am aware there are no surviving contemporary illustrations or plans of The Citadel and the earliest map showing it accurately in plan was not made until 50 years later, after it was abandoned as a fortification and encroached upon by the sea. Before we look further at Skene’s illustration, it’s worth getting an idea of the layout of the fortress.
The Citadel followed the classic 5-pointed “Star Fort” layout, with projecting, arrowhead-shaped bastions at each point of the star. These were fortifications explicitly engineered for the age of artillery; the corner bastions formed raised firing platforms to mount your defensive cannons. Gone were the tall, stone walls of medieval castles, in were carefully sculpted and aligned ditches and earthen mounds to resist cannon fire. John Naish’s 1709 survey and plan of Leith is the best reference to get an accurate survey of some of the walls and internal buildings. Note we can only see three sides and corners of the five walls; even at this stage he calls it the “Ruins of the Cittadell”. It can be seen from where he delineates the “high water mark on a raging full sea” that where the remaining walls and bastions should be has been reclaimed by the North Sea. The ditch that surrounds it all could be filled to a depth of 6 feet, and it can be seen on Naish’s map that a small pond has formed to the east of the walls.
Excerpt from John Naish’s 1709 survey and plan of “Leith, Surveyed May 28th 1709”. Crown Copyright, MPHH 1/32We also have a first-hand description of it during construction from the travelling English naturalist John Ray:
…one of the best fortifications that we ever beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are three forts [bastions] advanced above the rest and two platforms; the works around about are faced with freestone towards the ditch and are almost as high as the highest buildings within, and withal thick and substantial. Below are very pleasant, convenient and well-built houses for the governor, officers, and soldiers and for magazines and stores. There is also a good capacious chapel, the piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity College, Cambridge, Great Court.
After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, The Citadel was abandoned as a military fortification. The contents of its chapel; its timber, seats, glass, masonry and even its steeple, were used in 1673 to refurbish that of Heriot’s Hospital. The City of Edinburgh were allowed to buy it back by King Charles II, so in effect they paid for it twice. Its walls were abandoned to the sea, or quarried out for building materials, and the modern buildings within them became something of a desirable place to live. John Skene’s delightful little sketch was made in 1818, a full 109 years after Naish’s map and 150 or more years after it was first built. But even in this time period, few other images of the subject matter were created and it remains a real rarity. So what does it show us of The Citadel, how does that relate to what we know of it and where was the artist positioned to sketch from. Let’s now find out, shall we?
Despite being a small watercolour, Skene has crammed a lot of interesting detail in there. The obvious thing is it shows a port (gateway). From this we can confirm that the gateway was surrounded with dressed masonry, the walls themselves were faced in stone and were likely filled with earth and rubble. It also gives us an idea of overall idea of the height of the walls and gateways as there are figures here for scale. If we suppose these are accurate, then the gateway might be 10-12 feet high and the walls 20-30 feet in total. The wall height of the contemporary Ayr Citadel is 25 feet, so this fits nicely.
The Citadel gateway, close-up.In the background of the image we can see limewashed buildings with pan-tiled roofs; standard, vernacular east coast Scottish style at this time. This building looks particularly tall, but if we work it out from the window spacing, it’s probably just 3 storeys plus an attic dormer. Skene often plays with the height of buildings and stretches them to make the scene look more dramatic. The chimneys are smoking, so these buildings are in use, most likely residential.
Pantile roofs and whitewashWe can also see that the blocks of buildings here don’t meet at right angles, given it was a five-sided fortification we would expect them to therefore be at about 72 degrees (give or take, as it was a slightly squished pentagon in plan). This distant range again looks to be 3 storeys with perhaps 2 in the attic dormer.
Pantile roofs and non-right anglesWe see can also see street lighting. From a previous thread on the topic we can be sure these are “train oil” (i.e. whale) lamps.
A lamp post.And a woman hangs out her washing to dry on the grassy slope that is all that remains of the former wall embankment.
Washing day.In the foreground, two men appear to be working stones. He in the red seems to have a regular block propped up and his partner in the blue looks like he’s trying to heave a slab off the ground. I wager they are reclaiming masonry from the collapsed walls; we know at both Leith and Ayr that this took place.
Working masonry.And just to the right of the two masons are two intriguing square posts. The Citadel was surrounded by a broad engineered ditch, which we can clearly see on Naish’s map, and it’s more than likely it would have had wooden trestle drawbridges across it. It’s nice to think that those posts may be part of that, they are after all aligned with the gateway.
Wooden posts in the waterIn the left midground we have yet more pantile roofed, whitewashed buildings. This range is two storeys and has curving, external stairs to the 1st floor. We know that there were at least two 2-storey blocks within the complex which would have been barracks quarters and stables and we can see evidence in maps of the late 18th and early 19th century that some of the buildings had external staircases.
Curving external stairs to the first floorAnd lastly, auld Leith wouldn’t be auld Leith without a forest of masts and rigging in the background. These are the ships of the port, crammed into the river basin beyond. There were no formal wet docks here at this time, everything tied up in the river mouth and alongside the quays of North and South Leith.
Masts and rigging of the Port of LeithSo to conclude an answer to the first question, we can see rather a lot. We can see that the fortifications were largely gone, but bits remained; we can see its buildings were actively occupied and in reasonably good repair at this time, and we get a good idea of the building style and some of its inner layout.
And on to the second part; where was Skene’s viewpoint from where he made his drawing? Well that’s easy of course because we know exactly where The Citadel’s port was as it’s still there! (Many people are amazed to find out that there’s a well preserved section of Cromwellian Fort wall hiding in plain sight at the end of a car park in Leith).
The surviving Citadel Port. The upper level of dressed masonry and the wall to the left are more modern © SelfAn 1804 Town Plan showing Leith by John Ainslie is roughly contemporary with Skene’s illustration. The gateway in the photograph above is marked S, and so Skene would have to have been outside (to the east or right of the S), looking inwards or west.
Ainslie’s 1804 Town plan of Edinburgh & Leith. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandExcept there’s actually three problems with this hasty conclusion.
- Firstly, in Skene’s image we are looking into The Citadel from outside and there is no way for there to be ships and masts in the left background as that is dry land well away from the shoreline. Skene is a reliable and accurate illustrator, it’s not likely he just made a big mistake.
- Secondly, there was no range of buildings in the north of the inner courtyard of The Citadel; the buildings on the right of Skene’s image should not be there.
- Thirdly, and crucially, the arch in Skene’s picture is a plain, rounded arch and clearly doesn’t match the segmental profile of the one in the photo above; it is also finished plainer, missing the tracery.
So how can we be looking at the arch from outside The Citadel bearing all of this in mind? The answer is quite simple actually, we can’t be. We are looking at a different arch! – Until the early 19th century, there was the remains of another port; the western or St. Nicholas Port. It is clearly marked T on the map below, set into W, which is the remains of old walls.
Aitchison’s Town Plan of 1795. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandSuddenly it all begins to fall into place. Skene is located on the shore, to the left of the above map, looking at the St. Nicholas Port. The stonemasons are working not on the shore but in the ditch outside the walls, and the washerwoman is hanging up her whites on the slope of that wall W. Beyond is the range of buildings marked X and on the map can see two small projections on those buildings, which I would suggest are the external stairways. Beyond X is the further range of buildings offset from them at an angle around 72 degrees. Skene is now looking directly towards the piers and quayside of the Port, shown on the map below, and so the masts and ships are now in the correct place.
Aitchison’s Town Plan of 1795. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandLastly, we can corroborate all pf this with a further map, that by William Bell dated 1813, which shows the layout of buildings and land ownership in The Citadel at that time, and confirms two Citadel Ports again; you can see one marked on the left below the word “Property” of “Mr. Campbell’s Property” and the other on the right, to the right of “Citidal Green“. Bell’s map shows that at this time the whole area was being encroached upon by the building of the wet docks.
Bell’s Plan of the Regality of Canongate etc., 1813. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandI’ve only ever seen one other illustration of the western port of the Citadel, which refers to it as “Oliver’s Mount” (i.e. Cromwell) on account of the mass of earth that had once formed the core of the wall rising above it. Confusingly it shows the passageway as bifurcating, which makes little defensive or engineering sense, and conflicts with Skene’s sketch. However, my understanding is at one time it may have been used as a cattle store and had been given a dividing wall internally. The artist of the below drawing may have been working off of a second-hand description and hence made it look like there were two separate passages, not one that had been divided.
“Oliver’s Mount” from Leith and its Antiquites by James Campbell Irons, 1898Another semi-contemporary image shows the “Cromwell House“, in which Cromwell most likely never stayed. It was probably built as a governor’s mansion and would have been a desirable property to take over after the fort was abandoned to residential use. The general style and scale of this building does not contradict Skene’s illustration. This building, also known as the “Governor’s House” was still standing in 1825 when it was advertised as for sale.
“Cromwell House” from the Story of Leith.A last piece of the puzzle and one which helps to tie everything nicely together can be found an etching by John Clerk of Eldin (who was a thoroughly good landscape draughtsman). It is something which is very easy to miss, but if we squint at “Leith from the West” we can see our gateway (highlighted blue) and the range of two-storey buildings with the curved, external staircases (red). The Leith Custom House is highlighted in yellow to help get our bearings. The full engraving is digitised in the National Galleries Scotland collection, you can zoom in on it and explore it at your leisure.
Excerpt of “Leith from the West” by John Clerk of Eldin. Move the slider to see the coloured highlightes. CC-BY-NC National Galleries Scotland.We can then take all of this evidence and add it on to Naish’s map to get a good idea of the layout and what the various features we can see on it actually were for.
Naish’s map, conceptual details of the Citadel filled in and annotated. Base map Crown Copyright, MPHH 1/32I know of know reconstruction plan or illustration of the Leith Citadel, but one does exist for another one of the Scottish Cromwellian citaels of this era, that of Ayr. This is similar in some respects to Leith as it was built on the shore of a port town, but was larger and had 6 instead of 5 corner bastions. The illustration below gives a reasonable impression of what Leith would have looked like though.
Ayr Citadel by Robert NelmesSurviving sections of the walls of Ayr also give us a good idea of what Leith might have looked like:
A bastion of Ayr Citadel. CC-by-SA 3.0 Rosser1954I find the Leith Citadel hugely enigmatic. It was a massive, dominant fortification that was totally unlike anything else in this part of the world. It was built at great expense and yet from a military point of view was abandoned within a few years of completion. It very briefly saw some military action in 1715 when Jacobites under Mackintosh of Borlum occupied it and had a standoff with government forces before retreating and briefly in 1780 some old cannons were mounted on its walls to counter the threat posed by John Paul Jones. I also find it remarkable that even though much of The Citadel survived so long and after its abandonment, so little was left by the way of record. We are lucky indeed to have the remaining gateway and a small section of wall, tucked away in a car park in North Leith.
The tantalising remaining fragment of the Citadel Wall. © SelfThe other great survivor of The Citadel is less obvious from the ground, but it you look at a map of streets in the area it is immediately obvious that there is a pentagonal arrangement, bounded by Cromwell Place, Couper Street, Coburg Street and Dock Street. This directly aligns with the orientation of the walls, ditches and internal structures as you can see on the below animated image transition of old maps of Leith on the modern streetscape and overlaid with a schematic of The Citadel.
Transition animation of the Citadel. NLS maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
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“Labor Is Life” (U.S. Postal Service’s Labor Day Stamp, 1956, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
Bakers, blacksmiths, boatmen, butchers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, cigarmakers, coal miners, factory workers, farmers, gardeners, gold miners, iron workers, masons, quarry workers, teamsters, tombstone carvers. These were just a few of the diverse job titles held by the laborers who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War.
Many returned to their same occupations after the war ended while others found new pathways for their life journeys. Far too many were never able to return to the arms of their loved ones and still rest in marked or unmarked graves far from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In honor of Labor Day, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story is proud to present this abridged list of blue-collar men and boys who served with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry between August 1861 and January 1866, as well as the names of two of the women associated with the regiment who made their own unforgettable marks on the world.
* Auchmuty, Samuel S. (First Lieutenant, Company D): A native of Duncannon, Perry County and veteran of the Mexican-American War who was employed as a carpenter during the early 1860s, Samuel Auchmuty responded to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War by enrolling as a first lieutenant with Company D of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 20, 1861; after completing his three-year term of enlistment, he was honorably discharged in September 1864 and returned home to Pennsylvania, where he resumed his work as a house carpenter and launched a successful contracting business that was responsible for building new business structures, churches, single-family homes, and schools, as well as renovating existing structures; he died in 1891, following a brief illness;
First Sergeant Christian S. Beard, circa 1863 (public domain).
* Beard, Christian Seiler (First Lieutenant, Company C): A twenty-seven-year-old, married carpenter residing in Williamsport, Lycoming County when President Abraham Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1865, Chistian S. Beard promptly enrolled for Civil War military service before that month was out as a private with Company D of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers; honorably discharged in July after completing his Three Months’ Service, he re-enlisted as a sergeant with Company C of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers on August 19; after rising up through the ranks to become a first lieutenant, he was honorably discharged on Christmas Day, 1865, and returned home to his wife in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, where he continued to work as a carpenter; after having several children with his wife, he was widowed by her; remarried in 1884, he relocated with his wife and children to Pittsburgh, where he continued to work as a carpenter; ailing with heart and kidney disease, he died there on November 16, 1911 and was interred at that city’s Highwood Cemetery;
* Burke, Thomas (Sergeant, Company I): A first-generation American, Thomas Burke was a twenty-year-old cabinetmaker residing in Allentown at the dawn of the American Civil War; after enrolling for military service on the day that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was founded (August 5, 1861), he was officially mustered in as a private; from that point on, he continued to work his way up the ranks, receiving a promotion to corporal on September 19, 1864 and then to sergeant on July 11, 1865; honorably mustered out with his company in Charleston, South Carolina on December 25, 1865, he returned home to Lehigh County, where he married and began a family; sometime in early to mid-1871, he and his family migrated west to Iowa, settling in Anamosa, Jones County, where he was employed as a carpenter and contractor; he died at his home there on October 22, 1910 and was buried at that town’s Riverside Cemetery;
* Colvin, John Dorrance (Second Lieutenant, Company C): A native of Abington Township, Lackawanna County who was a farmer when he enlisted for Civil War military service on September 12, 1861, John D. Colvin transferred to the U.S. Army Signal Corps on October 13, 1863, and continued to serve with the Signal Corps for the duration of the war; employed as an engineer, post-war, he helped the Pacific Railroad to extend its service from Atchison, Kansas to Fort Kearney in Nebraska before returning home to Pennsylvania, where he married, began a family and resided with them in Olyphant and Carbondale before relocating with them to Parsons in Luzerne County, where he became a prominent civic leader and member of the school board; initially employed as a machinist, he went on to become superintendent of the Delaware & Hudson Coal company before taking a similar job with the Lehigh Valley Coal Company; the U.S. Postal Service’s postmaster of Parsons during the early 1890s, he died there on March 15, 1901 and was buried at the Hollenback Cemetery in Wilkes-Barre;
* Crownover, James (Sergeant, Company D): A twenty-three-year-old teamster residing in Blain, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861, James Crownover rose up through the ranks of the 47th Pennsylvania from private to reach the rank of sergeant; wounded in the right shoulder and captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864, he was marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River, where he was held as a prisoner of war (POW) until he was released during a prisoner exchange on November 25, 1864; during captivity, he was commissioned, but not mustered as a second lieutenant; given medical treatment before he was returned to active duty, he was honorably discharged with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on December 25, 1865; after returning home, he found work at a tannery near Blain, married, began a family and then relocated with them to East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, where he worked as a teamster; relocating with them to Braddock in Allegheny County after the turn of the century, he worked at a local mill there; he died in Allegheny County on July 18, 1903 and was buried at the Monongahela Cemetery in Braddock Hills;
Jacob Daub, circa 1862-1865 (carte de visite, Cooley & Beckett Photographers, Savannah, Georgia and Beaufort and Hilton Head, South Carolina, public domain).
* Daub, Jacob and William J. (Drummer Boy, Company A): A German immigrant as a child, Jacob Daub emigrated with his parents and younger brother, William, circa 1852; after settling in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where his father found work as a stone mason, Jacob grew up to become a cigarmaker, and also became the first of the two brothers to enlist in the American Civil War; after enrolling at the age of sixteen, he was classified as a field musician and assigned to Company A as its drummer boy; his nineteen-year-old brother, William, a carpenter by 1865, followed him into the war when he enlisted as a private with the same company in February of that year; after the war ended, both returned home to Northampton County, where they married, had children and went on to live long, full lives; William eventually died at the age of eighty in 1928, followed by Jacob, who passed away in 1936, roughly two months before his ninety-first birthday;
* Detweiler, Charles C. (Private, Company A): Berks County native Charles Detweiler enrolled for Civil War military service on September 16, 1862; a carpenter who later became a farmer, he served with Company A until he was severely injured in the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864, when he sustained a musket ball wound to the middle of his thigh; treated at a Union Army hospital in Virginia before being transported to the Union’s Mower General Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he learned that the musket ball had damaged his femur and femoral arteries; following his wound-related death at Mower on March 12, 1865, he was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Kutztown, Berks County;
* Diaz, John (Private, Company I): An immigrant from Spain’s Canary Islands, John Diaz emigrated sometime between 1862 and 1865 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he found work as a cigarmaker; on January 25, 1865, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted with the Union Army at a recruiting depot in Norristown, Montgomery County and served as a private with Company I of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry until it was mustered out on Christmas Day, 1865; following his return to Pennsylvania, he resumed work as a cigarmaker in Philadelphia, eventually launching his own cigarmaking firm, which became a family business as his sons became old enough to work for him; sometime between 1906 and 1910, he relocated with his wife and several of his children to Camden County, New Jersey, where he died on September 5, 1915;
James Downs (circa 1880s, public domain).
* Downs, James (Corporal, Company D): A twenty-three-year-old tanner residing in Blain, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861, James Downs was captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864 and marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River; held there as a prisoner of war (POW) until he was released during a prisoner exchange on July 22, 1864, he received medical treatment and was subsequently returned to active duty; following his honorable discharge with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 25, 1865, he returned home, married, began a family and relocated with his family to Phillipsburg, New Jersey; suffering from heart and kidney disease, and possibly also from post-traumatic stress disorder, rather than “insane” as physicians at the Pennsylvania Memorial Home in Brookville, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania had diagnosed him, he fell from a window at that home and died at there on September 16, 1921; he was subsequently interred in the Veterans’ Circle of the Brookville Cemetery;
* Eagle, Augustus (Second Lieutenant, Company F): A German immigrant as a teenager, Augustus Eagle arrived in America on June 23, 1855, two years after his brother, Frederick Eagle, had emigrated and made a life for himself in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; both men married and began families there, with Fred employed as a laborer and Gus employed by the Crane Iron Works; when President Abraham Lincoln issued his call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War, both men enrolled for military service on August 21, 1861 as privates with Company F of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; in 1862, Fred fell ill and was honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability, but Gus continued to serve, rising up through the regiment’s enlisted and officers’ ranks; commissioned as a second lieutenant, he was honorably discharged on September 11, 1864, upon completion of his three-year term of service; post-war, Fred became a successful baker with real estate and personal property valued at $4,200 (roughly $155,750 in 2023 dollars) and died in Catasauqua in 1885, while Gus owned a successful restaurant in Whitehall Township before operating the Fairview Hotel, which became a popular spot for political gatherings; after suffering a series of strokes in 1902, Gus died at his home on August 17 and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua;
* Eisenbraun, Alfred (Drummer Boy, Company B): A tobacco stripper and first-generation American from Allentown, Lehigh County, fifteen-year-old Alfred Eisenbraun became the second “man” from the 47th Pennsylvania to die when he succumbed to complications from typhoid fever at the Kalorama Eruptive Fever Hospital in Georgetown, District of Columbia on October 26, 1861; he still rests at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home Cemetery in Washington, D.C.;
* Fink, Aaron (Corporal, Company B): A shoemaker and native of Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Aaron Fink, grew up, began a family and established a successful small shoemaking business, first in Allentown and then in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) in Carbon County; on August 20, 1861, he chose to respond to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to help bring the American Civil War to a quick end when he enrolled for military service; shot in the right leg during the fighting at the Frampton Plantation during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862, he was treated at the Union Army’s hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina, but died there from wound-related complications on November 5, 1862; initially buried near that hospital, his remains were later exhumed by Allentown undertaker Paul Balliet and returned to Pennsylvania for reinterment at that city’s Union-West End Cemetery;
* Fornwald, Reily M. (Corporal, Company G): Born in Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Reily Fornwald was raised there on his family’s farm near Stouchsberg; educated in his community’s common schools and then at Millersville State Normal School, he became a railroad worker before returning to farm life shortly before the dawn of the American Civil War; after enlisting for military service at the age of twenty on September 11, 1862, he was wounded in the head and groin by an exploding artillery shell during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862; stabilized on the battlefield before being transported to a field hospital for more advanced medical care, he spent four weeks recuperating before returning to active duty with his regiment; promoted to the rank of corporal on January 19, 1863, he continued to serve with his regiment until he was honorably discharged at Berryville, Virginia on September 18, 1864, upon expiration of his term of enlistment; after returning home, he spent four years operating a blast furnace for White & Ferguson in Robesonia, Berks County; he also married and began a family; sometime around 1870, he left that job to become an engine operator for Wright, Cook & Co. in Sheridan and then moved to a job as an engine operator for William M. Kauffman—a position he held for roughly a decade before securing employment as a shifting engineer with the Reading Railway Company at its yards in Reading; following his retirement in 1905, he and his wife settled in Robesonia, where he became involved in buying and selling real estate; following a severe fall in May 1925, during which he fractured a thigh bone, he died at the Homeopathic Hospital in Reading on June 1 and was buried at Robesonia’s Heidelberg Cemetery;
Captain Reuben Shatto Gardner, Company H, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1863 (public domain).
