text:
NEW YORK -- Drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp. has agreed to buy drug-infusion business Coram, a unit of Apria Healthcare Group Inc., for $2.1 billion.
NEW YORK -- Drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp. has agreed to buy drug-infusion business Coram, a unit of Apria Healthcare Group Inc., for $2.1 billion.
Coram, which is based in Denver, provides customers with intravenous medication and nutrition. The medication can be delivered to a customer�s home, clinic or doctor�s office.
CVS expects the deal to close by the end of the first quarter of 2014.
CVS estimates Coram will generate revenue of about $1.4?billion in the first year after the deal closes and add earnings of between 3 cents per share and 5 cents per share in 2015.
Apria Healthcare Group Inc., Coram�s parent company, is owned by the Blackstone Group investment firm.
WASHINGTONAverage rate for 30-year mortgage rises to 4.29 percent
Average U.S. mortgage rates rose modestly this week, a move that makes homebuying a bit less affordable.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said yesterday that the average rate on the 30-year loan increased to 4.29 percent from 4.22 percent last week. The average on the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage ticked up to 3.3?percent from 3.27 percent.
CINCINNATIKroger plans to invest more in southwestern Ohio stores
The Kroger Co. said it has invested about $71 million in new stores, remodeling projects and fuel centers this year in its home Cincinnati/Dayton Division, and could spend more next year if projects get approved.
This year�s investments include newly built stores that opened in Amelia, Independence and Miami Township. Spending also includes a new fuel center to be completed by the end of the year in Fairfield, Kroger spokeswoman Rachael Betzler said.
More projects in the pipeline yet to be approved could bring next year�s spending up to
$121 million, Betzler said.
PARISPeugeot Citreon CEO gives up $28.5 million pension
The outgoing CEO of struggling French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said he will give up his $28.5 million pension pot after criticism from France�s Socialist government.
Philippe Varin announced his decision in a news conference yesterday a few hours after Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici called the pension sum �inappropriate.�
� From Dayton Daily News and wire reports


text:
Marlins Weekend
Didn't think we would go the entire season with one loss. Bullpen had gone 29.1 consecutive innings without allowing a home run until the fateful eighth yesterday.
So, we move on to tonight. Charlie's creed: play one game at a time. May sound boring, but it works.
First homestand ends with three games against the Marlins (starting tonight) and then a nine-game trip to Atlanta, Phoenix and San Francisco. Tough trip that ends against that tough Giants pitching staff.
Sellout string this weekend should climb from 45 consecutive to 48.
Happy Birthday
Sunday, the Phanatic. Age: Unkown. Pre-game show includes the Zooperstars (Clammy Sosa, Pee Wee Geese, Cow Ripken Jr., Harry Canary, Ichiroach Suzuki, Ken Giraffey Jr., Monkey Mantle and Nolan Rhino). Those mascots crack me up. Cake will be made of Tastykakes. Lucky Phanatic.
Alumni Birthdays
Today: RHP Jim Lonborg (1973-79), 68 . . . Tomorrow: INF Solly Hemus (1956-58), 87 . . . Sunday: 1B Rico Brogna (1997-2000), 40; OF Jim Eisenreich (1993-96), 51 and RHP Ron Schueler (1974-76), 62.
Phillies History
Yikes. Phillies were no-hit on April 16 by Burt Hooton (Cubs, 1972) and Bob Forsch (Cardinals, 1978) . . . April 17, Bill Stoneman (Expos, 1969).
April 18, good news: 1987–Mike Schmidt homers at 4:53 p.m. on 30 pitch off Don
Robinson in Pittsburgh to become the 14th player to reach 500 homers. Threerun
homer in the 9th beats the Pirates, 86.
Exciting New Publication
Philadelphia Phillies: An Extraordinary Tradition will be coming off the presses in early May. The 250-page publication (over 400 photos) is a celebration of Phillies history from 1883 through the 2009 World Series.
Have a great weekend!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
From DNA structure to gene expression, Felsenfeld has done a lot during his five decades at the NIH.
It would be understandable if someone as accomplished as Gary Felsenfeld decided to take it easy and enjoy all his past successes, but this distinguished 81-year-old investigator is not one to rest on his laurels.
Sitting at his desk, which like most surfaces in his office is covered with stacks of papers, Felsenfeld recounts his group's most recent results with the enthusiasm of a graduate student who has just published his first article and not a scientific elder statesman who has more than five decades of influential discoveries under his belt.It's easy to understand his eagerness to discuss the new findings though. Felsenfeld, currently chief of the section on physical chemistry in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, describes an intriguing mechanism by which the insulin gene can stimulate the expression of a far distant gene, sequentially speaking. This is accomplished by having insulin and the target gene brought into close physical proximity by external factors. This long-distance regulation offers just one example of how researchers like Felsenfeld are changing the way we view the relationship between chromatin structure and gene expression. This sort of right-place–at-the-right-time understanding of gene regulation also may be an apt analogy for appreciating Felsenfeld's own scientific story.
While Felsenfeld's mentors during his training read like a "Who's Who" of 20th-century biochemists, his progression along the research path was not immediately obvious. His fascination with the natural world was cemented by the time he was eight, but his family interpreted his early interests as a sign that he would be a physician.
"At that time, if you were interested in biology, you had to be a doctor," he recalls. "I even remember my father, an attorney, telling me that science was just a hobby."
"He was right," Felsenfeld adds with a laugh. "Science is a fun hobby for me – one I'm paid to do!"
As a teenager, Felsenfeld was accepted to the renowned Stuyvesant High School, one of three specialized science high schools in New York City, and was a Westinghouse Science Talent Search finalist (now the Intel Science Talent Search). The finalists traveled to Washington, D.C., and toured the NIH, which Felsenfeld remembers being rather bleak and imposing. But he met young scientists who encouraged him to pursue his scientific interests.
Felsenfeld went on to attend Harvard University with the intent of becoming a physician and studied with John Edsall, the famous protein chemist and former Journal of Biological Chemistry editor. Edsall, who had gone to medical school but found it disappointing and instead became one of the earliest biophysical chemists, encouraged his scientifically inclined students to forgo medical training and get a doctorate instead.
Edsall's encouragement and a lackluster freshman biology course pushed Felsenfeld toward a more chemistry-oriented curriculum. In his last three years at Harvard, during weekly meetings, he and Edsall read and discussed influential scientific literature of the time including Pauling's "The Nature of the Chemical Bond" and Eyring, Walter and Kimball's "Quantum Chemistry."
"It made an enormous difference in my life," he says of those meetings, and the influence on his future career is evident. During Felsenfeld's senior year, Linus Pauling gave a speech in which he said that anyone who chose chemistry as a career should take vows of poverty, an acknowledgement of the limited amount of funding and jobs for research scientists in those days. Interestingly, that only emboldened Felsenfeld. "I thought that forgoing monetary gain was wonderful, it was noble. And I committed myself to it." Perhaps it was a bit of youthful naïveté on the part of a 20-year old student, but Felsenfeld, with Edsall's support, followed through and applied to graduate school at the California Institute of Technology to study physical chemistry. Edsall had told him that the future of biology was in chemistry, so Felsenfeld went to Caltech to learn theoretical chemistry and prepare himself for the new biology to come.
Out of respect for his parents, he also applied to Harvard Medical School, but did so having already made up his mind to get a doctorate degree. In an act that reveals his mischievous side, he sent Harvard a rejection letter to let them know of his decision.
During his second year at Caltech, Felsenfeld started working with Pauling, who had an interesting approach to helping students develop projects. "He'd leave notes in your mailbox with different ideas, and you'd find one that appealed to you." What appealed to Felsenfeld, and what would become the topic of his thesis, was the theory of ferromagnetism, although he readily admits, "I