* Gardner, Reuben Shatto, John A. and Jacob S. R.: Natives of Perry County, Reuben Shatto Gardner and his brothers, John A. Gardner and Jacob S. R. Gardner, began their work lives as laborers; among the earliest responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861, Reuben was a twenty-five-year-old miller who resided in Newport, Perry County; after enlisting as a private with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteers on April 20, he was honorably mustered out after completing his term of service; he then re-upped for a three-year tour of duty, mustering in as a first sergeant with Company H of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; also enrolling with him that same day were his twenty-three-year-old and twenty-one-year-old brothers, John A. Gardner and Jacob S. R. Gardner; John officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on September 18 (the day before Reuben arrived), while Jacob officially mustered in on September 19; both joined their brother’s company, entering at their respective ranks of corporal and private, but Jacob’s tenure was a short one; sickened by typhoid fever in late December 1861, he died at the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental hospital at Camp Griffin, near Langley, Virginia on January 8, 1862; his remains were later returned to Perry County for burial at the Old Newport Cemetery; soldiering on, Reuben and John were transported with their regiment by ship to Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida and subsequently sent to South Carolina with their regiment and other Union troops; shot in the head and thigh during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862, Reuben was treated at the Union Army’s hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina for an extended period of time, and then returned to active duty with his regiment; meanwhile, John was assigned with H Company and the men from Companies D, F and K to garrison Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas; both brothers then continued to work their way up the regiment’s ranks, with John promoted to corporal on September 18, 1864 and Reuben ultimately commissioned as a captain and given command of Company H on February 16, 1865; both then returned home after honorably mustering out with the regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865; sometime around 1866 or 1867, Reuben and his wife migrated west, first to Elk River Station in Sherburne County, Minnesota and then to Stillwater, Washington County, before settling in the city of Minneapolis; through it all, he worked as a miller; Reuben and his family then relocated farther west, arriving in King County, Washington after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889; initially employed in the restaurant industry, Reuben later found work as a railroad conductor before prospecting for gold with son Edward in the western United States and British Columbia, Canada during the 1890s Gold Rush; employed as a U.S. Post Office clerk in charge of the money order and registry departments in Seattle from 1898 to 1902, Reuben died in Seattle at the age of sixty-eight on September 25, 1903 and was interred at that city’s Lakeview Cemetery; meanwhile, his brother John, who had resumed work as a fireman with the Pennsylvania Railroad after returning from the war, was widowed by his wife in 1872; after remarrying and welcoming the births of more children, he was severely injured on October 9, 1873 while working as a fireman on the Pacific Express for the Pennsylvania Railroad; unable to continue working as a fireman due to his amputated hand, he worked briefly as a railroad call messenger before launching his own transfer business in Harrisburg; after he was widowed by his ailing second wife, John was severely injured in a second accident in 1894 while loading his delivery wagon; still operating his business after the turn of the century, he remarried on January 3, 1900, but was widowed by his third wife when she died during a surgical procedure in 1911; he subsequently closed his business and relocated to the home of his daughter in the city of Reading, Berks County; four years later, he fell on an icy sidewalk and became bedfast; aged eighty and ailing from arteriosclerosis and lung congestion, he died at her home on February 20, 1918 and was buried at Reading’s Charles Evans Cemetery;
* Gethers, Bristor (Under-Cook, Company F): Born into slavery in South Carolina circa 1829, Bristor Gethers was married “by slave custom at Georgetown, S.C.” on the Pringle plantation in Georgetown sometime around 1847 to “Rachael Richardson” (alternate spelling “Rachel”); a field hand at the dawn of the Civil War, he was freed from chattel enslavement in 1862 by Union Army troops; he then enlisted as an “Under-Cook” with Company F of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in Beaufort, South Carolina on October 5, 1862, and traveled with the regiment until October 4, 1865, when he was honorably discharged in Charleston, South Carolina upon completion of his three-year term of enlistment; at that point, he returned to Beaufort and resumed life with his wife and their son, Peter; a farmer, Bristor was ultimately disabled by ailments that were directly attributable to his Union Army tenure; awarded a U.S. Civil War Soldiers’ Pension, he lived out his days with his wife on Horse Island, South Carolina, and died on Horse Island, South Carolina on June 24 or 25, 1894; he was then laid to rest at a graveyard on Parris Island on June 26 of that same year;
* Gilbert, Edwin (Captain, Company F): A native of Northampton County and a carpenter residing in Catasauqua, Lehigh County at the dawn of the American Civil War, Edwin Gilbert enrolled as a corporal on August 21, 1861; after rising up through his regiment’s officer ranks, he was ultimately commissioned as a captain and placed in charge of his company on New Year’s Day, 1865, and then mustered out with his company in Charleston, South Carolina of Christmas of that same year; resuming his life with his wife and children in Lehigh County after the war, he continued to work as a carpenter; after suffering a stroke in late December 1893, he died on January 2, 1894 and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua;
Mrs. Caroline Bost and Martin L. Guth celebrated the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with fellow Grand Army of the Republic and ladies auxiliary members in February 1933 (public domain).
* Guth, Martin Luther (Corporal, Company K): A native of Lehigh County and son of a farmer, Martin L. Guth was a seventeen-year-old laborer and resident of Guthsville in Whitehall Township at the dawn of the American Civil War; after enrolling for military service on September 26, 1862, he was officially mustered in as a corporal; he continued to serve with his regiment until he was honorably mustered out on October 1, 1865, upon expiration of his term of service; at some point during that service, he broke his leg—an injury that did not heal properly and plagued him for the remainer of his life; after returning home to the Lehigh Valley, he found work again as a laborer; married in 1883, he became the father of four children, one of whom was born in New Mexico and another who was born in California; he had moved his family west in search of work in the mining industry; documented as a “prospector” or “miner” records created in Nevada during that period, he was also documented on voter registration rolls of Butte City in Glenn County, California in August 1892; by 1900, he was living separately from his wife, who was residing in Bandon, Coos County, Oregon with their two children while he was residing at the Veterans’ Home of California in Yount Township, Napa County, California; subsequently admitted to the Mountain Branch of the network of U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Johnson City, Tennessee on February 11, 1912, his disabilities included an old compound fracture of his right leg with chronic ulceration, defective vision (right eye), chronic bronchitis, and arteriosclerosis; discharged on December 12, 1920, he was admitted to the U.S. National Soldiers’ Home in Leavenworth, Kansas on July 30, 1912, but discharged on September 29, 1913; by 1920, he was living alone on Fruitvale Avenue in the city of Oakland, California, but was remaining active with his local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic as he rose through the leadership ranks of chapter, state and national G.A.R. organizations; after a long, adventure-filled life, he died on October 11, 1935, at the age of ninety-one, at the veterans’ home in San Francisco and was interred at the San Francisco National Cemetery (also known as the Presidio Cemetery);
Lieutenant Charles A. Hackman, Company G, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1864 (public domain).
* Hackman, Charles Abraham and Martin Henry (First Lieutenant and Sergeant, Company G): Natives of Rittersville, Lehigh County, Charles and Martin Hackman began their work lives as apprentices, with Charles employed by a carpenter and Martin employed by master coachmaker Jacob Graffin; members of the local militia unit known as the Allen Rifles, they were among the earliest responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861; both enlisted as privates with Company I of the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers on April 20 and were honorably mustered out in July after completing their service; Charles then re-upped for a three-year tour of duty, mustering in as a sergeant with Company G of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; he then spent most of his early service in Virginia; meanwhile, his younger brother, Martin H. Hackman, who was employed as a coach trimmer in Lehigh County, re-enlisted for his own second tour of duty, as a private with Charles’ company, on January 8, 1862; working their way up the ranks, Charles was commissioned as a first lieutenant on June 18, 1863, while Martin was promoted to sergeant on April 26, 1864; Charles was then breveted as a captain on November 30, 1864 after having mustered out on November 5; Martin was then honorably discharged on January 8, 1865; initially employed, post-war, with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad’s train car facility in Reading, Berks County, Charles was promoted to car inspector at the company’s Philadelphia facility in December 1866; he subsequently married, but had no children and was widowed in 1904; remarried, he remained in Philadelphia until the early 1900s, when he relocated to Allentown; Martin, who worked as a bricklayer in Allentown, did have children after marrying, but he, too, was widowed; also remarried, he became a manager at a rolling mill; ailing with pneumonia in early 1917, Charles was eighty-six years old when he died in Allentown on January 17; he was buried at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery, while his brother Martin was buried at the Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem, following his death in Bethlehem from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 14, 1921;
* Junker, George (Captain, Company K): A German immigrant as a young adult, George Junker emigrated sometime around the early 1850s and settled in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where he found employment as a marble worker and tombstone carver, and where he also joined the Allen Infantry, one of his adopted hometown’s three militia units; responding to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War, George enlisted with his fellow Allen Infantrymen, honorably completed his Three Months’ Service, and promptly began his own recruitment of men for an “all-German company” for the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; commissioned as a captain with the 47th Pennsylvania, he was placed in charge of his men who became known as Company K; mortally wounded by a Confederate rifle shot during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862, he died from his wounds the next day at the Union Army’s division hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina; his remains were returned to his family in Hazleton, Luzerne County for reburial at the Vine Street Cemetery;
* Kern, Samuel (Private, Company D): A native of Perry County who was employed as a farmer in Bloomfield, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861, Samuel Kern was wounded and captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864; marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River, he was held there as a prisoner of war (POW) until he died from harsh treatment on June 12, 1864; buried somewhere on the grounds of that prison camp, his grave remains unidentified;
* Kosier, George (Captain, Company D): A native of Perry County and twenty-four-year-old carpenter residing in that county’s community of New Bloomfield at the dawn of the American Civil War, George Kosier became one of the earliest men from his county to respond to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort-Sumter in mid-April 1861, when he enrolled for military service on April 20 as a corporal with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteers; honorably discharged in July after completing his Three Months’ Service, he re-enlisted as a first sergeant with Company D of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; joining him were his younger brothers, Jesse and William S. Kosier, aged nineteen and twenty-three, who were enrolled as privates with the same company; all three subsequently re-enlisted with their company at Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida in 1863; sadly, Jesse fell ill with pleurisy and died at the Union Army’s Field Hospital in Sandy Hook, Maryland on August 1864; initially buried at a cemetery in Weverton, Maryland, his remains were later exhumed and reinterred at the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Maryland; both George and William continued to serve with the regiment, with George continuing his rise up the ranks; commissioned as a captain, he was given command of Company D in early June 1865; both brothers were then honorably discharged with their regiment on Christmas Day, 1865; post-war, both men married and began families; William died in Pennsylvania sometime around 1879, but George went on to live a long full life; after settling in Ogle County, Illinois, where he was employed as a carpenter, he relocated with his family to Wright County, Iowa, where he built bridges; he died in Chicago on December 3, 1920 and was buried at that city’s Rosehill Cemetery;
Anna (Weiser) Leisenring (1851-1942) , circa 1914 (public domain).
* Leisenring, Annie (Weiser): The wife of Thomas B. Leisenring (Captain, Company G), Annie Leisenring was employed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a factory inspector after the American Civil War; she became well known through newspaper accounts of her inspection visits and also became widely respected for her efforts to improve child labor laws statewide;
* Lowrey, Thomas (Corporal, Company E): An Irish immigrant as a young adult, Thomas Lowrey emigrated sometime around the late 1840s or early 1850s and settled in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where he found work as a miner, married and began a family; responding to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War, Thomas enlisted with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania on September 16, 1861; after completing his three-year term of enlistment, he was honorably discharged in September 1864 and returned home to Pennsylvania, where he resumed work as a coal miner near Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, and where he resided with his wife and children; after witnessing the dawn of a new century, he died in Shenandoah on January 11, 1906;
This image of Julia (Kuenher) Minnich, circa 1860s, is being presented here through the generosity of Chris Sapp and his family, and is being used with Mr. Sapp’s permission. This image may not be reproduced, repurposed, or shared with other websites without the permission of Chris Sapp.
* Magill, Julia Ann (Kuehner Minnich): Widowed and the mother of a young son at the time that her husband, B Company’s Captain Edwin G. Minnich, was killed in battle during the American Civil War, Julia Ann (Kuehner) Minnich became a Union Army nurse at Harewood Hospital in Washington, D.C. during the war in order to keep a roof over her son’s head; she then spent the remainder of her life battling the U.S. Pension Bureau to receive and keep both the U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension and U.S. Civil War Nurse’s Pension that she was entitled to under federal law; forced to go on working into her later years by poverty, she finally found work as a cook at a hotel in South Bethlehem; she died sometime after 1906;
* Menner, Edward W. (Second Lieutenant, Company E): A first-generation American who was a native of Easton, Northampton County, Edward Menner was a sixteen-year-old carpenter when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 25, 1861; working his way up from private to second lieutenant before he was honorably discharged with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865, he was wounded in the left shoulder during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on October 19, 1864; after returning home to the Lehigh Valley, he secured employment as a hooker with the Bethlehem Iron Company (later known as Bethlehem Steel) on March 15, 1866; he married, begam a family and continued to work in the iron industry for much of his life; he died in Bethlehem on April 25, 1913 and was buried at that city’s Nisky Hill Cemetery;
* Miller, John Garber (Sergeant, Company D): A native of Ironville, Blair County, John G. Miller was a twenty-one-year-old laborer living in Duncannon, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861; captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864 and marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River, he was held there as a prisoner of war (POW) until he was released during a prisoner exchange on July 22, 1864; returned to active duty with his regiment after receiving medical treatment, he continued to serve until he was honorably discharged with the regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on December 25, 1865; after returning home, he married, began a family and relocated with his family to Philipsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a teamster; returning to Blair County with his family, he resided with them in Logan Township before relocating with them again to Coalport, Clearfield County; suffering from heart disease, he died in Coalport on February 16, 1921 and was interred at the Coalport Cemetery;
Captain Theodore Mink, Company I, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (circa 1870s-1880s, courtesy of Julian Burley; used with permission).
* Mink, Theodore (Captain, Company I): A native of Allentown, Lehigh County who was apprenticed as a coachmaker and then tried his hand as a whaler and blacksmith prior to the American Civil War, Thedore Mink became one of the “First Defenders” who responded to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to defend the nation’s capital after the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861; after honorably completing his Three Months’ Service in July, he re-enlisted on August 5 as a sergeant with Company I of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; after steadily working his way up through the ranks, he was commissioned as a captain and placed in charge of his company on May 22, 1865; he continued to serve with his regiment until it was mustered out on Christmas Day, 1865; following his return to Pennsylvania, he was hired as a laborer with a circus troupe operated by Mike Lipman before finding longtime employment in advertising and then as head of the circus wardrobe for the Forepaugh Circus before he was promoted to management with the circus; felled by pneumonia during late 1889, he died in Philadelphia on January 7, 1890 and was interred in Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery;
* Newman, Edward (Private, Company H): A German immigrant who left his homeland sometime around 1920, Edward Newman chose to settle in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where he found work as a baker; after enlisting for Civil War military service in August 1862, he mustered in as a private with Company I of the 127th Pennsylvania Volunteers and fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg from December 11-15 of that year; honorably mustered out with his regiment in May 1863, he re-enlisted on October 23, 1863 for a second tour of duty—but as a private with a different regiment—Company H of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers; he continued to serve with the 47th Pennsylvania until he was officially mustered out in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865, he returned to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where he worked briefly as a baker; suffering from rheumatism that developed while the 47th Pennsylvania was stationed near Cedar Creek, Virginia during the fall of 1864, he was admitted to the network of U.S. Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at the Central Branch in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio on July 17, 1877; still unmarried and still living there in 1880, his health continued to decline; diagnosed with acute enteritis, he died there on January 22, 1886 and was buried at the Dayton National Cemetery;
Captain Daniel Oyster, Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1864 (public domain).
* Oyster, Daniel (Captain, Company C): A native of Sunbury, Northumberland County who was employed as a machinist, Daniel Oyster became one of the earliest men from his county to respond to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort-Sumter in mid-April 1861, when he enrolled for Civil War military service on April 23 as a corporal with Company F of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers; honorably discharged in July after completing his Three Months’ Service, he re-enlisted as a first sergeant with Company C of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers on August 19; his brother, John Oyster, subsequently followed him into the service, enrolling as a private with his company on November 20, 1863; after rising up through the ranks to become captain of his company, Daniel was shot in his left shoulder near Berryville, Virginia on September 5, 1864 and then shot in his right shoulder during the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19; successfully treated by Union Army surgeons for both wounds, he was awarded a veteran’s furlough in order to continue his recuperation and returned home to Sunbury; he then returned to duty and was honorably discharged with his company on Christmas Day, 1865; post-discharge, he and his brother, John, returned home to Sunbury; Daniel continued to reside with their aging mother and was initially employed as a policeman, but was then forced by a war-related decline in his health to take less-taxing work as a railroad postal agent; his brother John, who was married, lived nearby and worked as a fireman, but died in Sunbury on April 20, 1899; employed as a bookkeeper after the turn of the century, Daniel never married and was ultimately admitted to the Southern Branch of the U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Hampton, Virginia, where he died on August 5, 1922—exactly sixty-one years to the day after the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was founded; he was given a funeral with full military honors before being laid to rest in the officers’ section at the Arlington National Cemetery on August 11;
* Sauerwein, Thomas Franklin (First Sergeant, Company B): The son of a lock tender in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Thomas Sauerwein was employed as a carpenter at the dawn of the American Civil War; following his enrollment for military service in Allentown, Lehigh County on August 20, 1861, he was officially mustered in as a private with Company B of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; from that point on, he steadily worked his way up the ranks of the regiment, ultimately being promoted to first sergeant on New Year’s Day, 1865; following his honorable discharge with his company on Christmas Day of that same year, he returned home to the Lehigh Valley, where he found work as a carpenter, married and began a family; by 1880, he had moved his family west to Williamsport in Lycoming County, where he had found work as a machinist; employed as a leather roller with a tanning factory, he was promoted to a position as a leather finisher after the turn of the century, while his two sons worked as leather rollers in the same industry; he died in Williamsport on July 29, 1912 and was buried at the East Wildwood Cemetery in Loyalsock;
* Slayer, Joseph (Private, Company E; also known as “Dead Eye Dick” and “E. J. McMeeser”): A native of Philadelphia, Joseph Slayer was a nineteen-year-old miner residing in Willliams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania at the dawn of the American Civil War; after enrolling for military service in Easton, Northampton County on September 9, 1861, he was officially mustered in as a private with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers; he continued to serve with his company, re-enlisting as a private with Company E, under the name of Joseph Slayer, at Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas on January 4, 1864; honorably mustered out with his company in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865, he relocated to Zanesville, Ohio sometime after the war, where he joined the Grand Army of the Republic’s Hazlett Post No. 81; he may then have relocated briefly to St. Paul, Minnesota sometime around the 1870s or early 1880s, or may simply have had a child and grandchild living there, because newspaper reports of his death noted that he had been carrying a photograph of a toddler named Robert—a photo that had “To Grandpa” inscribed on it and indicated that the grandchild, Robert, was a resident of St. Paul in 1892; by the 1880s, Joseph had made it as far west as the Dakota Territory—but this was where his life’s journey took a strange twist; discarding the name he had used in the army (“Joseph Slayer”), he changed his name several times over the next several years, as if he were trying to shed his prior life and all of its associations; acquaintances he met in the southern part of the Dakota Territory during the early to mid-1880s knew him as “Dead Eye Dick” while others who met him after he had resettled in Bismarck, in the northern part of the Dakota Territory, knew him as “Eugene McMeeser” or “E. J. McMeeser” (alternate spelling: “McNeeser”); by the time that the federal government conducted its special census of Civil War veterans in June 1890, Joseph was so comfortable fusing parts of his old and new lives together that he was convincingly documented by an enumerator as “Eugene McMeeser,” a veteran who had served as a private with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry from September 9, 1861 until January 11, 1866; in 1890, Joseph became a married man; documented as having rheumatism so severe that he was “at times confined at home,” he filed for a U.S. Civil War Pension from North Dakota on March 28, 1891—but he did so as “Joseph Slayer”—the name under which he had first enrolled for military service in Pennsylvania in 1861; ultimately awarded a pension—which would not have happened if federal officials had not been able to verify his identity and match it to his existing military service records, he was diagnosed with angina pectoris in 1904, but still managed to secure a U.S. patent for one of his inventions—a napkin holder; he died in Bismarck less than a month later, on January 12 or 13, 1905; found on the floor of his rented room, his death sparked a coroner’s inquest which revealed that he had been living under an assumed name; he was buried at Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Bismarck; the name “Joseph Slayer” was carved onto his military headstone;
* Snyder, Timothy (Corporal, Company C): A carpenter who was born in Rebuck, Northumberland County, Tim Snyder was employed as a carpenter and residing in the city of Sunbury in that county by the dawn of the American Civil War; after enlisting for military service as a private in August 1861, he was wounded twice in combat, once during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (1862) and a second time, in the knee, during the Battle of Opequan, Virginia (1864), shortly after he had been promoted to the rank of corporal; he survived and returned to Pennsylvania, where he resumed work as a carpenter; after relocating to Schuylkill County, he settled in the community of Ashland; in 1870, he married Catharine Boyer and started a family with her; he continued to work as a carpenter in Schuylkill County until his untimely death in May 1889 and was laid to rest with military honors at the Brock Cemetery in Ashland; John Hartranft Snyder, his first son to survive infancy, grew up to become a co-founder of the Lavelle Telegraph and Telephone Company, while his second son to survive infancy, Timothy Grant Snyder, became a corporal in the United States Marine Corps during the Spanish-American War; stationed on the USS Buffalo as it visited Port Said, Egypt, he also served aboard Admiral George Dewey’s flagship, the USS Olympia, in 1899;
Drummer Boy William Williamson, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company A, circa 1863 (public domain).
* Williamson, William (Drummer, Company A): A farmer from Stockertown, Northampton County, William Williamson was documented by a mid-nineteenth-century federal census enumerator as an unmarried laborer who lived at the Easton home of Northampton County physician John Sandt, M.D.—an indication that William’s parents may have either died or were struggling so much financially during the 1850s and early 1860s that they had encouraged him to “leave the nest” and begin supporting himself, or had hired him out as an apprentice or indentured servant; like so many other young men from Northampton County, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his call for help to protect the nation’s capital from a likely invasion by Confederate States Army troops, he stepped forward, raised his hand, and stated the following:
I, William Williamson appointed a private in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for the government of the Armies of the United States.
Later in life, William Williamson became a champion for an older woman who had been struggling to convince officials of the federal government that she was worthy enough to be awarded a U.S. Civil War Mother’s Pension, after her son had died in service to the nation as a Union Army soldier.
Post-war, William Williamson found work at a slate quarry, married, began a family in Belfast, Northampton County, and lived to witness the dawn of a new century. Following his death at the age of sixty in Plainfield Township on June 17, 1901, he was laid to rest at the Belfast Union Cemetery.
Sources:
- “A Badge from Admiral Dewey and Schuylkill County” (announcements of Timothy Grant Snyder’s service on Admiral Dewey’s flagship). Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle: October 3, 1899 and November 21, 1899.
- Baptismal, census, marriage, military, death, and burial records of the Snyder family. Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, etc.: Snyder Family Archives, 1650-present; and in Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (baptismal, marriage, death and burial records of various churches across Pennsylvania). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1776-1918.
- Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
- James Crownover, James Downs and Samuel Kern, et. al., in Camp Ford Prison Records. Tyler, Texas: The Smith County Historical Society, 1864.
- Civil War Muster Rolls, 1861-1866 (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
- Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
- Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, U.S. Army; Admissions Ledgers, U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; federal burial ledgers, and national cemetery interment control forms, 1861-1935. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 94), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
- Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
- U.S. Census Records, 1830-1930. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
- U.S. Civil War Pension Records, 1862-1935. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
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States with the most “City” communities
Source: garden-city.orgListed below are the states with the most communities that include “city” in their name. This includes cities, towns, villages, hamlets, municipalities, unincorporated places, and census designated places. It does not include ghost towns, townships nor equivalent “towns” in Wisconsin, New York and elsewhere.
When one thinks about it, the popularity of Garden City makes sense given humans love living in scenic and/or bucolic locations. What name epitomizes those feelings better? Also among the top ten “city” names are Lake City and Forest City. Peace!
Source: townofgardencity.com——-
Leading states:
- Texas = 54
- Illinois = 51
- Missouri = 40
- Florida and Michigan = 38 each
- Iowa = 34
- California = 29
- Indiana = 27
- Kansas and Oklahoma = 26 each
Most common “city” names or variations:
- Garden City = 16
- Lake City = 12
- Junction City = 11
- Union City = 10
- Forest City = 8
- Central City, Oil City, Silver City, White(s) = 7 each
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ALABAMA = 11
Alexander City, Dodge City, Frisco City, Garden City, Hobson City, Midland City, Morgan City, Pell City, Phenix City, Rainbow City, and Sardis City
ALASKA = 0
ARIZONA = 13
Arizona City, Black Canyon City, Bullhead City, Central Heights-Midland City, Circle City, Colorado City, Huachuca City, Joseph City, Lake Havasu City, Rainbow City, Sun City, Sun City West, and Tuba City
ARKANSAS = 11
Arkansas City, Bluff City, Buffalo City, Cave City, Central City, Cherokee City, Diamond City, Forrest City, Junction City, Lake City, and Star City
CALIFORNIA = 29
Amador City, Big Bear City, Brandy City, Butte City, California City, Cathedral City, Cave City, City of Industry, Crescent City, Culver City, Daly City, Foster City, Holy City, King City, Lake City, Marin City, Montgomery City, National City, Nevada City, Oil City, Queen City, Redwood City, Sand City, South Yuba City, Spicer City, Suisun City, Temple City, Union City, and Yuba City
COLORADO = 10
Adams City, Canon City, Central City, Colorado City, Commerce City, Garden City, Lake City, Ohio City, Orchard City, and Sugar City
CONNECTICUT = 1
Jewett City
DELAWARE = 0
FLORIDA = 38
Amelia City, Angel City, Cooper City, Crescent City, Cross City, Dade City, Dade City North, Dickerson City, Everglades City, Floral City, Florida City, Forest City, Greenacres City, Grove City, Haines City, Highland City, Highlands City, Intercession City, Jacob City, Kenneth City, Lake City, Leisure City, Little Lake City, Miles City, Myakka City, Ocean City, Orange City, Palm City, Palm River-Clair-Mel City, Panama City, Panama City Beach, Plant City, Polk City, St. James City, Sun City, Sun City Center, and White City (2)
GEORGIA = 15
Garden City, Iron City, Junction City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mountain City, Peachtree City, Pebble City, Pecan City, Ray City, Sale City, Silver City, Tate City, Twin City, and Union City
HAWAII = 2
Lanai City and Pearl City
IDAHO = 6
Butte City, Elk City, Garden City, Idaho City, Malad City, and Sugar City
ILLINOIS = 51
Bay City, Bayle City, Beecher City, Bluff City (2), Calumet City, Central City, Clay City, Coal City, Crescent City, Dallas City, Dalton City, Fairmont City, Farmer City, Forest City, Future City, Gibson City, Granite City, Grove City, Hanna City, Hervey City, Hunt City, Illinois City, Johnston City, Junction City, Lake City, Mason City, Midland City, Miller City, Monroe City, Mound City, New City, Norris City, North City, Park City, Pearl City, Piper City, Prairie City, Rapids City, Rend City, Rock City, Schram City, Shale City, Shanghai City, Standard City, Star City, Steel City, Texas City, West City, White City, and Yates City
INDIANA = 27
Burns City, Cambridge City, Clay City (2), Coal City, Columbia City, Fountain City, Garden City, Gas City, Grant City, Harris City, Hartford City, Lincoln City, Michigan City, Mineral City, Monroe City, Oakland City, Parker City, Prairie City, Rome City, Saline City, Star City, State Line City, Switz City, Tell City, Union City, and Valley City
IOWA = 34
Albert City, Barnes City, Cedar City, Central City, Charles City, Columbus City, Dakota City, Davis City, Decatur City, Dow City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilmore City, Grant City, Iowa City, La Porte City, Lake City, Maharishi Vedic City, Mason City, May City, Orange City, Polk City, Prairie City, Promise City, Rockwell City, Sac City, Shannon City, Silver City, Sioux City, Stone City, Story City, Swea City, Walnut City, and Webster City
KANSAS = 26
Arkansas City, Baldwin City, Bird City, Bluff City, Bush City, Cawker City, Dodge City, Elk City, Empire City, Forest City, Garden City, Gove City, Hill City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Lake City, Mound City, Ness City, Osage City, Page City, Park City, Scott City, Strong City, Sun City, and White City
KENTUCKY = 17
Bell City, Calvert City, Cannel City, Cave City, Central City, Clay City, Elkhorn City, Gold City, Junction City, Lee City, Mining City, Oil City, Park City, Silver City, Sublimity City, White City, and Whitley City
LOUISIANA = 6
Amite City, Bossier City, Bridge City, Junction City, Morgan City, and Oil City
MAINE = 1
Forest City
MARYLAND = 7
Chesapeake City, Cottage City, Ellicott City, Maryland City, Ocean City, Pocomoke City, and West Ocean City
MASSACHUSETTS = 0
MICHIGAN = 38
Barton City, Bay City, Beal City, Boyne City, Brown City, Cass City, Cement City, Copper City, Filer City, Foster City, Garden City, Gould City, Grindstone City, Howard City, Huron City, Imlay City, Kent City, Lake City, Mackinaw City, Maple City, Marine City, Mass City, Minden City, National City, Nessen City, Oil City, Pearl City, Rapid City, Reed City, Rogers City, Rose City, Sherman City, Star City, Summit City, Tamarack City, Tawas City, Traverse City, and Union City
MINNESOTA = 17
Alma City, Big Bend City, Cannon City, Center City, Chisago City, Clara City, Forest City, Garden City, Grove City, Hill City, Holmes City, Illgen City, Lake City, Minnesota City, Murphy City, Pine City, and Rush City
MISSISSIPPI = 5
Calhoun City, Delta City, Morgan City, Silver City, and Yazoo City
MISSOURI = 40
Appleton City, Bates City, Bell City, Benton City, Bragg City, Crystal City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilman City, Golden City, Grant City, Green City, Gunn City, Haywood City, Jefferson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Kimberling City, King City, Kingdom City, Lowry City, Missouri City, Monroe City, Montgomery City, Mound City, Neck City, North Kansas City, Pierce City, Platte City, Queen City, Schell City, Scott City, Southwest City, Stark City, Stotts City, University City, Velda City, Webb City, Wilson City, and Wright City
MONTANA = 7
Cooke City, Jefferson City, Martin City, Miles City, Montana City, Park City, and Virginia City
NEBRASKA = 14
Beaver City, Central City, Dakota City, David City, Falls City, Howard City, Loup City, Mason City, Nebraska City, Pawnee City, Republican City, Rising City, South Sioux City, and Steele City
NEVADA = 5
Boulder City, Carson City, Mountain City, Silver City, and Virginia City
NEW HAMPSHIRE = 0
NEW JERSEY = 14
Atlantic City, Bordentown City, Burlington City, Corbin City, Egg Harbor City, Gloucester City, Jersey City, Margate City, Neptune City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Surf City, Union City, and Ventnor City
NEW MEXICO = 5
City of the Sun, Cotton City, Navajo City, Silver City, and Whites City
NEW YORK = 6
Garden City, Garden City Park, Garden City South, Johnson City, New City, and New York City
NORTH CAROLINA = 15
Bessemer City, Boger City, Bryson City, Cove City, Elizabeth City, Elm City, Forest City, James City, Morehead City, Oak City, Siler City, Silver City, Soul City, Surf City, and Tabor City
NORTH DAKOTA = 8
Canton City, Grace City, Michigan City, Pick City, Tower City, Valley City, Watford City, and Willow City
OHIO = 22
Beach City, Cream City, Crown City, Dexter City, Grove City, Holiday City, Jerry City, Jones City, Junction City, Lime City, Lore City, Miller City, Mineral City, Murray City, Ohio City, Oval City, Plain City, Pleasant City, Quaker City, Tipp City, Union City, and Valley City
OKLAHOMA = 26
Boise City, Cimarron City, Cox City, Custer City, Del City, Dill City, Eagle City, Elk City, Elmore City, Empire City, Harden City, Kaw City, Little City, Lost City, Marble City, Midwest City, Oil City, Oklahoma City, Ponca City, Ratliff City, Silver City, Spelter City, Strong City, Union City, Webb City, and Wright City
OREGON = 19
Baker City, Canyon City, Columbia City, Dunes City, Elk City, Falls City, Island City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, King City, Lincoln City, Mill City, Oregon City, Pacific City, Pelican City, Prairie City, Tri-City, and White City
PENNSYLVANIA = 21
Arnold City, Broad Top City, Central City, Dickson City, Evans City, Fayette City, Ford City, Forest City, Grier City, Grove City, Harrison City, Homer City, James City, Jamison City, Karns City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mahanoy City, Oil City, Spring City, and Union City
RHODE ISLAND = 0
SOUTH CAROLINA = 2
Garden City and Lake City
SOUTH DAKOTA = 10
Big Stone City, Central City, Claire City, Crook City, Garden City, Hill City, Lake City, Mound City, North Sioux City, and Prairie City
TENNESSEE = 14
Ashland City, Bluff City, Cumberland City, Jefferson City, Johnson City, Lenoir City, Maury City, Morrison City, Mountain City, Park City, Spring City, Summer City, Tracy City, and Union City
TEXAS = 54
Archer City, Arthur City, Bay City, Beach City, Bridge City, Caney City, Citrus City, Clarksville City, Close City, Coffee City, Colorado City, Crystal City, Dell City, Denver City, Dodd City, Dogwood City, Falls City, Frankel City, Gary City, Garden City, Gun Barrel City, Haltom City, Horizon City, Jacinto City, Johnson City, Karnes City, Knox City, Lake City, Lake Colorado City, Lakeside City, Lane City, League City, Liberty City, Mirando City, Missouri City, Mobile City, Monroe City, Mound City, Mountain City, Ore City, Pearl City, Post Oak Bend City, Queen City, Rio Grande City, Rose City, Royse City, Selman City, Sterling City, Sullivan City, Texas City, Todd City, Universal City, Warren City, Wolfe City,
UTAH = 13
Bear River City, Brigham City, Bryce Canyon City, Cedar City, Garden City, Heber City, Oak City, Park City, Plain City, Salt Lake City, Spring City, West Valley City, and White City
VERMONT = 0
VIRGINIA = 7
Charles City, Chase City, Dale City, Gate City, Pamplin City, Stephens City, and Weber City
WASHINGTON = 12
Basin City, Bay City, Benton City, Coulee City, Electric City, Elmer City, Fall City, Gould City, Junction City, Navy Yard City, Ocean City, and Royal City
WEST VIRGINIA = 12
Coal City, Cub City, Dupont City, Elk City, Hartford City, Lost City, Mineral City, Paden City, Raymond City, Star City, Sulphur City, and Union City
WISCONSIN = 14
Bay City, Bloom City, Buffalo City, Coral City, Cuba City, Fountain City, Genoa City, Glenwood City, Hager City, Junction City, Marathon City, Oil City, Slab City, and Tunnel City
WYOMING = 2
Atlantic City and Jeffrey City
——-
SOURCES: en.wikipedia.org for each state – cities, towns, municipalities, census designated places, villages, hamlets, and unincorporated places.
#CDPs #central #cities #forest #fun #garden #geography #hamlets #history #junction #lake #placenames #places #towns #travel #typonymy #union #villages
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States with the most “City” communities
Source: garden-city.orgListed below are the states with the most communities that include “city” in their name. This includes cities, towns, villages, hamlets, municipalities, unincorporated places, and census designated places. It does not include ghost towns, townships nor equivalent “towns” in Wisconsin, New York and elsewhere.
When one thinks about it, the popularity of Garden City makes sense given humans love living in scenic and/or bucolic locations. What name epitomizes those feelings better? Also among the top ten “city” names are Lake City and Forest City. Peace!
Source: townofgardencity.com——-
Leading states:
- Texas = 54
- Illinois = 51
- Missouri = 40
- Florida and Michigan = 38 each
- Iowa = 34
- California = 29
- Indiana = 27
- Kansas and Oklahoma = 26 each
Most common “city” names or variations:
- Garden City = 16
- Lake City = 12
- Junction City = 11
- Union City = 10
- Forest City = 8
- Central City, Oil City, Silver City, White(s) = 7 each
——-
ALABAMA = 11
Alexander City, Dodge City, Frisco City, Garden City, Hobson City, Midland City, Morgan City, Pell City, Phenix City, Rainbow City, and Sardis City
ALASKA = 0
ARIZONA = 13
Arizona City, Black Canyon City, Bullhead City, Central Heights-Midland City, Circle City, Colorado City, Huachuca City, Joseph City, Lake Havasu City, Rainbow City, Sun City, Sun City West, and Tuba City
ARKANSAS = 11
Arkansas City, Bluff City, Buffalo City, Cave City, Central City, Cherokee City, Diamond City, Forrest City, Junction City, Lake City, and Star City
CALIFORNIA = 29
Amador City, Big Bear City, Brandy City, Butte City, California City, Cathedral City, Cave City, City of Industry, Crescent City, Culver City, Daly City, Foster City, Holy City, King City, Lake City, Marin City, Montgomery City, National City, Nevada City, Oil City, Queen City, Redwood City, Sand City, South Yuba City, Spicer City, Suisun City, Temple City, Union City, and Yuba City
COLORADO = 10
Adams City, Canon City, Central City, Colorado City, Commerce City, Garden City, Lake City, Ohio City, Orchard City, and Sugar City
CONNECTICUT = 1
Jewett City
DELAWARE = 0
FLORIDA = 38
Amelia City, Angel City, Cooper City, Crescent City, Cross City, Dade City, Dade City North, Dickerson City, Everglades City, Floral City, Florida City, Forest City, Greenacres City, Grove City, Haines City, Highland City, Highlands City, Intercession City, Jacob City, Kenneth City, Lake City, Leisure City, Little Lake City, Miles City, Myakka City, Ocean City, Orange City, Palm City, Palm River-Clair-Mel City, Panama City, Panama City Beach, Plant City, Polk City, St. James City, Sun City, Sun City Center, and White City (2)
GEORGIA = 15
Garden City, Iron City, Junction City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mountain City, Peachtree City, Pebble City, Pecan City, Ray City, Sale City, Silver City, Tate City, Twin City, and Union City
HAWAII = 2
Lanai City and Pearl City
IDAHO = 6
Butte City, Elk City, Garden City, Idaho City, Malad City, and Sugar City
ILLINOIS = 51
Bay City, Bayle City, Beecher City, Bluff City (2), Calumet City, Central City, Clay City, Coal City, Crescent City, Dallas City, Dalton City, Fairmont City, Farmer City, Forest City, Future City, Gibson City, Granite City, Grove City, Hanna City, Hervey City, Hunt City, Illinois City, Johnston City, Junction City, Lake City, Mason City, Midland City, Miller City, Monroe City, Mound City, New City, Norris City, North City, Park City, Pearl City, Piper City, Prairie City, Rapids City, Rend City, Rock City, Schram City, Shale City, Shanghai City, Standard City, Star City, Steel City, Texas City, West City, White City, and Yates City
INDIANA = 27
Burns City, Cambridge City, Clay City (2), Coal City, Columbia City, Fountain City, Garden City, Gas City, Grant City, Harris City, Hartford City, Lincoln City, Michigan City, Mineral City, Monroe City, Oakland City, Parker City, Prairie City, Rome City, Saline City, Star City, State Line City, Switz City, Tell City, Union City, and Valley City
IOWA = 34
Albert City, Barnes City, Cedar City, Central City, Charles City, Columbus City, Dakota City, Davis City, Decatur City, Dow City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilmore City, Grant City, Iowa City, La Porte City, Lake City, Maharishi Vedic City, Mason City, May City, Orange City, Polk City, Prairie City, Promise City, Rockwell City, Sac City, Shannon City, Silver City, Sioux City, Stone City, Story City, Swea City, Walnut City, and Webster City
KANSAS = 26
Arkansas City, Baldwin City, Bird City, Bluff City, Bush City, Cawker City, Dodge City, Elk City, Empire City, Forest City, Garden City, Gove City, Hill City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Lake City, Mound City, Ness City, Osage City, Page City, Park City, Scott City, Strong City, Sun City, and White City
KENTUCKY = 17
Bell City, Calvert City, Cannel City, Cave City, Central City, Clay City, Elkhorn City, Gold City, Junction City, Lee City, Mining City, Oil City, Park City, Silver City, Sublimity City, White City, and Whitley City
LOUISIANA = 6
Amite City, Bossier City, Bridge City, Junction City, Morgan City, and Oil City
MAINE = 1
Forest City
MARYLAND = 7
Chesapeake City, Cottage City, Ellicott City, Maryland City, Ocean City, Pocomoke City, and West Ocean City
MASSACHUSETTS = 0
MICHIGAN = 38
Barton City, Bay City, Beal City, Boyne City, Brown City, Cass City, Cement City, Copper City, Filer City, Foster City, Garden City, Gould City, Grindstone City, Howard City, Huron City, Imlay City, Kent City, Lake City, Mackinaw City, Maple City, Marine City, Mass City, Minden City, National City, Nessen City, Oil City, Pearl City, Rapid City, Reed City, Rogers City, Rose City, Sherman City, Star City, Summit City, Tamarack City, Tawas City, Traverse City, and Union City
MINNESOTA = 17
Alma City, Big Bend City, Cannon City, Center City, Chisago City, Clara City, Forest City, Garden City, Grove City, Hill City, Holmes City, Illgen City, Lake City, Minnesota City, Murphy City, Pine City, and Rush City
MISSISSIPPI = 5
Calhoun City, Delta City, Morgan City, Silver City, and Yazoo City
MISSOURI = 40
Appleton City, Bates City, Bell City, Benton City, Bragg City, Crystal City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilman City, Golden City, Grant City, Green City, Gunn City, Haywood City, Jefferson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Kimberling City, King City, Kingdom City, Lowry City, Missouri City, Monroe City, Montgomery City, Mound City, Neck City, North Kansas City, Pierce City, Platte City, Queen City, Schell City, Scott City, Southwest City, Stark City, Stotts City, University City, Velda City, Webb City, Wilson City, and Wright City
MONTANA = 7
Cooke City, Jefferson City, Martin City, Miles City, Montana City, Park City, and Virginia City
NEBRASKA = 14
Beaver City, Central City, Dakota City, David City, Falls City, Howard City, Loup City, Mason City, Nebraska City, Pawnee City, Republican City, Rising City, South Sioux City, and Steele City
NEVADA = 5
Boulder City, Carson City, Mountain City, Silver City, and Virginia City
NEW HAMPSHIRE = 0
NEW JERSEY = 14
Atlantic City, Bordentown City, Burlington City, Corbin City, Egg Harbor City, Gloucester City, Jersey City, Margate City, Neptune City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Surf City, Union City, and Ventnor City
NEW MEXICO = 5
City of the Sun, Cotton City, Navajo City, Silver City, and Whites City
NEW YORK = 6
Garden City, Garden City Park, Garden City South, Johnson City, New City, and New York City
NORTH CAROLINA = 15
Bessemer City, Boger City, Bryson City, Cove City, Elizabeth City, Elm City, Forest City, James City, Morehead City, Oak City, Siler City, Silver City, Soul City, Surf City, and Tabor City
NORTH DAKOTA = 8
Canton City, Grace City, Michigan City, Pick City, Tower City, Valley City, Watford City, and Willow City
OHIO = 22
Beach City, Cream City, Crown City, Dexter City, Grove City, Holiday City, Jerry City, Jones City, Junction City, Lime City, Lore City, Miller City, Mineral City, Murray City, Ohio City, Oval City, Plain City, Pleasant City, Quaker City, Tipp City, Union City, and Valley City
OKLAHOMA = 26
Boise City, Cimarron City, Cox City, Custer City, Del City, Dill City, Eagle City, Elk City, Elmore City, Empire City, Harden City, Kaw City, Little City, Lost City, Marble City, Midwest City, Oil City, Oklahoma City, Ponca City, Ratliff City, Silver City, Spelter City, Strong City, Union City, Webb City, and Wright City
OREGON = 19
Baker City, Canyon City, Columbia City, Dunes City, Elk City, Falls City, Island City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, King City, Lincoln City, Mill City, Oregon City, Pacific City, Pelican City, Prairie City, Tri-City, and White City
PENNSYLVANIA = 21
Arnold City, Broad Top City, Central City, Dickson City, Evans City, Fayette City, Ford City, Forest City, Grier City, Grove City, Harrison City, Homer City, James City, Jamison City, Karns City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mahanoy City, Oil City, Spring City, and Union City
RHODE ISLAND = 0
SOUTH CAROLINA = 2
Garden City and Lake City
SOUTH DAKOTA = 10
Big Stone City, Central City, Claire City, Crook City, Garden City, Hill City, Lake City, Mound City, North Sioux City, and Prairie City
TENNESSEE = 14
Ashland City, Bluff City, Cumberland City, Jefferson City, Johnson City, Lenoir City, Maury City, Morrison City, Mountain City, Park City, Spring City, Summer City, Tracy City, and Union City
TEXAS = 54
Archer City, Arthur City, Bay City, Beach City, Bridge City, Caney City, Citrus City, Clarksville City, Close City, Coffee City, Colorado City, Crystal City, Dell City, Denver City, Dodd City, Dogwood City, Falls City, Frankel City, Gary City, Garden City, Gun Barrel City, Haltom City, Horizon City, Jacinto City, Johnson City, Karnes City, Knox City, Lake City, Lake Colorado City, Lakeside City, Lane City, League City, Liberty City, Mirando City, Missouri City, Mobile City, Monroe City, Mound City, Mountain City, Ore City, Pearl City, Post Oak Bend City, Queen City, Rio Grande City, Rose City, Royse City, Selman City, Sterling City, Sullivan City, Texas City, Todd City, Universal City, Warren City, Wolfe City,
UTAH = 13
Bear River City, Brigham City, Bryce Canyon City, Cedar City, Garden City, Heber City, Oak City, Park City, Plain City, Salt Lake City, Spring City, West Valley City, and White City
VERMONT = 0
VIRGINIA = 7
Charles City, Chase City, Dale City, Gate City, Pamplin City, Stephens City, and Weber City
WASHINGTON = 12
Basin City, Bay City, Benton City, Coulee City, Electric City, Elmer City, Fall City, Gould City, Junction City, Navy Yard City, Ocean City, and Royal City
WEST VIRGINIA = 12
Coal City, Cub City, Dupont City, Elk City, Hartford City, Lost City, Mineral City, Paden City, Raymond City, Star City, Sulphur City, and Union City
WISCONSIN = 14
Bay City, Bloom City, Buffalo City, Coral City, Cuba City, Fountain City, Genoa City, Glenwood City, Hager City, Junction City, Marathon City, Oil City, Slab City, and Tunnel City
WYOMING = 2
Atlantic City and Jeffrey City
——-
SOURCES: en.wikipedia.org for each state – cities, towns, municipalities, census designated places, villages, hamlets, and unincorporated places.
#CDPs #central #cities #forest #fun #garden #geography #hamlets #history #junction #lake #placenames #places #towns #travel #typonymy #union #villages
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States with the most “City” communities
Source: garden-city.orgListed below are the states with the most communities that include “city” in their name. This includes cities, towns, villages, hamlets, municipalities, unincorporated places, and census designated places. It does not include ghost towns, townships nor equivalent “towns” in Wisconsin, New York and elsewhere.
When one thinks about it, the popularity of Garden City makes sense given humans love living in scenic and/or bucolic locations. What name epitomizes those feelings better? Also among the top ten “city” names are Lake City and Forest City. Peace!
Source: townofgardencity.com——-
Leading states:
- Texas = 54
- Illinois = 51
- Missouri = 40
- Florida and Michigan = 38 each
- Iowa = 34
- California = 29
- Indiana = 27
- Kansas and Oklahoma = 26 each
Most common “city” names or variations:
- Garden City = 16
- Lake City = 12
- Junction City = 11
- Union City = 10
- Forest City = 8
- Central City, Oil City, Silver City, White(s) = 7 each
——-
ALABAMA = 11
Alexander City, Dodge City, Frisco City, Garden City, Hobson City, Midland City, Morgan City, Pell City, Phenix City, Rainbow City, and Sardis City
ALASKA = 0
ARIZONA = 13
Arizona City, Black Canyon City, Bullhead City, Central Heights-Midland City, Circle City, Colorado City, Huachuca City, Joseph City, Lake Havasu City, Rainbow City, Sun City, Sun City West, and Tuba City
ARKANSAS = 11
Arkansas City, Bluff City, Buffalo City, Cave City, Central City, Cherokee City, Diamond City, Forrest City, Junction City, Lake City, and Star City
CALIFORNIA = 29
Amador City, Big Bear City, Brandy City, Butte City, California City, Cathedral City, Cave City, City of Industry, Crescent City, Culver City, Daly City, Foster City, Holy City, King City, Lake City, Marin City, Montgomery City, National City, Nevada City, Oil City, Queen City, Redwood City, Sand City, South Yuba City, Spicer City, Suisun City, Temple City, Union City, and Yuba City
COLORADO = 10
Adams City, Canon City, Central City, Colorado City, Commerce City, Garden City, Lake City, Ohio City, Orchard City, and Sugar City
CONNECTICUT = 1
Jewett City
DELAWARE = 0
FLORIDA = 38
Amelia City, Angel City, Cooper City, Crescent City, Cross City, Dade City, Dade City North, Dickerson City, Everglades City, Floral City, Florida City, Forest City, Greenacres City, Grove City, Haines City, Highland City, Highlands City, Intercession City, Jacob City, Kenneth City, Lake City, Leisure City, Little Lake City, Miles City, Myakka City, Ocean City, Orange City, Palm City, Palm River-Clair-Mel City, Panama City, Panama City Beach, Plant City, Polk City, St. James City, Sun City, Sun City Center, and White City (2)
GEORGIA = 15
Garden City, Iron City, Junction City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mountain City, Peachtree City, Pebble City, Pecan City, Ray City, Sale City, Silver City, Tate City, Twin City, and Union City
HAWAII = 2
Lanai City and Pearl City
IDAHO = 6
Butte City, Elk City, Garden City, Idaho City, Malad City, and Sugar City
ILLINOIS = 51
Bay City, Bayle City, Beecher City, Bluff City (2), Calumet City, Central City, Clay City, Coal City, Crescent City, Dallas City, Dalton City, Fairmont City, Farmer City, Forest City, Future City, Gibson City, Granite City, Grove City, Hanna City, Hervey City, Hunt City, Illinois City, Johnston City, Junction City, Lake City, Mason City, Midland City, Miller City, Monroe City, Mound City, New City, Norris City, North City, Park City, Pearl City, Piper City, Prairie City, Rapids City, Rend City, Rock City, Schram City, Shale City, Shanghai City, Standard City, Star City, Steel City, Texas City, West City, White City, and Yates City
INDIANA = 27
Burns City, Cambridge City, Clay City (2), Coal City, Columbia City, Fountain City, Garden City, Gas City, Grant City, Harris City, Hartford City, Lincoln City, Michigan City, Mineral City, Monroe City, Oakland City, Parker City, Prairie City, Rome City, Saline City, Star City, State Line City, Switz City, Tell City, Union City, and Valley City
IOWA = 34
Albert City, Barnes City, Cedar City, Central City, Charles City, Columbus City, Dakota City, Davis City, Decatur City, Dow City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilmore City, Grant City, Iowa City, La Porte City, Lake City, Maharishi Vedic City, Mason City, May City, Orange City, Polk City, Prairie City, Promise City, Rockwell City, Sac City, Shannon City, Silver City, Sioux City, Stone City, Story City, Swea City, Walnut City, and Webster City
KANSAS = 26
Arkansas City, Baldwin City, Bird City, Bluff City, Bush City, Cawker City, Dodge City, Elk City, Empire City, Forest City, Garden City, Gove City, Hill City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Lake City, Mound City, Ness City, Osage City, Page City, Park City, Scott City, Strong City, Sun City, and White City
KENTUCKY = 17
Bell City, Calvert City, Cannel City, Cave City, Central City, Clay City, Elkhorn City, Gold City, Junction City, Lee City, Mining City, Oil City, Park City, Silver City, Sublimity City, White City, and Whitley City
LOUISIANA = 6
Amite City, Bossier City, Bridge City, Junction City, Morgan City, and Oil City
MAINE = 1
Forest City
MARYLAND = 7
Chesapeake City, Cottage City, Ellicott City, Maryland City, Ocean City, Pocomoke City, and West Ocean City
MASSACHUSETTS = 0
MICHIGAN = 38
Barton City, Bay City, Beal City, Boyne City, Brown City, Cass City, Cement City, Copper City, Filer City, Foster City, Garden City, Gould City, Grindstone City, Howard City, Huron City, Imlay City, Kent City, Lake City, Mackinaw City, Maple City, Marine City, Mass City, Minden City, National City, Nessen City, Oil City, Pearl City, Rapid City, Reed City, Rogers City, Rose City, Sherman City, Star City, Summit City, Tamarack City, Tawas City, Traverse City, and Union City
MINNESOTA = 17
Alma City, Big Bend City, Cannon City, Center City, Chisago City, Clara City, Forest City, Garden City, Grove City, Hill City, Holmes City, Illgen City, Lake City, Minnesota City, Murphy City, Pine City, and Rush City
MISSISSIPPI = 5
Calhoun City, Delta City, Morgan City, Silver City, and Yazoo City
MISSOURI = 40
Appleton City, Bates City, Bell City, Benton City, Bragg City, Crystal City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilman City, Golden City, Grant City, Green City, Gunn City, Haywood City, Jefferson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Kimberling City, King City, Kingdom City, Lowry City, Missouri City, Monroe City, Montgomery City, Mound City, Neck City, North Kansas City, Pierce City, Platte City, Queen City, Schell City, Scott City, Southwest City, Stark City, Stotts City, University City, Velda City, Webb City, Wilson City, and Wright City
MONTANA = 7
Cooke City, Jefferson City, Martin City, Miles City, Montana City, Park City, and Virginia City
NEBRASKA = 14
Beaver City, Central City, Dakota City, David City, Falls City, Howard City, Loup City, Mason City, Nebraska City, Pawnee City, Republican City, Rising City, South Sioux City, and Steele City
NEVADA = 5
Boulder City, Carson City, Mountain City, Silver City, and Virginia City
NEW HAMPSHIRE = 0
NEW JERSEY = 14
Atlantic City, Bordentown City, Burlington City, Corbin City, Egg Harbor City, Gloucester City, Jersey City, Margate City, Neptune City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Surf City, Union City, and Ventnor City
NEW MEXICO = 5
City of the Sun, Cotton City, Navajo City, Silver City, and Whites City
NEW YORK = 6
Garden City, Garden City Park, Garden City South, Johnson City, New City, and New York City
NORTH CAROLINA = 15
Bessemer City, Boger City, Bryson City, Cove City, Elizabeth City, Elm City, Forest City, James City, Morehead City, Oak City, Siler City, Silver City, Soul City, Surf City, and Tabor City
NORTH DAKOTA = 8
Canton City, Grace City, Michigan City, Pick City, Tower City, Valley City, Watford City, and Willow City
OHIO = 22
Beach City, Cream City, Crown City, Dexter City, Grove City, Holiday City, Jerry City, Jones City, Junction City, Lime City, Lore City, Miller City, Mineral City, Murray City, Ohio City, Oval City, Plain City, Pleasant City, Quaker City, Tipp City, Union City, and Valley City
OKLAHOMA = 26
Boise City, Cimarron City, Cox City, Custer City, Del City, Dill City, Eagle City, Elk City, Elmore City, Empire City, Harden City, Kaw City, Little City, Lost City, Marble City, Midwest City, Oil City, Oklahoma City, Ponca City, Ratliff City, Silver City, Spelter City, Strong City, Union City, Webb City, and Wright City
OREGON = 19
Baker City, Canyon City, Columbia City, Dunes City, Elk City, Falls City, Island City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, King City, Lincoln City, Mill City, Oregon City, Pacific City, Pelican City, Prairie City, Tri-City, and White City
PENNSYLVANIA = 21
Arnold City, Broad Top City, Central City, Dickson City, Evans City, Fayette City, Ford City, Forest City, Grier City, Grove City, Harrison City, Homer City, James City, Jamison City, Karns City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mahanoy City, Oil City, Spring City, and Union City
RHODE ISLAND = 0
SOUTH CAROLINA = 2
Garden City and Lake City
SOUTH DAKOTA = 10
Big Stone City, Central City, Claire City, Crook City, Garden City, Hill City, Lake City, Mound City, North Sioux City, and Prairie City
TENNESSEE = 14
Ashland City, Bluff City, Cumberland City, Jefferson City, Johnson City, Lenoir City, Maury City, Morrison City, Mountain City, Park City, Spring City, Summer City, Tracy City, and Union City
TEXAS = 54
Archer City, Arthur City, Bay City, Beach City, Bridge City, Caney City, Citrus City, Clarksville City, Close City, Coffee City, Colorado City, Crystal City, Dell City, Denver City, Dodd City, Dogwood City, Falls City, Frankel City, Gary City, Garden City, Gun Barrel City, Haltom City, Horizon City, Jacinto City, Johnson City, Karnes City, Knox City, Lake City, Lake Colorado City, Lakeside City, Lane City, League City, Liberty City, Mirando City, Missouri City, Mobile City, Monroe City, Mound City, Mountain City, Ore City, Pearl City, Post Oak Bend City, Queen City, Rio Grande City, Rose City, Royse City, Selman City, Sterling City, Sullivan City, Texas City, Todd City, Universal City, Warren City, Wolfe City,
UTAH = 13
Bear River City, Brigham City, Bryce Canyon City, Cedar City, Garden City, Heber City, Oak City, Park City, Plain City, Salt Lake City, Spring City, West Valley City, and White City
VERMONT = 0
VIRGINIA = 7
Charles City, Chase City, Dale City, Gate City, Pamplin City, Stephens City, and Weber City
WASHINGTON = 12
Basin City, Bay City, Benton City, Coulee City, Electric City, Elmer City, Fall City, Gould City, Junction City, Navy Yard City, Ocean City, and Royal City
WEST VIRGINIA = 12
Coal City, Cub City, Dupont City, Elk City, Hartford City, Lost City, Mineral City, Paden City, Raymond City, Star City, Sulphur City, and Union City
WISCONSIN = 14
Bay City, Bloom City, Buffalo City, Coral City, Cuba City, Fountain City, Genoa City, Glenwood City, Hager City, Junction City, Marathon City, Oil City, Slab City, and Tunnel City
WYOMING = 2
Atlantic City and Jeffrey City
——-
SOURCES: en.wikipedia.org for each state – cities, towns, municipalities, census designated places, villages, hamlets, and unincorporated places.
#CDPs #central #cities #forest #fun #garden #geography #hamlets #history #junction #lake #placenames #places #towns #travel #typonymy #union #villages
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States with the most “City” communities
Source: garden-city.orgListed below are the states with the most communities that include “city” in their name. This includes cities, towns, villages, hamlets, municipalities, unincorporated places, and census designated places. It does not include ghost towns, townships nor equivalent “towns” in Wisconsin, New York and elsewhere.
When one thinks about it, the popularity of Garden City makes sense given humans love living in scenic and/or bucolic locations. What name epitomizes those feelings better? Also among the top ten “city” names are Lake City and Forest City. Peace!
Source: townofgardencity.com——-
Leading states:
- Texas = 54
- Illinois = 51
- Missouri = 40
- Florida and Michigan = 38 each
- Iowa = 34
- California = 29
- Indiana = 27
- Kansas and Oklahoma = 26 each
Most common “city” names or variations:
- Garden City = 16
- Lake City = 12
- Junction City = 11
- Union City = 10
- Forest City = 8
- Central City, Oil City, Silver City, White(s) = 7 each
——-
ALABAMA = 11
Alexander City, Dodge City, Frisco City, Garden City, Hobson City, Midland City, Morgan City, Pell City, Phenix City, Rainbow City, and Sardis City
ALASKA = 0
ARIZONA = 13
Arizona City, Black Canyon City, Bullhead City, Central Heights-Midland City, Circle City, Colorado City, Huachuca City, Joseph City, Lake Havasu City, Rainbow City, Sun City, Sun City West, and Tuba City
ARKANSAS = 11
Arkansas City, Bluff City, Buffalo City, Cave City, Central City, Cherokee City, Diamond City, Forrest City, Junction City, Lake City, and Star City
CALIFORNIA = 29
Amador City, Big Bear City, Brandy City, Butte City, California City, Cathedral City, Cave City, City of Industry, Crescent City, Culver City, Daly City, Foster City, Holy City, King City, Lake City, Marin City, Montgomery City, National City, Nevada City, Oil City, Queen City, Redwood City, Sand City, South Yuba City, Spicer City, Suisun City, Temple City, Union City, and Yuba City
COLORADO = 10
Adams City, Canon City, Central City, Colorado City, Commerce City, Garden City, Lake City, Ohio City, Orchard City, and Sugar City
CONNECTICUT = 1
Jewett City
DELAWARE = 0
FLORIDA = 38
Amelia City, Angel City, Cooper City, Crescent City, Cross City, Dade City, Dade City North, Dickerson City, Everglades City, Floral City, Florida City, Forest City, Greenacres City, Grove City, Haines City, Highland City, Highlands City, Intercession City, Jacob City, Kenneth City, Lake City, Leisure City, Little Lake City, Miles City, Myakka City, Ocean City, Orange City, Palm City, Palm River-Clair-Mel City, Panama City, Panama City Beach, Plant City, Polk City, St. James City, Sun City, Sun City Center, and White City (2)
GEORGIA = 15
Garden City, Iron City, Junction City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mountain City, Peachtree City, Pebble City, Pecan City, Ray City, Sale City, Silver City, Tate City, Twin City, and Union City
HAWAII = 2
Lanai City and Pearl City
IDAHO = 6
Butte City, Elk City, Garden City, Idaho City, Malad City, and Sugar City
ILLINOIS = 51
Bay City, Bayle City, Beecher City, Bluff City (2), Calumet City, Central City, Clay City, Coal City, Crescent City, Dallas City, Dalton City, Fairmont City, Farmer City, Forest City, Future City, Gibson City, Granite City, Grove City, Hanna City, Hervey City, Hunt City, Illinois City, Johnston City, Junction City, Lake City, Mason City, Midland City, Miller City, Monroe City, Mound City, New City, Norris City, North City, Park City, Pearl City, Piper City, Prairie City, Rapids City, Rend City, Rock City, Schram City, Shale City, Shanghai City, Standard City, Star City, Steel City, Texas City, West City, White City, and Yates City
INDIANA = 27
Burns City, Cambridge City, Clay City (2), Coal City, Columbia City, Fountain City, Garden City, Gas City, Grant City, Harris City, Hartford City, Lincoln City, Michigan City, Mineral City, Monroe City, Oakland City, Parker City, Prairie City, Rome City, Saline City, Star City, State Line City, Switz City, Tell City, Union City, and Valley City
IOWA = 34
Albert City, Barnes City, Cedar City, Central City, Charles City, Columbus City, Dakota City, Davis City, Decatur City, Dow City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilmore City, Grant City, Iowa City, La Porte City, Lake City, Maharishi Vedic City, Mason City, May City, Orange City, Polk City, Prairie City, Promise City, Rockwell City, Sac City, Shannon City, Silver City, Sioux City, Stone City, Story City, Swea City, Walnut City, and Webster City
KANSAS = 26
Arkansas City, Baldwin City, Bird City, Bluff City, Bush City, Cawker City, Dodge City, Elk City, Empire City, Forest City, Garden City, Gove City, Hill City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Lake City, Mound City, Ness City, Osage City, Page City, Park City, Scott City, Strong City, Sun City, and White City
KENTUCKY = 17
Bell City, Calvert City, Cannel City, Cave City, Central City, Clay City, Elkhorn City, Gold City, Junction City, Lee City, Mining City, Oil City, Park City, Silver City, Sublimity City, White City, and Whitley City
LOUISIANA = 6
Amite City, Bossier City, Bridge City, Junction City, Morgan City, and Oil City
MAINE = 1
Forest City
MARYLAND = 7
Chesapeake City, Cottage City, Ellicott City, Maryland City, Ocean City, Pocomoke City, and West Ocean City
MASSACHUSETTS = 0
MICHIGAN = 38
Barton City, Bay City, Beal City, Boyne City, Brown City, Cass City, Cement City, Copper City, Filer City, Foster City, Garden City, Gould City, Grindstone City, Howard City, Huron City, Imlay City, Kent City, Lake City, Mackinaw City, Maple City, Marine City, Mass City, Minden City, National City, Nessen City, Oil City, Pearl City, Rapid City, Reed City, Rogers City, Rose City, Sherman City, Star City, Summit City, Tamarack City, Tawas City, Traverse City, and Union City
MINNESOTA = 17
Alma City, Big Bend City, Cannon City, Center City, Chisago City, Clara City, Forest City, Garden City, Grove City, Hill City, Holmes City, Illgen City, Lake City, Minnesota City, Murphy City, Pine City, and Rush City
MISSISSIPPI = 5
Calhoun City, Delta City, Morgan City, Silver City, and Yazoo City
MISSOURI = 40
Appleton City, Bates City, Bell City, Benton City, Bragg City, Crystal City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilman City, Golden City, Grant City, Green City, Gunn City, Haywood City, Jefferson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Kimberling City, King City, Kingdom City, Lowry City, Missouri City, Monroe City, Montgomery City, Mound City, Neck City, North Kansas City, Pierce City, Platte City, Queen City, Schell City, Scott City, Southwest City, Stark City, Stotts City, University City, Velda City, Webb City, Wilson City, and Wright City
MONTANA = 7
Cooke City, Jefferson City, Martin City, Miles City, Montana City, Park City, and Virginia City
NEBRASKA = 14
Beaver City, Central City, Dakota City, David City, Falls City, Howard City, Loup City, Mason City, Nebraska City, Pawnee City, Republican City, Rising City, South Sioux City, and Steele City
NEVADA = 5
Boulder City, Carson City, Mountain City, Silver City, and Virginia City
NEW HAMPSHIRE = 0
NEW JERSEY = 14
Atlantic City, Bordentown City, Burlington City, Corbin City, Egg Harbor City, Gloucester City, Jersey City, Margate City, Neptune City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Surf City, Union City, and Ventnor City
NEW MEXICO = 5
City of the Sun, Cotton City, Navajo City, Silver City, and Whites City
NEW YORK = 6
Garden City, Garden City Park, Garden City South, Johnson City, New City, and New York City
NORTH CAROLINA = 15
Bessemer City, Boger City, Bryson City, Cove City, Elizabeth City, Elm City, Forest City, James City, Morehead City, Oak City, Siler City, Silver City, Soul City, Surf City, and Tabor City
NORTH DAKOTA = 8
Canton City, Grace City, Michigan City, Pick City, Tower City, Valley City, Watford City, and Willow City
OHIO = 22
Beach City, Cream City, Crown City, Dexter City, Grove City, Holiday City, Jerry City, Jones City, Junction City, Lime City, Lore City, Miller City, Mineral City, Murray City, Ohio City, Oval City, Plain City, Pleasant City, Quaker City, Tipp City, Union City, and Valley City
OKLAHOMA = 26
Boise City, Cimarron City, Cox City, Custer City, Del City, Dill City, Eagle City, Elk City, Elmore City, Empire City, Harden City, Kaw City, Little City, Lost City, Marble City, Midwest City, Oil City, Oklahoma City, Ponca City, Ratliff City, Silver City, Spelter City, Strong City, Union City, Webb City, and Wright City
OREGON = 18
Baker City, Canyon City, Columbia City, Dunes City, Elk City, Falls City, Island City, Johnson City, Junction City, King City, Lincoln City, Mill City, Oregon City, Pacific City, Pelican City, Prairie City, Tri-City, and White City
PENNSYLVANIA = 21
Arnold City, Broad Top City, Central City, Dickson City, Evans City, Fayette City, Ford City, Forest City, Grier City, Grove City, Harrison City, Homer City, James City, Jamison City, Karns City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mahanoy City, Oil City, Spring City, and Union City
RHODE ISLAND = 0
SOUTH CAROLINA = 2
Garden City and Lake City
SOUTH DAKOTA = 10
Big Stone City, Central City, Claire City, Crook City, Garden City, Hill City, Lake City, Mound City, North Sioux City, and Prairie City
TENNESSEE = 14
Ashland City, Bluff City, Cumberland City, Jefferson City, Johnson City, Lenoir City, Maury City, Morrison City, Mountain City, Park City, Spring City, Summer City, Tracy City, and Union City
TEXAS = 54
Archer City, Arthur City, Bay City, Beach City, Bridge City, Caney City, Citrus City, Clarksville City, Close City, Coffee City, Colorado City, Crystal City, Dell City, Denver City, Dodd City, Dogwood City, Falls City, Frankel City, Gary City, Garden City, Gun Barrel City, Haltom City, Horizon City, Jacinto City, Johnson City, Karnes City, Knox City, Lake City, Lake Colorado City, Lakeside City, Lane City, League City, Liberty City, Mirando City, Missouri City, Mobile City, Monroe City, Mound City, Mountain City, Ore City, Pearl City, Post Oak Bend City, Queen City, Rio Grande City, Rose City, Royse City, Selman City, Sterling City, Sullivan City, Texas City, Todd City, Universal City, Warren City, Wolfe City,
UTAH = 13
Bear River City, Brigham City, Bryce Canyon City, Cedar City, Garden City, Heber City, Oak City, Park City, Plain City, Salt Lake City, Spring City, West Valley City, and White City
VERMONT = 0
VIRGINIA = 7
Charles City, Chase City, Dale City, Gate City, Pamplin City, Stephens City, and Weber City
WASHINGTON = 12
Basin City, Bay City, Benton City, Coulee City, Electric City, Elmer City, Fall City, Gould City, Junction City, Navy Yard City, Ocean City, and Royal City
WEST VIRGINIA = 12
Coal City, Cub City, Dupont City, Elk City, Hartford City, Lost City, Mineral City, Paden City, Raymond City, Star City, Sulphur City, and Union City
WISCONSIN = 14
Bay City, Bloom City, Buffalo City, Coral City, Cuba City, Fountain City, Genoa City, Glenwood City, Hager City, Junction City, Marathon City, Oil City, Slab City, and Tunnel City
WYOMING = 2
Atlantic City and Jeffrey City
——-
SOURCES: en.wikipedia.org for each state – cities, towns, municipalities, census designated places, villages, hamlets, and unincorporated places.
#CDPs #central #cities #forest #fun #garden #geography #hamlets #history #junction #lake #placenames #places #towns #travel #typonymy #union #villages
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States with the most “City” communities
Source: garden-city.orgListed below are the states with the most communities that include “city” in their name. This includes cities, towns, villages, hamlets, municipalities, unincorporated places, and census designated places. It does not include ghost towns, townships nor equivalent “towns” in Wisconsin, New York and elsewhere.
When one thinks about it, the popularity of Garden City makes sense given humans love living in scenic and/or bucolic locations. What name epitomizes those feelings better? Also among the top ten “city” names are Lake City and Forest City. Peace!
Source: townofgardencity.com——-
Leading states:
- Texas = 54
- Illinois = 51
- Missouri = 40
- Florida and Michigan = 38 each
- Iowa = 34
- California = 29
- Indiana = 27
- Kansas and Oklahoma = 26 each
Most common “city” names or variations:
- Garden City = 16
- Lake City = 12
- Junction City = 11
- Union City = 10
- Forest City = 8
- Central City, Oil City, Silver City, White(s) = 7 each
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ALABAMA = 11
Alexander City, Dodge City, Frisco City, Garden City, Hobson City, Midland City, Morgan City, Pell City, Phenix City, Rainbow City, and Sardis City
ALASKA = 0
ARIZONA = 13
Arizona City, Black Canyon City, Bullhead City, Central Heights-Midland City, Circle City, Colorado City, Huachuca City, Joseph City, Lake Havasu City, Rainbow City, Sun City, Sun City West, and Tuba City
ARKANSAS = 11
Arkansas City, Bluff City, Buffalo City, Cave City, Central City, Cherokee City, Diamond City, Forrest City, Junction City, Lake City, and Star City
CALIFORNIA = 29
Amador City, Big Bear City, Brandy City, Butte City, California City, Cathedral City, Cave City, City of Industry, Crescent City, Culver City, Daly City, Foster City, Holy City, King City, Lake City, Marin City, Montgomery City, National City, Nevada City, Oil City, Queen City, Redwood City, Sand City, South Yuba City, Spicer City, Suisun City, Temple City, Union City, and Yuba City
COLORADO = 10
Adams City, Canon City, Central City, Colorado City, Commerce City, Garden City, Lake City, Ohio City, Orchard City, and Sugar City
CONNECTICUT = 1
Jewett City
DELAWARE = 0
FLORIDA = 38
Amelia City, Angel City, Cooper City, Crescent City, Cross City, Dade City, Dade City North, Dickerson City, Everglades City, Floral City, Florida City, Forest City, Greenacres City, Grove City, Haines City, Highland City, Highlands City, Intercession City, Jacob City, Kenneth City, Lake City, Leisure City, Little Lake City, Miles City, Myakka City, Ocean City, Orange City, Palm City, Palm River-Clair-Mel City, Panama City, Panama City Beach, Plant City, Polk City, St. James City, Sun City, Sun City Center, and White City (2)
GEORGIA = 15
Garden City, Iron City, Junction City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mountain City, Peachtree City, Pebble City, Pecan City, Ray City, Sale City, Silver City, Tate City, Twin City, and Union City
HAWAII = 2
Lanai City and Pearl City
IDAHO = 6
Butte City, Elk City, Garden City, Idaho City, Malad City, and Sugar City
ILLINOIS = 51
Bay City, Bayle City, Beecher City, Bluff City (2), Calumet City, Central City, Clay City, Coal City, Crescent City, Dallas City, Dalton City, Fairmont City, Farmer City, Forest City, Future City, Gibson City, Granite City, Grove City, Hanna City, Hervey City, Hunt City, Illinois City, Johnston City, Junction City, Lake City, Mason City, Midland City, Miller City, Monroe City, Mound City, New City, Norris City, North City, Park City, Pearl City, Piper City, Prairie City, Rapids City, Rend City, Rock City, Schram City, Shale City, Shanghai City, Standard City, Star City, Steel City, Texas City, West City, White City, and Yates City
INDIANA = 27
Burns City, Cambridge City, Clay City (2), Coal City, Columbia City, Fountain City, Garden City, Gas City, Grant City, Harris City, Hartford City, Lincoln City, Michigan City, Mineral City, Monroe City, Oakland City, Parker City, Prairie City, Rome City, Saline City, Star City, State Line City, Switz City, Tell City, Union City, and Valley City
IOWA = 34
Albert City, Barnes City, Cedar City, Central City, Charles City, Columbus City, Dakota City, Davis City, Decatur City, Dow City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilmore City, Grant City, Iowa City, La Porte City, Lake City, Maharishi Vedic City, Mason City, May City, Orange City, Polk City, Prairie City, Promise City, Rockwell City, Sac City, Shannon City, Silver City, Sioux City, Stone City, Story City, Swea City, Walnut City, and Webster City
KANSAS = 26
Arkansas City, Baldwin City, Bird City, Bluff City, Bush City, Cawker City, Dodge City, Elk City, Empire City, Forest City, Garden City, Gove City, Hill City, Johnson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Lake City, Mound City, Ness City, Osage City, Page City, Park City, Scott City, Strong City, Sun City, and White City
KENTUCKY = 17
Bell City, Calvert City, Cannel City, Cave City, Central City, Clay City, Elkhorn City, Gold City, Junction City, Lee City, Mining City, Oil City, Park City, Silver City, Sublimity City, White City, and Whitley City
LOUISIANA = 6
Amite City, Bossier City, Bridge City, Junction City, Morgan City, and Oil City
MAINE = 1
Forest City
MARYLAND = 7
Chesapeake City, Cottage City, Ellicott City, Maryland City, Ocean City, Pocomoke City, and West Ocean City
MASSACHUSETTS = 0
MICHIGAN = 38
Barton City, Bay City, Beal City, Boyne City, Brown City, Cass City, Cement City, Copper City, Filer City, Foster City, Garden City, Gould City, Grindstone City, Howard City, Huron City, Imlay City, Kent City, Lake City, Mackinaw City, Maple City, Marine City, Mass City, Minden City, National City, Nessen City, Oil City, Pearl City, Rapid City, Reed City, Rogers City, Rose City, Sherman City, Star City, Summit City, Tamarack City, Tawas City, Traverse City, and Union City
MINNESOTA = 17
Alma City, Big Bend City, Cannon City, Center City, Chisago City, Clara City, Forest City, Garden City, Grove City, Hill City, Holmes City, Illgen City, Lake City, Minnesota City, Murphy City, Pine City, and Rush City
MISSISSIPPI = 5
Calhoun City, Delta City, Morgan City, Silver City, and Yazoo City
MISSOURI = 40
Appleton City, Bates City, Bell City, Benton City, Bragg City, Crystal City, Forest City, Garden City, Gilman City, Golden City, Grant City, Green City, Gunn City, Haywood City, Jefferson City, Junction City, Kansas City, Kimberling City, King City, Kingdom City, Lowry City, Missouri City, Monroe City, Montgomery City, Mound City, Neck City, North Kansas City, Pierce City, Platte City, Queen City, Schell City, Scott City, Southwest City, Stark City, Stotts City, University City, Velda City, Webb City, Wilson City, and Wright City
MONTANA = 7
Cooke City, Jefferson City, Martin City, Miles City, Montana City, Park City, and Virginia City
NEBRASKA = 14
Beaver City, Central City, Dakota City, David City, Falls City, Howard City, Loup City, Mason City, Nebraska City, Pawnee City, Republican City, Rising City, South Sioux City, and Steele City
NEVADA = 5
Boulder City, Carson City, Mountain City, Silver City, and Virginia City
NEW HAMPSHIRE = 0
NEW JERSEY = 14
Atlantic City, Bordentown City, Burlington City, Corbin City, Egg Harbor City, Gloucester City, Jersey City, Margate City, Neptune City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Surf City, Union City, and Ventnor City
NEW MEXICO = 5
City of the Sun, Cotton City, Navajo City, Silver City, and Whites City
NEW YORK = 6
Garden City, Garden City Park, Garden City South, Johnson City, New City, and New York City
NORTH CAROLINA = 15
Bessemer City, Boger City, Bryson City, Cove City, Elizabeth City, Elm City, Forest City, James City, Morehead City, Oak City, Siler City, Silver City, Soul City, Surf City, and Tabor City
NORTH DAKOTA = 8
Canton City, Grace City, Michigan City, Pick City, Tower City, Valley City, Watford City, and Willow City
OHIO = 22
Beach City, Cream City, Crown City, Dexter City, Grove City, Holiday City, Jerry City, Jones City, Junction City, Lime City, Lore City, Miller City, Mineral City, Murray City, Ohio City, Oval City, Plain City, Pleasant City, Quaker City, Tipp City, Union City, and Valley City
OKLAHOMA = 26
Boise City, Cimarron City, Cox City, Custer City, Del City, Dill City, Eagle City, Elk City, Elmore City, Empire City, Harden City, Kaw City, Little City, Lost City, Marble City, Midwest City, Oil City, Oklahoma City, Ponca City, Ratliff City, Silver City, Spelter City, Strong City, Union City, Webb City, and Wright City
OREGON = 18
Baker City, Canyon City, Columbia City, Dunes City, Elk City, Falls City, Island City, Johnson City, Junction City, King City, Lincoln City, Mill City, Oregon City, Pacific City, Pelican City, Prairie City, Tri-City, and White City
PENNSYLVANIA = 21
Arnold City, Broad Top City, Central City, Dickson City, Evans City, Fayette City, Ford City, Forest City, Grier City, Grove City, Harrison City, Homer City, James City, Jamison City, Karns City, Lake City, Lumber City, Mahanoy City, Oil City, Spring City, and Union City
RHODE ISLAND = 0
SOUTH CAROLINA = 2
Garden City and Lake City
SOUTH DAKOTA = 10
Big Stone City, Central City, Claire City, Crook City, Garden City, Hill City, Lake City, Mound City, North Sioux City, and Prairie City
TENNESSEE = 14
Ashland City, Bluff City, Cumberland City, Jefferson City, Johnson City, Lenoir City, Maury City, Morrison City, Mountain City, Park City, Spring City, Summer City, Tracy City, and Union City
TEXAS = 54
Archer City, Arthur City, Bay City, Beach City, Bridge City, Caney City, Citrus City, Clarksville City, Close City, Coffee City, Colorado City, Crystal City, Dell City, Denver City, Dodd City, Dogwood City, Falls City, Frankel City, Gary City, Garden City, Gun Barrel City, Haltom City, Horizon City, Jacinto City, Johnson City, Karnes City, Knox City, Lake City, Lake Colorado City, Lakeside City, Lane City, League City, Liberty City, Mirando City, Missouri City, Mobile City, Monroe City, Mound City, Mountain City, Ore City, Pearl City, Post Oak Bend City, Queen City, Rio Grande City, Rose City, Royse City, Selman City, Sterling City, Sullivan City, Texas City, Todd City, Universal City, Warren City, Wolfe City,
UTAH = 13
Bear River City, Brigham City, Bryce Canyon City, Cedar City, Garden City, Heber City, Oak City, Park City, Plain City, Salt Lake City, Spring City, West Valley City, and White City
VERMONT = 0
VIRGINIA = 7
Charles City, Chase City, Dale City, Gate City, Pamplin City, Stephens City, and Weber City
WASHINGTON = 12
Basin City, Bay City, Benton City, Coulee City, Electric City, Elmer City, Fall City, Gould City, Junction City, Navy Yard City, Ocean City, and Royal City
WEST VIRGINIA = 12
Coal City, Cub City, Dupont City, Elk City, Hartford City, Lost City, Mineral City, Paden City, Raymond City, Star City, Sulphur City, and Union City
WISCONSIN = 14
Bay City, Bloom City, Buffalo City, Coral City, Cuba City, Fountain City, Genoa City, Glenwood City, Hager City, Junction City, Marathon City, Oil City, Slab City, and Tunnel City
WYOMING = 2
Atlantic City and Jeffrey City
——-
SOURCES: en.wikipedia.org for each state – cities, towns, municipalities, census designated places, villages, hamlets, and unincorporated places.
#CDPs #central #cities #forest #fun #garden #geography #hamlets #history #junction #lake #placenames #places #towns #travel #typonymy #union #villages
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New York City Travel, Food, and Highlights – 2025
A couple of weeks ago, Selene and I took a family trip to New York. We did some cool stuff — some of it, rather touristy perhaps, but cool stuff nonetheless. I was going to show you a few highlights in a Monday update post, but then I ended up with about 280 pictures to go through.
Anyway, it was too much to be part of anything else. So here you go: here are pictures of cool things we did or delicious food that we ate.
Day 1
Arrival and Train Rides
We flew into JFK airport reasonably early in the day, then took the Long Island Rail Road into the city.
As we waited for our train to get to the station, I have a brief meeting with some locals.
Personally, I enjoy train rides. I find them relaxing.
We got off at Grand Central, which is always fun to explore. Here’s the ceiling.
From Grand Central, our intention was to walk to our hotel, but we got tired of lugging our suitcases around. So we cabbed it!
The Nintendo Store
After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we started a slow migration toward the Empire State building… but we weren’t due there until after sunset. Time for plenty of stops along the way… the first of which… was the Nintendo Store.
Super touristy. Very crowded. Do not recommend. Not really sure what all the fuss is about, but hey, I got to see Mario, Luigi, and Link.
There was also a Pikachu, but there were far too many people around to take a picture.
Next, more walking! By this point, we all realized that we hadn’t really eaten much all day, so we stopped and got a hot dog.
Selene maintains that this hot dog was delicious. I, however, believe that we were all just very hungry.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
This is like the second or third time we’ve tried to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I don’t remember what happened before to cause the mission to fail, but we always found the doors locked.
We were very happy to find them unlocked and open this time.
There was actually a wedding service going on. I thought it was interesting that you could just walk in while people were getting married. There was some very beautiful music playing and the pipe organ was epic — you could really feel it in the core of your being.
It’s got crazy ceilings.
New York Public Library
It was getting later in the day, but it still wasn’t dark enough for the nighttime view of the city we were hoping to get at Empire, so there was time for one more stop: The New York Public Library.
The ceiling of the upper floor is painted beautifully. Yes, lots of crazy ceilings in NY.
Okay, call me uninformed if you wish, as I hadn’t been to any sort of physical library in a long time, but I really expected to see books somewhere inside.
“Where can we see some books?” I asked one of the attendants. I really just wanted to experience the smell of old books. You know? Libraries have a smell.
He educated that all of the books are kept underground in Bryant Park — and you have to make a request to have them brought up to you. Go figure.
And with that minor disappointment, it was finally dark enough outside.
The Empire State Building
Is it possible to do anything in New York City that is more touristy than the Empire State building? I don’t think so.
And you obviously have to pose inside of King Kong’s hand.
Here’s a couple of pictures of the view from the observation floor that is fully enclosed by windows.
And here’s a couple of pics from the top where everything is out in the open air.
Aren’t we cute?
Tacombi
By the time we descended back to ground level, we realized we were all very hungry again. On the same block, there’s a little taco place called Tacombi, so we popped in. It was delicious.
I actually got a burrito, but it was still delicious. And the churros are from a Christmas market that was going on in Bryant Park.
Day 2
The second day of our trip started with more walking.
This is a building shaped like a trunk.
Liberty Bagels
Is it legal to visit New York without getting a bagel? I don’t think it should be.
We waited in a giant line at Liberty Bagels. That place is ridiculously packed — and rightfully so, their bagels are delicious and they have an insane selection of cream cheeses.
I got their famous Rainbow Bagel, topped with half blueberry and half strawberry cream cheese. It was really good.
Central Park
This is probably one of my favorite places in New York. I’d like to go on a warm, Spring day to have a picnic.
And then all of a sudden, a thick fog rolled in and covered the tops of buildings.
And it started to rain. We took shelter in a nearby tunnel as we listened to a street performer play some classical guitar songs.
Then, off to the museum!
The MET Museum
The MET is one of those places where you could literally walk around all day and not be done.
I mean, I frequently search their archives for pictures of ancient stuff to use for the articles that I write, so seeing it in person is always awesome.
Like artwork on amphorae…
Or statues of dudes and carvings of stuff…
And look, it’s Pan! IO Pan!
And I can always get lost in the Ancient Egyptian wing…
They were currently doing an exhibition called “Divine Egypt.”
Yeah, of the nearly 300 photos I took, most of them are from the MET. I could have probably done an entire post just with those pictures.
And we finally got a chance to walk through the instruments section of the museum.
Alright, back to the hotel. It was raining really hard and we all needed a little rest.
Pasta Eater
We wanted to eat pasta, so we went to a place called Pasta Eater. Out of all the many places to eat pasta, however, this one was chosen specifically because they make one of the dishes in a wheel of parmesan cheese.
I’ve never had a bad experience with pasta made inside of a cheese wheel. Have you?
Macy’s
We stopped in at Macy’s flagship store, mostly because I needed a bathroom, but also in hopes that we could recreate some sort of Elf extravaganza by looking at Christmas tree displays through department store windows. There weren’t any decorated windows with trees, unfortunately.
They did have some sort of Christmas village going on in the lower floor, but we arrived 5 minutes after it was shut down and the security guard was very quick to let me know it was closed and that we should all gtfo.
I don’t really understand how a retail store has so many things that it can occupy such a large space. I’ve been in entire shopping malls that are smaller than this one Macy’s store. Capitalism at its finest.
Serendipity 3
Don’t worry. Even though we ate all that pasta earlier, we saved room for dessert.
We stopped into Serendipity 3 without a reservation and were initially told that it would be 45 minutes for a table. After some brief witchcraft, they sat us immediately.
After all, we just wanted to try their famous hot chocolate.
We got the s’mores flavor and it was unexpectedly delightful.
Pizza
As much as there should be a law against visiting New York without getting a bagel, there should also be one about pizza.
But I don’t care about bagels so much as I do pizza. And it doesn’t matter how much food we’ve already eaten or what time of day it is… if I walk by 20 different places that say “$1.50 Pizza” in neon lights, I’m going to have to go get one sooner or later.
And then it was time for bed.
Day 3
We had to check out of our hotel in the morning, but they held our bags for us so we could continue wandering around the city for a while.
I don’t know what this building is, but I guess I thought it looked cool, so I took a few pictures of it.
Our first stop of the day was a bookstore… uhhh… sorry, but I’m a little light on the details here. It was supposed to be where the filmed the tv show You or something like that. It didn’t catch my interest at all, so I didn’t take any pictures. Also, we sat outside in the rain for about 20 minutes past their scheduled opening time and nobody ever opened the store.
After that, we went to a little underground subway mall to check out some comics.
But the final stop of the day… truly the highlight… perhaps even the coolest part of the entire trip… was sushi.
Shirokuro
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to dine in a 2D comic strip? Maybe in a hand-drawn, black and white world?
Well… that’s basically what this place is.
It was pretty trippy.
But aside from the aesthetics, they also had amazing sushi.
I’ve never really been a sushi person. I’ll eat it, but I’ve never been like, “hey, I really want sushi right now.”
They may have converted me.
Seriously, it was that good.
Heading Home
And that was one of our last stops for the trip. We caught an Uber Airport Shuttle at the Port Authority Bus Station and went for a long drive to LaGuardia Airport.
LaGuardia was recently remodeled, apparently. We were there briefly for our last New York visit and it felt like one small, musty room… and the only food option was a tiny little shop that had some donuts, coffee, and snacks. But now… it’s huge! You basically have to walk through an entire shopping mall before you get to the gates. They even have a giant fountain of water that rains down from the ceiling with color-changing lights.
Once we made it past all the shopping, we were greeted by a large fight status display screen that claimed our return flight was cancelled. We continued to the gate to ask questions — there was nobody there, but the gate status said delayed.
And then it got delayed a little bit longer.
And then a little bit longer…
We eventually did make it back to Florida, however. I think in total we lost about 3 hours from the delays. Very happy it wasn’t a cancellation.
#eats #food #metMuseum #newYork #newYorkCity #nyc #pasta #pastaEater #serendipity3 #shirokuro #sushi #travel
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You Can’t Fight City Hall! The thread about Lothian Road Public School
Preamble. The schools of the “School Board” era of public education (those built 1872-1918) hold a particular fascination for me, one most profound where they have been “deconsecrated” and are either no longer in use as schools or have disappeared entirely. This thread began as a couple of lines for my own notes about the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” but soon snowballed into an alphabetical deep-dive into each.
Before the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, which created the Edinburgh School Board and kick-started a building programme of new schools, the west end of the city was served by church-run schools on Cambridge Street by St John’s Episcopal Church and in halls behind the Lothian Road United Presbyterian Church (this latter building would much later become the Filmhouse cinema). They were joined in 1862 when the Free Church of Scotland established a school for 270 children on Riego Street as a mission of Free St Cuthbert’s and Free Greyfriars‘ churches.
The Riego Street School, a photograph taken in 1914 by J. R. Hamilton of the Edinburgh Photographic Society by which time it was in use as a mission hall. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.After its initial flurry of construction to replace the worst of the schools it had inherited and fill gaps in provision, the School Board turned its attention to the Lothian Road area and acquired a tiny, undeveloped plot extending to only a quarter of an acre at the junction of Grindlay and Cambridge Streets. This land was feud from The Grindlay Trust for £2046 (for whom Grindlay Street is named) who maintained the rights to final approval of any designs. This new Lothian Road Public School was proposed in tandem with Canonmills Public School and at 800 pupils was of a capacity but with a density of 0.77 pupils per metre square it would be the most congested school that the Board would build.
Comparison of the 1849 and 1893 OS Town Plans of Edinburgh for Lothian Road, move the slider to compare. These show in 1849 two small church schools (an Episcopal School in the top right and a United Presbyterian School middle bottom) and in 1893 the Lothian Road Public School in the centre of the image, to the right of the open street square. On the right of the 1893 map are the School Board Offices on Castle Terrace. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandPlans by the Board’s architect Robert Wilson were approved in March 1879 and generally followed the Collegiate Gothic styling then in favour, looking very much like a truncated version of its peer at Canonmills but raised to a height of three storeys to maximise the limited space available. An unusual deviation however was a French-style tower with louvred windows on the principal (western) façade adjoining the neighbouring tenement on Grindlay Street. The boys’ entrance was at its base, girls and infants having a separate entrance on Cambridge Street. The ground floor accommodated the infant department in a large central classroom (42 feet by 27 feet) with three smaller rooms leading off of it. The first and second floors were for the older pupils, again each following the same arrangement as the ground floor. To the rear of the school were two rather small playgrounds, one each for boys and girls.
Lothian Road Public School, looking towards the Castle. The striped globe-shaped objects in the middle distance below the Castle are on the roofline of the Synod Hall on Castle Terrace. City of Edinburgh Council Architectural Drawings and Photographs via Trove.Scot, DP 102382Construction began in late June 1879, the accepted estimate for construction being £5,891 19s 6d (c. £640k in 2026). A site accident on 15th August 1879 injured joiner Alexander Glass when a crane failed and dropped an iron beam on his foot, part of which had to be amputated at the Royal Infirmary as a result. After this, work proceeded steadily and the new school school opened on 6th September 1880, the school on Victoria Terrace (an older building inherited from the Heriot Trust) closing as a consequence. The total cost including purchasing the site came out at £7,333 17s (c. £795k in 2026). As built the capacity was 825 pupils (280 infants and 545 juveniles) with a staff comprising the headmaster, infant mistress, a first assistant teacher and eight assistant teachers. They were supported by a sewing mistress, a singing master and twelve pupil teachers (older children who were remaining in education beyond the mandatory leaving age and who helped in monitoring and conveying the lessons to younger children). The school soon proved to be one of the top performers (helped in a large part because of the socio-economic circumstances of its neighbourhood) and in 1882 the staff were given a 15 percent salary increase on account of reaching the first class tier of the Board’s ranking system.
From the very beginning Continuation Classes (evening school for adults) were part of the school’s offering, with Advanced Classes “for young men” in Latin, grammar and English composition; basic elementary subjects and also more vocational ones such as bookkeeping, shorthand and commercial geography. Architectural and mechanical drawing joined the syllabus in 1885 and by 1889 advanced level mechanics and mathematics were also being taught. In 1898 there were 350 enrolled for continuation schooling with an average attendance of 302. Technical classes in confectionery were started by the Master Bakers of Edinburgh and Leith in 1903 “with a view to raising the standard of fancy baking in the district.”
A street artist at work on the pavement island outside Lothian Road Public School in 1903, while a crowd looks on. The sign on the lamp post reads “Cars Stop“, indicating that this was a passenger platform for the city’s cable tramway.In 1887, 909 scholars from Lothian Road were presented for examination, suggesting the school was more than 10% over capacity, and before the Scotch Education Department reduced class sizes there were up to 1,000 learners crammed in. The school was a victim of its own success, having the highest attendance rate in the city meaning it was always full. A janitor’s house was added in 1889 at a cost of £223, an extra play shed for the boys in 1892 and new classrooms for drawing and cookery in 1893 at a cost of £1,000.
A fire in March 1891, the result of a fireplace in a classroom causing surrounding woodwork to overheat, proved to be “of a trifling nature” and was extinguished by the staff and janitor before the fire brigade could arrive. Headmaster George Robertson, who had been in charge since opening, died in March 1893. His newspaper obituary recalled him as “a man of a kindly and courteous disposition, which secured for him cordial relations with his staff” and one who had cut his educational teeth in some of the city’s poorest quarters. He had started his career in the school of the Chalmers Territorial Free Church in the West Port of which he was also in the congregation and a deacon (church civic officer). The teachers and a deputation of the schoolchildren attended his funeral at the Grange Cemetery.
Grave marker of George Robertson (1849-93), his infant son John (1875-76) and his wives Anne Mullay (1846-75) and Christina Barclay Robertson (1849-1918). Photo credit Charlie via Findagrave.comThe school was only sixteen years old when ominous clouds began to form on its horizon: in 1896 its site was mooted as one of a number of potential locations for a new civic music hall. The City Hall, as it was then known, was the result of a gift to the city by Andrew Usher (1826-98) who’s family had made a vast fortune in brewing that he had made even larger through perfecting the process of blending Scotch Whisky: revolutionising the product, the industry and a nation’s drinking habits. His endowment was worth £100,000 (about £12 million in 2026) and trustees invested it until an appropriate site could be found.
Barrels of Andrew Usher’s “OVG” (Old Vatted Glenlivet) blended whisky in one of his bonds at St Leonards. This was the first mass-market blended whisky.A longlist of twelve sites was initially proposed including Princes Street Gardens, Melville Street, Atholl Crescent, opposite St Giles Cathedral on the High Street, Castle Terrace, Chambers Street, Port Hopetoun Basin, the junction of George and Castle Streets and – most controversially – the Meadows. London architect Alfred Waterhouse was engaged to survey each and draw up a shortlist of five, with Atholl Crescent being the favoured option.
Batholomew map, 1898, showing some of the proposed locations for the Usher Hall. A site on Atholl Crescent, to the west of these, was first favoured before attention moved to the area between Lothian Road and Castle Terrace (to the left of the middle of the three plots highlighted above.) Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.Plans changed in 1900 however when the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland merged with the Free Church of Scotland and the former’s Synod Hall on Castle Terrace was now surplus to requirements. In an ironic twist, this large venue was actually first built as an entertainments hall but quickly failed as a commercial venture. The Town Council leapt at the chance to acquire it with a view that it might somehow be a good site for the hall, or might even be re-purposed as it.
The Synod Hall from West Princes Street Gardens. City of Edinburgh Council Architectural Drawings and Photographs via Trove.Scot SC2575722Matters proceeded slowly for the next few years while the Town Council tried to acquire further adjacent land; it spent £15,000 buying plots totalling 2,719 square yards, on top of the 2,327 of the hall. In 1903 the Town Clerk, Thomas Hunter, was asked report “on the whole muddle” and set out options for the potential use of the Synod Hall site. Things were getting complicated by the fact the successor United Free Church were apparently attempting to buy the building back and had verbally offered the Corporation £40,000 for it ( the latter having paid just £25,000 a few years earlier). Proponents of the Synod Hall site argued it would be a less expensive proposition than the alternatives and sited facing the Castle it made for an appropriately grand backdrop. Detractors were quick to point out that the new hall proposed for that site would have 2,400 seats, just 300 more than the building it was proposed to demolish and replace!
While matters remained unresolved, the idea of siting what would become The Usher Hall in the vicinity of Castle Terrace had by now crystallised in the minds of the Town Council and their gaze soon shifted to the side of the block that faced on to Lothian Road. If the site of Lothian Road School was combined with the neighbouring tenements and added to the Council’s existing landholding, this gave a combined site of 4,221 square yards without demolishing the Synod hall and in 1904 firm plans were put in front of the Town Council recommending securing the school property.
A complication remained however in that the local authority did not possess the school – it remained the property of the School Board which was independent from the Town Council. An informal approach to the Board had been rebuffed and there was an unwillingness to resort to powers of compulsory purchase. Unfortunately Lord Provost Sir Robert Cranston then went and put his foot in it by letting it be known that the school buildings had been condemned by the Scotch Education Department: the implication being they would thus be easy to acquire, He was rebuked in a most public manner by the Board in a statement published by the Evening News. The Lord Provost wrote to the Board’s chair, the redoubtable Flora Stevenson, to set the matter straight.
Advert taken out by the School Board in response to the Lord Provost’s assertions that Lothian Road School had been condemned by the Scotch Education Department. Edinburgh Evening News, 13th February 1905.A meeting was convened behind close doors between senior representatives from both sides and soon ironed things out. The Board let it be known they would give up the school for a “fair price” and sufficient land for a replacement school. They hoped to get ground at Lady Lawson Street, the site of the city’s cattle market which was to be relocated, however this was acquired instead by the Education Department for the College of Art.
Once again the scheme stalled, but for Lothian Road Public School it remained business as usual. On account of its central location it remained a favoured venue for a number of organisations. From 1906 to 1910 it was used by the Edinburgh Esperanto Society for meetings and lessons, the Board charging only a nominal rent so as to help encourage that language. A similar privilege was given to the Celtic Union who began Gaelic language evening classes, transferring them from the Outlook Tower on Castlehill whose facilities they had outgrown. It was the Union’s intention to prove there was a public appetite for the language in order that the Board might formally adopt them for its own programme. This plan quickly came to fruition and from 1908 these classes transferred to the School Board’s Continuation curriculum and were run from Gilmore Place Public School. (Coincidentally, this latter building remains in education use as an annexe of James Gillespie’s High School and has recently become a centre for its Gaelic Medium Education learning.)
On June 15th 1909 a meeting was held at the school by “a few far-sighted ladies and sympathetic mothers” which formed the committee to establish the Girl Guiding movement in the city. In July that year a concert was held by the senior pupils of the school to celebrate the attendance records of Janet Gray, Nettie Bee, Janet Taylor and Jane Bogue who all had achieved a perfect attendance record in their seven years at the school; a combined total of twenty-eight years without a day missed. The Board presented medals to the girls and commended the headmaster and his staff. The takings from the concert were to be “devoted to the purchase of pictures with which to adorn the walls” of the school.
An Edinburgh School Board perfect attendance medal first issued in 1908-09 to Robert McKinlay of London Street School. Picture via Lockdale’s Auctioneers and Valuers, sale lot from 2024.Time was running short for the school however. It was now fourteen years after Usher’s gift to the city (and twelve after his death) and pressure was mounting to finally get his hall built. Finally on March 21st 1910 a report was submitted to the Lord Provost’s Committee of the Town Council recommending that it should be built on the Lothian Road site that included the footprint of the school. This was approved and at a closed meeting the following day the School Board agreed to its sale for £8,500 plus a new site at the City Slaughterhouse (the Killin’ Hoose) at Fountainbridge, which was about to be relocated to Slateford. The Board were initially offered one and a quarter acres but stuck to their guns that they would not settle for less than two – in the end they accepted one and three-quarters plus two buildings to convert into a janitor’s house. This still left the Board an estimated deficit of £17,000 (about £1.7 million in 2026) for the replacement, however they felt “willing to do all in their power to further the important scheme“.
Edinburgh Evening News, 7th January 1905 Shaded properties were those to be acquired for the final Usher Hall scheme. The area outlined by the dotted and thick solid line was already possessed by the Town Council.Lothian Road Public School closed for the last time at the end of the summer term of 1910. Its brief thirty year life was the shortest of any of the Board’s schools and in that time it was estimated that 9,780 children had passed through its doors. Its Continuation Classes were removed to James Gillespie’s School when the new term started, the infant department to temporary huts at Ponton Street and the remaining 590 children were largely sent to the old West Fountainbridge School while their new home was completed. This building had been closed a few years previously (it had actually been condemned) and its lower floors had by then been converted into a central cooking centre for free and “penny dinners” for schools in the city centre. One can only imagine what the smells of boiling cabbage were like for children trying to learn about the kitchens’ coppers which had a capacity to cook 650 gallons in one go – 130 stones (or 826kg) of potatoes could be cooked per hour!
On Tuesday March 13th 1911, workmen of Messrs Neil Mcleod & Sons began working on building operations for the Usher Hall and that Friday the Edinburgh Evening News reported on “the passing of Lothian Road School“. Wooden hoardings been erected around the building and children were helping the teachers throughout the day to clear the school.
Although now the exigencies of modern educational equipment call for something more up to date [it] has never failed to satisfy the powers that be in the work of educating pupils and securing high attendance percentages.”
“The Passing of Lothian Road School”, Edinburgh Evening News, 17th March 1911On the 22nd of the month, the demolition gangs moved in and it was reported less than a month later that a workman by the name of Alexander Young had been seriously injured at work on demolition, having been standing on a second floor staircase when it collapsed beneath him and he suffered a fall of thirty five feet as a result.
During and before images of the demolition of Lothian Road Public School, view looking towards Grindlay Street. Move the slider to compare. Photographs probably taken by Francis M. Chrystal of the Edinburgh Photographic Society. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries. During and before images of the demolition of Lothian Road Public School, view looking towards Cambridge Street. Move the slider to compare. Photographs probably taken by Francis M. Chrystal of the Edinburgh Photographic Society. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.In December 1910 it had been decided that the replacement school should be called Tollcross Public School and that it should accommodate 800 children (300 infants and 500 juveniles). Tenders were advertised in May 1911 and it would open in September 1912.
Site of Tollcross School, before shown on 1906 Goad Fire Insurance map when it was the municipal slaughter houses and after shown on 1944 OS Town Plan. Move the slider to compare. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandDemolition at Lothian Road proceeded swiftly and groundworks were advanced to allow the laying of the memorial foundation stones on July 19th 1911. King George V and Queen Mary performed the honours at a grand public ceremony, each dropping a stone into place by the turning of the handle of a crane and tapping it gently with a ceremonial mallet.
The stage is set, quite literally, for the laying of the Usher Hall’s foundation stones, July 19th 1911. These are on the site of the former Lothian Road School, the steepled building on the right of the photo being St. Columba’s Gaelic Free Church. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.The Usher Hall finally opened on March 16th 1914, seventeen years and two hundred and eighty two days after the initial gift was made. By all accounts it has been a grand success, but its troubled gestation is just one of many examples of the city’s difficult (and ongoing) history of schemes to try and build public concert halls!
Bust of Andrew Usher, unveiled at the opening of the Usher Hall. Photograph by Francis Caird Inglis, 1914. Delays to the scheme meant that Usher was long dead by the time his gift was completed. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.The previous chapter of this series looked at the James Clark School.
Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.Explore Threadinburgh by map:
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It Never Did: the thread about “why did Edinburgh become the home of Hogmanay?”
HOGMANAY, n.
[hɔgmə′ne:]The 31st December, the last day of the year, New Year’s Eve.
Generic Scots, origin much disputed, the only satisfactory etymology is the derivation from northern French dialect hoginane etc. from 16th c. French aguillanneuf, a gift given at the New Year, a children’s cry for such a gift, the second element of which appears to be l’an neuf, the New Year. In Scotland the word is probably due to the French Alliance and had been borrowed before 1560In a news article the other day, the BBC’s Edinburgh and East Reporter sought to answer the age old question of “Why did Edinburgh become the home of Hogmanay?” It’s not a bad little piece by any account, but doesn’t really get under the bonnet of how the city came to consider itself the “official” home of these festivities and it reminded me that this is something I have previously peered into without writing it up. So with just under nine hours to go until The Bells, let’s finish off the Threadinburgh year by
BBC news article screen shot “Why did Edinburgh become the home of Hogmanay?”The “official” Edinburgh’s Hogmanay™ festivities are an ancient tradition dating back to the last century, to the year 1993 to be precise. This three-day event was dreamed up by Unique Events Ltd. and the quasi-autonomous agency Edinburgh Marketing to “[package] Edinburgh more effectively” and thus “improve the visitor experience” at this time of year. All the bones of the now established programme were there; a torchlight procession, a concert in Princes Street Gardens and a street party with “fireworks spectacular” on Princes Street.
Newspaper advert for “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay”, The Scotsman – Saturday 11 December 1993Prior to this, the officially unofficial locus of Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh was on the High Street, outside the Tron Kirk. By the early 1990s, crowds of up to 20,000 were in regular attendance here but a particularly violent 1992, with 1,900 drink-related injuries treated at the Royal Infirmary and three separate sex attacks reported to the police, saw an official rethink.
Photo of crowds outside The Tron in 1991/92 Hogmanay. Edinburgh Evening News – 2nd January 1992In stepped the marketing and events types, buoyed by the success of the closing celebration of the city’s European Council Summit in 1992 which marked the end of the UK’s presidency and start of the Single Market. At the same time as trouble was kicking off outside the Tron, the Beacon Europe event was being started from Edinburgh Castle, the beginning of a chain of 700 beacons that stretched from John O’ Groats to Lands End with 300 more lit on the continent, the Greek Prime Minister lighting one at the chain’s far end in Athens to coincide with its start in Edinburgh.
Beacon Europe pamphlet, showing an engraving of a 16th century figure holding a beacon in their hand. Subtitled “European Unity Celebrations, 31 December 1992”The beacon was lit at the stroke of midnight after musician Fish led a free (but ticketed) sing-along in Princes Street Gardens, followed by a “children’s eco-anthem for Europe.” A laser fired from the Ross Bandstand then ignited a 30ft gas flame on the Castle’s Half Moon Battery.
Edinburgh 1992 beacon lighting on the Castle’s half moon battery at Hogmanay. Official photo via Edinburgh City LibrariesOfficial support quickly materialised behind the Hogmanay™ idea, the District Council were particularly keen, being somewhat embarrassed by the traditional public displays of lasciviousness, drunkenness and urination outside the Tron – and therefore also their own doorstep at City Chambers. Their support extended to helping financed the scheme to the tune of £200,000, along with Lothian Regional Council, Edinburgh and Lothians Enterprise and the Scottish Tourist Board. This meant that most of the outdoor events could be made free to the public. Not everyone was happy though – the scheme was branded “three days of hell” by Conservative councillor Ian Hoy and in the Evening News, then Labour councillor George Kerevan labelled it as “Come to Edinburgh and get smashed“.
The council and events types were also keen to do something about the traditional Hogmanay being a local event for local people, a mass blow-out which resulted in a 2-day public holiday and hangover with most businesses and much hospitality closed down. Pete Irvine of Unique Events told the ‘News “it’s a myth that New Year is a ‘great time’… there is nothing for the many people who are on holiday“. The stated founding aim was not just the “biggest and best Hogmanay party” in Scotland – a title Glasgow traditional claimed – but in the World. There was of course an irony that in order to do this, the traditional Scottish long New Year public holiday had to be eroded.
With official support and substantial public and corporate funding, Hogmanay™ proved a huge success. But an infamous 1996 street party where an estimated 400,000 people crammed the city centre in appalling weather, resulting in crush injuries and hypothermia, saw restrictions brought in. Initially this was by means of free wrist-bands (four per person) but it soon pivoted to becoming an ever-pricier ticket only event. The organisers had an eye on the long game from the beginning and had told the ‘News they had booked the pipe bands for the Millennium street party before the first one had even taken place.
22nd November 1997, The Scotsman, a queue of 1,000 people snakes up Bank Street towards the High Street to get some of the 180,000 free wrist bands for that year’s Hogmanay street party in Edinburgh being handed out from the Box Office on Waverley Bridge.Another cornerstone of Hogmanay™ is Ye Olde Tochlicht Processione, also an invention of 1993. This was co-opted from a mix of long established Scottish rural traditions like the Comrie Flambeaux, Biggar Ne’erday Bonfire, Stonehaven Fireballs and the Masonic processions of the Borders which mark the Feast of St. John the Evangelist.
1996-7 Torchlight procession advertising booklet for Edinburgh, sponsored by the Bank of Scotland. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.The event has continued to grow in its scale – and the volume of debate and criticism it generates – ever since and is a substantial industry in itself. The rest, as they say, is history, and the answer to the question “Why did Edinburgh become the home of Hogmanay” is of course because it deliberately set out do so and has spent a huge amount of public and private money in pursuit of that goal over the last three decades. The other answer to the same question is that the city is not the “home of Hogmanay” at all, and has no authority to claim itself as so. Hogmanay is an ungovernable, spontaneous celebration that is owned by nobody and belongs to all of Scotland. Edinburgh just happens to have commercialised the idea, declared itself as brand owner, and in the process totally lost the whole point of it.
And on that slightly snarky note I shall thank you for reading this far, for sticking with Threadinburgh and that you have a very Happy New Year when it comes and a 2026 full of local history. If you’re still in need of a further fix of appropriate reading material for the time of year, I can suggest this culinary thread about the history of the New Year Day steak pie.
“Hogmanay At The Tron”, 2013 mural by Chris Rutterford painted within the Tron Kirk itself.Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.Explore Threadinburgh by map:
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If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.
NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
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All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
GPS tag helps police catch £12,500 tool thief across Carmarthenshire and Powys
Aston Amos, 35, of Bewdley, and Robbie Bate, 27, of Stourport‑on‑Severn, admitted stealing tools worth more than £12,500 from five vehicles during overnight raids in July.
Raids across two counties leave tradesmen out of work
Dyfed‑Powys Police received reports of break‑ins in Brecon and Builth Wells on 17 July, followed by further thefts in Newcastle Emlyn and Llandysul on 24 July. Court documents show the stolen items included a chainsaw worth around £500, roofing tools valued at £1,500, and other equipment worth thousands of pounds. The damage and loss left several tradesmen unable to work.
Investigators linked the crimes to an Audi A4 seen in each area. Hotel records later showed Bate had checked into accommodation in St Clears using the car’s registration number. Amos, meanwhile, was wearing a GPS monitoring tag at the time. Location data placed him at the scene of each theft. When questioned, he told officers: “You have put me in the area. That’s all you have done, put me in the area,” and even claimed never to have heard of Carmarthenshire.
Police seized the Audi and recovered some of the stolen tools before requesting assistance from West Mercia Police to arrest the pair.
Court hears of past convictions as sentences handed down
At Swansea Crown Court on 14 November, Amos was jailed for nine months, consecutive to a sentence he was already serving. Bate received a nine‑month sentence suspended for two years, along with a 12‑week curfew, 160 hours of unpaid work, and 20 rehabilitation activity days. The court heard Amos had 15 previous convictions for 24 offences, while Bate had eight previous convictions for 22 offences.
Detective Constable Carl Thomas, who led the case, said:
“This was a strong investigation led by North Ceredigion CID with a huge amount of support from a number of departments across the force to apprehend two travelling criminals.
Amos and Bate came into the Dyfed‑Powys area with the aim of targeting vans that might contain valuable tools, working their way through two counties to acquire a vast number of items.
Thankfully we have been able to recoup some of the stolen items for the victims, however these thefts will still have caused a loss of income and inconvenience for those affected.”
#brecon #builthWells #dyfedPowysPolice #gpsMonitoringTag #llandysul #newcastleEmlyn #robbery #stClears #theft #toolTheft
-
Saunders and Felagund’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Dr. A.N. Grier
Saunders
Rather than delve into the not-so-good parts of a rollercoaster 2024, which had its share of rough circumstances, I’m using this rare soapbox moment to focus on the positives of another action-packed year of metal. Celebrating ten years of writing at Angry Metal Guy was an achievement that crept up. All these years later I remain beyond stoked and privileged to still be contributing in a small way as the blog has snowballed into the juggernaut it is today.
Unfortunately, I haven’t quite fulfilled my writing productivity goals in 2024. However, even when motivation slips, it still gives me great satisfaction to have a platform to share my thoughts and opinions on the music I love. I cannot match the writing chops or word smithery of our most esteemed scribes. However, honing my craft within my own abilities and drawing inspiration from the excellence of my fellow writers continues to motivate me and hopefully steer listeners toward some great music.
While it may not compete with some of the top-shelf individual years over the past decade, 2024 featured a lot of top-shelf stuff across a multitude of genres sprawled over the heavy spectrum. As per usual, the plethora of releases was overwhelming and again I stumble into the end-of-year chaos with a hefty list of stuff I need to check out or spend more time with. Nevertheless, from the numerous albums, I spent quality time with throughout the year, I eventually arrived at the releases that mattered the most to me, with many gems to no doubt uncover in the end-of-year wash-up. This is probably one of the more eclectic lists I’ve cultivated during my time here. Not sure exactly why that was the case, but a year of fluctuating, uneasy shifts on personal and professional fronts perhaps contributed to the more diverse listening rotation.
To wrap up, a heartfelt thank you to our beloved readership for making this all worthwhile and to all my colleagues/writing buddies and general crew of awesome people comprising the ever-expanding blog. Also shout-out to my list buddy Felagund, here’s hoping our combined powers partially align or otherwise complement and provide some listening inspiration. Lastly, a special heads-up to Angry Metal Guy, Steel Druhm, and the rest of the AMG editors and brains trust for whipping us all into order and doing the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting to keep this great thing chugging along. Cheers.
#ish: Anciients // Beyond the Reach of the Sun – Personal dramas, line-up shuffles, and an extended stint away from the studio failed to hamper the triumphant return of Canada’s progressive-stoner-sludge heavyweights Anciients. Beyond the Reach of the Sun marks a strong return that expands the band’s songwriting vision through a standout collection of ambitious, heavily prog-leaning cuts. Loaded with dazzling guitar work and gripping songwriting, Beyond the Reach of the Sun finds the band recalibrating and hitting their songwriting straps without compromising the genre-splicing traits and character they formed across their first couple of albums. It is not a perfect album by any means, with some niggling elements rearing their head, mostly via the way of some bloat, sequencing issues, and a flat production job. But with songs of the outstanding quality of “Despoiled,” “Is it Your God,” and “The Torch” leading the way, the album’s issues fail to extinguish my overall enthusiasm.
#10. Madder Mortem // Old Eyes New Heart – I came to veteran Norwegian progressive metal outfit Madder Mortem late in the game, just as they appeared to be hitting modern-era career peaks via Red in Tooth and Claw, and most recent album, 2018’s Marrow. Six long years in the wilderness and Madder Mortem return without missing a beat, continuing to pump out expressive, powerfully composed jams of their trademark mix of Goth-tinged progressive/alt metal. Although I enjoyed the album from the outset, if anything it has grown in stature since its early year release. The album’s subtleties and bevy of emotion-charged hooks bury deeper into the brain upon repeat doses. The tough period the band endured prior to the unleashing of Old Eyes New Heart is reflected in the album’s raw, potent swell of emotions and overall depth. This is further reflected in the diverse nature of the colorful songwriting, swinging from bluesy, melancholic restraint (“Cold Hard Rain”), pop-infected prog (‘Here and Now”) to urgent, dramatic, and infectious rock powerhouses (“The Head That Wears the Crown,” “Towers”).
#9. Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – As a longtime Opeth fanboy, it is a cool feeling to be genuinely enthused about a new LP, nearly three decades since their underrated Orchid debut. All the pre-release buzz centered on the return of Åkerfeldt’s famed death growls. While certainly a cool and unexpected touch, the fourteenth album The Last Will and Testament is not merely a nostalgic throwback to the band’s glory days. Instead, Opeth fuses those quirky, vintage prog tools from their modern-era material and fuses them into an intricate concept album that is a significant step up from the past couple of uneven efforts and easily their best work since at least 2014’s Pale Communion. Dazzling musicianship, jazzy licks, and inventively crafted, yet notably more focused and concise writing marked an album that features better production and tighter, punchier songs than the band has written in a while. It is also Opeth’s heaviest, most riff-centric release in many moons. Despite the trademark melancholic moods and darker shades, it also sounds as if the band is having real fun, reinforced by the abundance of bouncy, infectious riffs, shreddy solos, and boisterous grooves littering the album. Likely would have earned higher honors with time, as I still feel there is much more to discover.
#8. Oceans of Slumber // Where Gods Fear to Speak – Previously enjoyed the idea of Texan progressive metal powerhouse Oceans of Slumber, more than the execution and finished product. In particular, 2016’s Winter has grown in stature over the years. Yet for much of their career, it has felt like a case of incredible talent and potential not fully realized. That changed on Where Gods Fear to Speak, arguably the band’s most complete, consistent, and hook-laden release. When I felt the prog itch throughout 2024, Where Gods Fear to Speak was often the go-to. An album of lush, moody, drama-filled compositions, deftly contrasting soaring melodies, and skyscraping hooks with muscular riffage and heftier bouts of aggression, the writing is tighter and more compelling than previous efforts. Cammie Beverly’s scene-stealing vocals may take center stage, but this is very much a complete effort, where the rich soundscapes, brooding atmospheres, and technical musicianship shine brightly. Loaded with killer jams, including stirring highlights, “Don’t Come Back from Hell Empty Handed,” “Wish,” and “Poem of Ecstasy,” Where Gods Fear to Speak finally finds Oceans of Slumber firing on all cylinders.
#7. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – In theory, Pyrrhon should be one of my favorite bands. I used to eat up all manner of skronky, dissonant, and abrasive extreme metal. Perhaps my thirst for the weirder, experimental forms of death metal and dissonance has softened over the years. However, while largely enjoying Pyrrhon’s career up to this point, Exhaust feels like the album I have been waiting for the band to deliver. Exhaust dropped unexpectedly and that element of surprise flowed through another oddball, deranged platter of wildly inventive, chaotic, yet oddly accessible (in Pyrrhon terms) extreme metal. From cautious, challenging early listens, I found myself increasingly compelled to revisit Exhaust on a regular basis, marveling at its flexible, fractured songwriting, nimble musicianship, and raw hardcore punk edge infiltrating the dissonant, experimental death metal at the core of the Pyrrhon experience. Gritty production, perfectly unhinged vocal performance from Doug Moore, and occasional burst of groove and shred of accessibility punctuating the chaos (“First as Tragedy, Then as Farce,” “Strange Pains,” “Stress Fractures”) lend the album a refreshingly addictive edge to counterbalance its abrasive, challenging angles.
#6. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – New Jersey’s Replicant previously exhibited their brawny, yet brainy mix of gnarled dissonance, technicality, and knuckle-dragging street grooves to powerful effect. However, third album Infinite Mortality levelled the playing field as the band upped their game to elite levels of controlled chaos, while the writing remained challenging yet strangely accessible and memorable. In spirit, the ugly mix of harshness, discordance, and headbangable blockbuster grooves reminds me of the great Ion Dissonance. Meanwhile, the contrasting blend of unorthodox melody, jagged dissonance, and stuttering, complex song structures come together with cohesion and blunt force, punctuated by the occasional warped solo. Like a harsh, harrowing soundtrack to a bleak dystopian future, Infinite Mortality is a mean, chunky, technical, and deliciously primal slab of advanced disso-tech-death excellence.
#5. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Notably death metal in 2024 was dominated by brutal, dissonant varieties, designed to scramble brains and challenge minds while battering the listener into submission. Refreshingly, unheralded surprise packet Noxis unloaded a killer debut LP to savor. Drawing from an array of old-school influences and ’90s touchstones without ever aping one particular band or style, Noxis unleashed a nostalgic yet unique death metal platter. Managing to at once sound raw and unclean, technical and brutal, thrashy and proggy, sharp and refined, Noxis blaze their way craftily through memorable, riff-infested wastelands with unbridled aggression, speed, and finesse, rubber-stamped by some exceptional bass work. Remnants of the classic Floridian scene mingle with powerful influences, including early Cryptopsy, later-era Death, Atheist, and Cannibal Corpse, resulting in a finished product that sounds fresh and vital, while containing an endearing, workmanlike old-school charm. It works a treat, and the top-notch and frequently inventive writing reveals impressive depth and character that rewards repeat listens.
#4. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – There are some serviceable, enjoyable thrash-aligned albums in 2024, but one stood head and shoulders above the competition. Comprised of a grizzled bunch of underground Canadian musicians hellbent on fusing advanced technical thrash assaults with sick old-school death-thrash, a fuckton of killer riffs, quirky vocoder action, and razor-sharp hooks, Lower Form Resistance has consistently provided an adrenaline-filled shot of thrash when needing that specific fix. Dissimulator rewires thrash in intricate and intriguing ways, giving me the same giddy rush as past experiences with the likes of Capharnaum, Vhol, and Revocation. Excited to hear what these dudes conjure up next. In the meantime, Lower Form Resistance will continue to keep my thrash cogs oiled through potent bangers like “Warped,” “Automoil & Robotoil,” and “Hyperline Underflow.”
#3. Huntsmen // The Dry Land – After somehow sleeping on 2018 debut American Scrap and subsequently their apparent sophomore slumping second album, I finally righted my wrongs by delving into the strange and wildly unique woodlands of Chicago metal troupe Huntsmen and their phenomenal third LP, The Dry Land. A raw, rustic, and emotionally striking explosion of genre-bending excellence, where blackened sludge, doom, post, prog, folk, and Americana influences coalesce into an intoxicating and frequently thrilling musical formula, rich in detail and emotion. The skilled genre mashing is cohesive and genuine, loaded with surprises, structural twists, dramatic ebbs and flows, deep burrowing hooks, and contrasting vocal trade-offs to seal the deal on a remarkable album. Despite only a small handful of songs comprising the album (six in total), Huntsmen make every moment count, from blazing longer numbers with stunning contrasts and peaks (“This, Our Gospel,” “In Time, All things”) to plaintive folk dusted rock (“Lean Times”), through to the stunningly moving, compact power of “Rain.” Huntsmen occupy a unique space in the metalverse.
#2. Borknagar // Fall – I have a slightly odd history with Norwegian legends Borknagar. I recall being taken by their excellent 2012 album Urd, yet oddly enough I didn’t extend my listening beyond that isolated release. Things changed with 2019’s True North, a typically solid offering that inspired my explorations of portions of their vast and consistently engaging catalog. The twelfth album Fall marks their first album since True North and again features an outstanding line-up of talents, including founding mastermind Øystein Brun, multi-talented keyboardist/clean vocalist Lars Nedland, and ace up their sleeve bass/vocal powerhouse ICS Vortex. Fall smacks of a veteran band not merely content to coast on their laurels but rather carve freshly creative trajectories for their now signature blend of epic prog, triumphant Viking, and icy black metal to thrive. An extra shot of old-school blackened aggression and fuller production boosted an album of consistently high quality. Fall became a true all-occasions album in 2024; often uplifting me when I felt down or giving me a punchy charge when the need arose. Wall-to-wall prime cuts feature, headlined by the storming “Summits,” moody earworm, “The Wild Lingers”, and the striking, epic shimmer of “Moon.” Stalwarts still operating at the top of their game.
#1. Counting Hours // The Wishing Tomb – Not since Fvneral Fvkk’s remarkable Carnal Confessions debut has a doom album struck as hard as the second platter of sadboi misery perpetrated by Finland’s excellent Counting Hours. While doom and its death-doom companion may not always dominate my listening habits, when an album does hit that sweet spot, it usually leaves a profound impact. Few forms of metal generate the emotional resonance of quality doom and Counting Hours tears at the heartstrings through a riveting collection of gorgeously played and executed death-doom ditties, spearheaded by former members of the hugely underrated Rapture. Ilpo Paasela backs up the stellar musicianship, superb guitar work, and tight, addictive songwriting with a stunning mix of emotively raw, stately cleans and rugged death growls. The whole package packs an emotional wallop, yet its soulful edge and hopelessly addictive hooks and sing-along moments prevent a drop too deeply into depressive waters, as such earwormy gems as “Timeless Ones,” “All That Blooms (Needs to Die),” and “Starlit / Lifeless” attest. The Wishing Tomb is an epic album to lose yourself in.
Honorable Mentions:
- Blood Incantation // Absolute Elsewhere – Did I overrate Absolute Elsewhere? Possibly. Is it overhyped? Absolutely. Yet Blood Incantation remains a brave, adventurous band and Absolute Elsewhere represents a welcome return to form from these gifted, star-gazing space cadets. A flawed but effective fusing of their death metal roots with an increased focus on ’70s-inspired progressive rock and trippy psych flourishes.
- 200 Stab Wounds // Manual Manic Procedures – I barely took notice of Cleveland’s 200 Stab Wounds debut LP, but sophomore album Manual Manic Procedures provided one of the real surprise packets in 2024. It very nearly cracked the main list sheerly through heavy rotation. A meaty, adrenaline-charged shot of muscular death into the veins.
- Ripped to Shreds // Sanshi – Another reliably awesome slab of old-school death from Andrew Lee and co. Increasingly shreddy, extravagant solo work and a grindier edge powered one of their best albums yet.
- Nails // Every Bridge Burning – Nails is back and that is a great thing. New line-up, the same mode of short, sharp, blast-your-skin-off aggression, head-caving grooves, and hate-filled energy.
- Unhallowed Deliverance // Of Spectre and Strife – A pleasant surprise and one of the best debut albums in 2024. German tech-slam-brutal death juggernaut Unhallowed Deliverance knocked it out of the park with limited subtlety but a heap of talent, creativity, and songwriting smarts.
- Wormed // Omegon – With Ulcerate’s latest release not quite hitting me on the intense level of others, and having run out of time to properly digest and rank the obvious high-quality new Defeated Sanity, Wormed’s long-awaited return gave me my fix of calculated brutality via futuristic, slammy, technical brutal death executed in typically warped, mind-blowing fashion.
- Khirki // Κυκεώνας – Following up an impressive, well-received debut LP is no easy feat. Kenstrosity steered many of us from the AMG community onto Greek band Khirki’s Κτηνωδία debut in 2021, so I eagerly anticipated Khirki’s return for the second go around. The resulting album met expectations through a fiery, passionate, and eclectic mix of metal, rock, and traditional Greek folk.
- Sergeant Thunderhoof // The Ghost of Badon Hill – A late-year list shaker, underappreciated UK psych-prog-stoner outfit Sergeant Thunderhoof unleased a more restrained, psych-enhanced, and introspective album, showing signs of being a genuine grower since its November release, despite not quite hitting the irresistible highs of 2022’s This Sceptred Veil.
Disappointments o’ the Year:
- Several highly anticipated albums did not quite land the killer blows I was hoping for. Respectable to very good albums, but I expected better from Vola (admittedly a grower), Caligula’s Horse, Ihsahn, and especially Zeal and Ardor.
Non-Metal Picks:
- St Vincent, SIR, Michael Kiwanuka, Allie X, MGMT
Song ‘o the Year:
- Counting Hours – “Timeless Ones”
There were any number of standouts and potential Song o’ the Year candidates that could have nabbed top honors, including several counterparts from Counting Hours’ spectacular sophomore album. In the end, I settled on the (proper) album opener of my album of the year, as the tune that really hooked me initially from an album that captivated my soul. A rich, emotive piece of dark, melodic death-doom with superlative guitar melodies and a chorus for the ages. Honorable mention to Huntsmen’s “Rain.”
Felgund
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of living in interesting times. But as that wizened sage, Gandalf so wisely reminds us: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
So what have I been doing with the time that has been given? A fair amount, as it turns out. 2024 has certainly been a tumultuous year for our small family. On the one hand, the business that I launched in 2023 has been chugging along for well over a year and a half now, and I think I’m far enough along in the process that I feel (at least somewhat) comfortable calling it a success. The baby that we brought home from the hospital is now, inexplicably, a whip-smart 7-year-old. My wife’s career continues to blossom as she continues to moonlight as my business manager. Things are good.
And yet 2024 also proved to be harder than I’d ever imagined. My dad died back in April, an experience that remains both devastating and surreal. He’d had multiple sclerosis for well over a decade, and as I’m sure many of you know, MS is a grasping, grinding petty little disease. But for as much as it stole, it proved incapable of taking away who my father was; it couldn’t quite make off with what made him him. He was my best friend before his diagnosis, and he remained my best friend up until that impossible evening in a hospital room in early April. Truth be told, he’s still my best friend, only now he’s free to walk wherever I see fit to imagine him.
Despite my best efforts, I realized pretty quickly you can’t capture a life in a few paragraphs. I couldn’t do it in his eulogy, and I certainly won’t attempt to do so on a heavy metal blog. But I will share this:
My dad was a carpenter by trade and an artist by choice; he was a fisherman and a cook; he was a handyman, a builder, a designer, and a writer; he taught himself how to play guitar, and he’s perhaps the singular reason why I’m writing for this website today. Because while he wasn’t a fan of metal himself, he instilled in me not only a love for music, but an interest in the process; in the people who create it, the minds that shape it, and the passion that births it.
He played in countless bands in his youth, and I can think of no better way to honor his memory than by sharing some of his music with you all. With Steel’s blessing, I’m embedding a two-song demo (“A Place in Time” and “Street Legal”) ripped from a cassette my old man recorded in the late 80s, so apologies in advance for the questionable quality. He composed both the music and lyrics, played guitar and bass, and sang on both tracks, which were devised when he was perhaps at his Rush fanboy peak. It’s been a delight and a balm hearing his voice again, captured as it was in a moment when he was young, vibrant, and doing what he loved.
So here we are. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, I managed to consume a fair amount of metal this year. And while I was far less productive as a writer than I’d hoped and I wasn’t able to listen to as much as I originally planned, I discovered a plethora of new music here on AMG that soothed what Neil Peart once referred to as his “baby soul.” And surprisingly, I found much of that solace in the discordant, the dissonant, and the off-kilter, as the list below probably reflects. But more importantly, I found compassion, support, and understanding amongst the writing staff here. And while they may not know it, I will be forever thankful for the folks who showed me such boundless kindness during a year that felt decidedly unkind. Thank you, my friends.
Now let’s get to to it. Here are my top ten(ish) albums of 2024.
#(ish). Beaten to Death // Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis – It almost feels like cheating to place an 18-minute album in my Top 10(ish), but here we are. 2024 proved to be a year where my interest in grind and grind-adjacent acts expanded, and this “ish” is the result. While I wasn’t aware of Beaten to Death prior to this release, I was quickly swept away by Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis’ ability to bludgeon its idiosyncratic way into my brain and coil there like the most glorious of infections. Beaten to Death has delivered a concise helping of grinding goodness, with crispy prog edges and a schmear of off-kilter humor. Back catalog, here I come!
#10. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum // Of the Last Human Being – Gardenstale’s gushing review of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s fourth album Of the Last Human Being was a tough endorsement to ignore, as was an invocation of Diablo Swing Orchestra. So I threw caution to the wind and leaped headlong into this experimental maelstrom. And I’m so happy I did. Don’t let the runtime dissuade you; Of the Last Human Being doesn’t feel nearly as long as it is, and over that relatively brief timespan, you’re provided with a front-row seat to the aural equivalent of perhaps the most fun kind of performance art. Hard-edged riffs, off-kilter instrumentation, ominous theatrics interlaced with beautiful, sparse melodies, and all capped off by the deranged croons of chief carnival barker Nils Frykdahl. If I’d spent more time with this record it may have placed higher, but as it is, I’m happy it’s making an appearance at the number 10 spot.
#9. Sur Austru // Datura Strǎhiarelor – Despite Twelve underrating this album, I suppose I should commend him for introducing me to Sur Austru in the first place. This Romanian outfit’s third full-length Datura Strǎhiarelor is a potent blend of rumbling, blackened fury, and melodic folk metal, with plenty of flute work, orchestration, choral elements, and plaintive keys thrown in. And, while the gruff, chanting growls might rub some listeners the wrong way, it was this aspect more than any other that first grabbed my attention, and proceeded to keep it. And while I haven’t a clue what the vocalists are shouting at me, the tone and placement in the mix feels just right, especially for this brand of folk-infused black metal. Such is the strength of Sur Austru that this album began as my “ish” before eventually working its way to ninth. Mightly bold of them.
#8. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Some of the entries on this list were either late discoveries or took some time before they got their dirty little hooks in me. Necrowretch’s Swords of Dajjal was not one of them. As soon as I spun it back in February, it was love at first listen. Swords of Dajjal focuses on the greater deceiver in Islamic mythology, and explores that tradition through the use of ferocious blackened death metal (with perhaps a dollop or two of thrash thrown in). Although, as Carcharodon rightly pointed out in his review, the “blackened” part is doing most of the heavy lifting here. And that’s not a bad thing, as Necrowretch is more than adept at crafting memorable hooks and an engaging atmosphere without sacrificing heft or freneticism. Swords of Dajjal is an unmitigated success, and my only real gripe is that Necrowretch dropped a new platter so early in the year that it may go overlooked on too many end-of-year lists.
#7. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – Grier and I may not see eye to eye on music, but what can I say? The man knows his way around gothic metal. So when he awarded a 4.0 to Weird Tales back in April, what was I to do? If you said wait several months before bothering to press play, you’re correct. But folks, I may have been late to the party, but it’s a rager nonetheless. The Vision Bleak has produced an emotive, memorable, downright heart-wrenching concept album; one that is both lush and harsh, both achingly melodic and morosely heavy. Weird Tales isn’t my usual cup of tea, but The Vision Bleak has rejected my assertion by doing what many similar acts appear incapable of doing: cohesively balancing “gothic” and “metal” without lessening the impact of either. A well-earned addition, indeed.
#6. Stenched // Purulence Gushing from the Coffin – While Rots-giving may have been tarnished by a less-than-stellar release from Rotpit back in November, I’ve moved on since then, and am now proudly celebrating Stenched-mas. The Manly n’ Mighty Steel reviewed this one-man grimy death outfit last month, and even though I was still smarting from my failed attempt to poach Purulence Gushing from the Coffin for myself, I can’t in good conscience deny how hard this globular mass of funerary muck rips. From the first track to the last, you’ll be rocking a near-permanent stank face, and you can’t blame that solely on the fungal miasma wafting from your speakers. The truth is, Stenched has delivered a masterclass in riff-heavy, moss-encrusted death metal; the kind that’s perfect to drag your knuckles to. Purulence Gushing from the Coffin is the exact kind of no-frills, all-guts death metal I needed in 2024, and that’s why it’s sitting pretty at 6.
#5. Aklash // Reincarnation – How are we already at the Top Five? And what better way to kick off this most treasured of positions than with the melodic black metal stylings of Aklash on their fourth album Reincarnation? Aklash received a solid write-up in June’s Stuck in the Filter by our very own Kenstrosity, and their most recent outing has continued to climb higher and higher on my list the more I’ve spun it. Part black metal, part progressive metal, part trad metal (epic choruses included), Reincarnation packs a wallop in just a short 37 minutes. overflowing with varied instrumentation and keen lyrical chops, grandiose in scope and medieval in tone, yet more personal than it has any right to be, Aklash is firing on all cylinders here, and, as such, is perfectly suited for anyone’s top 5.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – And, just like that, more death metal rears its ugly head. I’m still surprised at how high up Devenial Verdict’s sophomore album landed on my list, primarily because their 2022 debut Ash Blind failed to connect. But Blessing of Despair seems to have arrived just in time for my increasing flirtation with the cruel mistress that is dissodeath. As such, I found myself utterly taken with Devenial Verdict’s latest, overflowing as it is with equally heavy doses of discordant ferocity and mournful melodicism. And while Blessing of Despair is an undeniably heavy record, it makes sure to leave plenty of room for quieter moments, where slower sections and sparse instrumentation have room to bloom and breathe. This approach not only results in a wonderfully balanced album but ensures the bludgeoning that’s sure to follow is all the more impactful. Consider me reformed.
#3. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – I’m fairly certain that any death metal fan worth their salt is legally required to include the latest Aborted release on their end-of-year list. Over 25 years and 12 albums into their carnal career, these death metal titans need no introduction. Blood-drenched, gore-soaked, and happily grindy, Aborted are in a league all their own, and it shows on Vault of Horrors. The music remains tight and explosive, building a menacing atmosphere that pervades only the stickiest of grindhouse theaters. Besides, with songs dedicated to classics like Return of the Living Dead, Hellraiser, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, how could I do anything other than include this gem of an album in my top 3? I for one welcome our horror-themed overlords.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – What began as a random pick from the promo sump by one Kenstrosity quickly rose to become a favorite of the death metal maniacs (those with good taste, anyway) on the AMG staff. Now, more importantly, it’s nabbed the second-highest honor on my year-end list. Noxis’ first full-length album Violence Inherent in the System sounds like the product of a much more experienced band. The songwriting is top-notch, the performances are big and bold without being overwrought, and the sticky riffs stay wedged in your mind long after the album ends. And yet for all of its bombast, Noxis is still able to infuse their debut with oodles of atmosphere, not to mention a level of balance between death metal orthodoxy and fresh bells and whistles (and horns) that would make even Thanos grimace in jealousy. Special attention must also be paid to Joe Lowrie’s snare tone and Dave Kirsch’s godlike bass performance.
#1. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I suppose I was always destined to end up here, I just didn’t know it right away. Pyrrhon’s fifth full-length Exhaust didn’t initially grab me the way some of my other entries did. However, on repeat spins, I found myself falling deeper and deeper into its frenetic, dissonant embrace, discovering both nuances and subtleties amidst the proggy cacophony. On an album that thoroughly explores the universal theme of exhaustion, be it physical, mental, social, or economic, Pyrrhon’s brand of noise-tinged death metal feels like the ideal tool with which to scrawl their livid manifesto. But what truly sets Exhaust apart is its unrelenting groove, stoked by Pyrrhon’s inventive capacity to not only feature but to uplift its unique brand of melodicism amidst the unrelenting maelstrom. It’s hard to overstate just how critical this aspect is to Exhaust’s success, especially since it would have been so easy to excise. But Exhaust’s manic ferocity, which swerves jerks, hops, and heaves, is all the better for it. And while its charms were initially lost on me, I found it easier and easier to finally succumb to its tremulous tendrils. Any record with that kind of staying power (not to mention a theme so applicable to my own experiences this past year) has more than earned my top spot for 2024.
Honorable Mentions:
- Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Defeated Sanity is a brutal tech death stalwart at this point, and now seven albums in, Chronicles of Lunacy only further cements that status. Chronicles of Lunacy provides the listener with track after aggressively intricate track exploring lunacy in its many forms, but the real treat here is Lille Gruber’s masterful performance on the drums.
- Full of Hell // Coagulated Bliss – while I don’t think I’ve become a complete grind convert, albums like Full of Hell’s Coagulated Bliss and Beaten to Death’s Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis certainly set me on the path to one day become a proud proselytizer. You can’t deny Coagulated Bliss’ infectious groove and whirlwind pace, although I agree with the Dolphin’s rating adjustment.
- Undeath // More Insane – no, it’s not as good as It’s Time…to Rise from the Grave, and there’s no reason to pretend that it is. Nor does it need to be. While More Insane may not reach the lofty heights of its predecessor, it still showcases an Undeath doing what it does best, while also hinting at an undeniable ability to evolve into an even sharper, more fetid OSDM beast.
- 200 Stab Wounds // Manual Manic Procedures – while I wasn’t entirely kind in my review of 200 Stab Wounds’ debut, Mark Z suggested I take their follow-up Manual Manic Procedures for a spin, and I’m glad I did. It’s clear they’ve grown as artists, and their sophomore effort reflects that heightened maturity. Keep stabbing on, your crazy diamonds!
- Mamaleek // Vida Blue – I’m confident this album captures what it would sound like if Tom Waits listened to too much Ashenspire before leaving for the recording studio. Long, difficult, and bold, I found myself returning again and again to Vida Blue no matter how challenging I found the experience. While this album didn’t make my top 10, I’m convinced a future Mamaleek release will.
Song o’ the Year:
- Noxis – ”Skullcrushing Defilement”
This song goes hard. Exceptionally hard. In truth, there are any number of tunes from Violence Inherent in the System that fit the “Song o’ the Year” bill, but I had to give the edge to “Skullcrushing Defilement.” Not only does it begin with an absolutely searing bass solo, but it sets the stage for the four-string onslaught that’s to come. There’s a noticeable Cannibal Corpse influence that I can’t help but love here, alongside heaping doses of maniacal melodicism, turbocharged technicality, and an earworm chorus to boot. Abandon all cervical spines, ye who enter here.
#200StabWounds #2024 #Aborted #Aklash #AllieX #Anciients #Archspire #Atheist #BeatenToDeath #BlogPosts #BloodIncantation #Borknagar #CaligulaSHorse #CannibalCorpse #Capharnaum #CountingHours #Crytopsy #Death #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #DiabloSwingOrchestra #Dissimulator #Dissonance #FullOfHell #FvneralFvkk #Huntsmen #Ihsahn #Khirki #Lists #MadderMortem #Mamaleek #MGMT #MichaelKiwanuka #Nails #Necrowretch #Noxis #OceansOfSlumber #Opeth #Pyrrhon #Rapture #Replicant #Revocation #RippedToShreds #Rotpit #SaundersAndFelagundSTopTenIshOf2024 #SergeantThunderfoot #SIR #SleepytimeGorillaMuseum #StVincent #Stenched #SurAustru #TheVisionBleak #TomWaits #Ulcerate #Undeath #UnhallowedDeliverance #Vhöl #Wormed #ZealAndArdor
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Susie Wiles Talks Epstein Files, Pete Hegseth’s War Tactics, Retribution, and More (Part 2 of 2) – Vanity Fair
DAY 289
November 4, 2025The day I met Wiles at the White House was a watershed for Trump: Voters would choose governors in New Jersey and Virginia and a new mayor in New York City; they would also vote on Proposition 50, California governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to counter a brazen Republican gerrymander in Texas. Collectively, the contests were a referendum on Trump’s second presidency.
Click here read Part 1 of 2 from Vanity Fair’s portfolio of Trump’s inner circle.
Over lunch in her West Wing corner office, Wiles recounted the morning. Escorting Trump from the White House residence to the Oval Office, she gave the president her election predictions: “I’m on the hook because he thinks I’m a clairvoyant.” Wiles thought the GOP had a chance of electing the governor in New Jersey, but she knew they were in for a tough night. (It would prove to be a Republican disaster, with Democrats running the table on the marquee races, passing Proposition 50, and winning downballot elections in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Mississippi.)
Given voters’ anxiety about the cost of living, Wiles told me she thought Trump should pivot more often from world affairs to kitchen-table issues. “More talks about the domestic economy and less about Saudi Arabia is probably called for,” said Wiles. “They like peace in the world. But that’s not why he was elected.”
From article…Not far from where we sat was a gaping hole where the East Wing had been until just days before. I asked her about the fierce criticism that followed its demolition to make way for Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom. “Were you surprised by it?”
“No,” Wiles replied. “Oh, no. And I think you’ll have to judge it by its totality because you only know a little bit of what he’s planning.”
Was she saying that Trump was planning more, as yet undisclosed renovations?
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“I’m not telling.”
T-MINUS 232 DAYS
June 2, 2024“Would you declassify the Epstein files?” —Fox News’s Rachel Campos-Duffy
“Yeah….I think I would.” —TrumpFor many of Trump’s followers, it’s an article of faith that the US government has long been run by an elite cabal of pedophiles. Less conspiratorially but no less seriously, others question whether politicians and powerful people either participated in or knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of young women, from his posh Manhattan town house to his private Caribbean islands. Perhaps most critical to Trump followers, though, is the fact that Trump indicated a willingness to release the files—and didn’t. As this article went to press, grand jury material from the Epstein records was due to be released in December.
What about accusing Letitia James of mortgage fraud?
“Well, that might be the one retribution,” Susie Wiles replied.
Wiles told me she underestimated the potency of the scandal: “Whether he was an American CIA asset, a Mossad asset, whether all these rich, important men went to that nasty island and did unforgivable things to young girls,” she said, “I mean, I kind of knew it, but it’s never anything I paid a bit of attention to.”
In February, Bondi gave binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to a group of conservative social media influencers who were visiting the White House, including Liz Wheeler, Jessica Reed Kraus, Rogan O’Handley, and Chaya Raichik. The binders turned out to contain nothing but old information. “I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said of Bondi. “First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”
As Noah Shachtman reported in Vanity Fair, “dozens and dozens” of FBI agents at the New York field office were tasked with combing through the Epstein files. Many observers assumed they were looking for (and possibly redacting) Trump’s name. “I don’t know how many agents looked through things, but it was a lot,” said Wiles. “They were looking for 25 things, not one thing.”
Wiles told me she’d read what she calls “the Epstein file.” And, she said, “[Trump] is in the file. And we know he’s in the file. And he’s not in the file doing anything awful.” Wiles said that Trump “was on [Epstein’s] plane…he’s on the manifest. They were, you know, sort of young, single, whatever—I know it’s a passé word but sort of young, single playboys together.” (Trump started dating Melania Knauss, whom he married in 2005, sometime in 1998. Virginia Giuffre, Epstein’s most prominent accuser, who died by suicide earlier this year, first met Epstein while she was a Mar-a-Lago spa worker in 2000. Trump and Epstein reportedly had a falling out in 2004.)
Trump has claimed, without evidence, that Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s infamous private island, Little St. James, “supposedly 28 times.” “There is no evidence” those visits happened, according to Wiles; as for whether there was anything incriminating about Clinton in the files, “The president was wrong about that.”
The people that really appreciated what a big deal this is are Kash [Patel] and [FBI deputy director] Dan Bongino,” she said. “Because they lived in that world. And the vice president, who’s been a conspiracy theorist for a decade…. For years, Kash has been saying, ‘Got to release the files, got to release the files.’ And he’s been saying that with a view of what he thought was in these files that turns out not to be right.”
From article…In July, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general and Trump’s former lawyer, traveled to a Tallahassee, Florida, courthouse to interview Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Convicted on sex trafficking charges in 2021, she received a 20-year prison sentence. “It’s not typical, is it,” I asked Wiles, “to send the number two guy in the DOJ and the president’s former defense lawyer to interview a convicted sex trafficker?” According to Wiles, “It was [Blanche’s] suggestion.”
Wiles said that neither she nor Trump had been consulted about Maxwell’s transfer to a less restrictive facility after Blanche’s visit. “The president was ticked,” according to Wiles. “The president was mighty unhappy. I don’t know why they moved her. Neither does the president.” But, she said, “if that’s an important point, I can find out.” (At press time, Wiles said she still had not found out.)
“Sometimes he laments, ‘You know, gosh, I feel like we’re doing really well. I wish I could run again.’” Wiles said of Trump. “And then he immediately says, ‘Not really.”
What about the birthday greeting featuring a sketch of a nude woman, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, bore Trump’s name and was sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday? “That letter is not his,” Wiles said. “And nothing about it rings true to me, nor does it to people that have known the president a lot longer than I have. I can’t explain The Wall Street Journal, but we’re going to get some discovery because we sued them. So we’re going to find out.” Trump’s lawyers filed a $20 billion defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, which the defendants have asked a federal judge in Florida to dismiss.
So will the president sit for a deposition in that process?
“I mean, if he had to,” she said.
The Epstein files debacle poses a dire political threat to Trump and the future of the GOP. “The people that are inordinately interested in Epstein are the new members of the Trump coalition, the people that I think about all the time—because I want to make sure that they are not Trump voters, they’re Republican voters,” Wiles said. “It’s the Joe Rogan listeners. It’s the people that are sort of new to our world. It’s not the MAGA base.”
A senior White House official described the mindset of an overlapping bloc of voters who are angered by both Trump’s handling of the Epstein files and the war in Gaza. It’s as much as 5 percent of the vote and includes “union members, the podcast crowd, the young people, the young Black males. They are interested in Epstein. And they are the people that are disturbed that we are as cozy with Israel as we are.”
From article…Vance keeps his eye on the voters. “It’s Epstein, Gaza, and the coziness with Israel,” said this White House source. “If you dive deeply into the internet, you’ll find things that say, ‘Well, why don’t we just put Bibi at the Resolute Desk?’ ” the source said, referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Across our year of conversations, Wiles wanted to put an end to what she believes is a persistent myth, that Trump is a warmonger. To the contrary, Wiles says, the president genuinely cares about ending wars and saving human lives. “I cannot overstate how much his ongoing motivation is to stop the killing, which is not, I don’t think, where he was in his last term,” she said. “Not that he wanted to kill people necessarily, but stopping the killing wasn’t his first thought. It’s his first and last thought now.” Whether that thought is genuine or driven by his desire for a Nobel Peace Prize is, of course, open to debate.
DAY 213
August 20, 2025“Israel says it has taken first steps of military operation in Gaza City.” —Reuters
In early October, Trump announced that his envoys had brokered a deal with mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey to end two years of bloodshed in Gaza. The 20-point plan, calling for the disarmament of Hamas and the administering of Gaza by a multinational force, was far from a sure thing. But the ceasefire and the release of almost all the hostages (the remains of one are still missing) was a considerable achievement. During his triumphant appearance at Israel’s Knesset, Trump struck a bellicose tone, praising Netanyahu and the Israeli armed forces with no mention of the Palestinian civilian casualties. Trump had previously lauded Bibi’s efforts in another action by calling him a “war hero”—a remark partially aimed at Israelis. Talking about it then, Wiles winced. “I’m not sure he fully realizes,” she said, “that there’s an audience here that doesn’t love it.”
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Susie Wiles Talks Epstein Files, Pete Hegseth’s War Tactics, Retribution, and More (Part 2 of 2) | Vanity Fair
Tags: 2025, Inner Circle, J.D. Vance, Junkyard Dogs, Opinions, Part 1, Second Term, Susie Wiles, Trump, Two Part Article, Vanity Fair
#2025 #InnerCircle #JDVance #JunkyardDogs #Opinions #Part1 #SecondTerm #SusieWiles #Trump #TwoPartArticle #VanityFair -
#TimeTravelingGhost EP 10: Post 99: 1191, Nicosia, Cyprus
#Wss366 Cocktail #TimeTravelAuthors 05/13. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: peace)
While I waited for a servant to lead me inside, I consulted with Emily. The thought of an authentic local meal thrilled me, as did the idea that I could get someone to guide us to St. George’s Shrine later. That was if I could carry off this masquerade. The fact that my host and I didn’t speak the same language worked in my favor; while that I knew nothing about the Coptic faith ran against it. I could only hope that the scholar was as unfamiliar with their dogma as I was.
As if sensing my thoughts, Emily asked, “Do you think you can carry this off?”
“Yeah, I’m conversant with medieval Christian mysticism. I can always whip up a #cocktail of French and German metaphysical nonsense. That should work unless they’re familiar with Coptic beliefs. That’s what this robe is, Coptic. I’m more worried about what will happen when they find out I’m a woman. I have no idea how they’ll react to a holy matron instead of a holy man. It’s a rather chauvinistic era.”
“Aren’t they all?” The bitterness in her tone was clear.
I had to agree. Heaven knows there were still people who wanted to repeal a woman’s right to vote in my time. It never stopped. However, there were more pressing issues for me currently.
“I’ve got it, a mask and a holy vow,” I said.
I manifested a porcelain mask similar to the one Countess Bathory had used.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Frightening. It’s too fancy. You want something more sacred and less sepulcher. Think humble poverty.”
“More of gravy and less of sepulcher,” I muttered. It was a joke that left Emily puzzling.
The Dickens reference may have gone over her head, but the image of the three Christmas ghosts spurred my imagination.
I reformed the mask into a crude wooden representation of Tiny Tim, a #peaceful but haunted smile on his face, combined with a crown of thorns.
Emily sighed and said, “It’ll do.”
#TootFic #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri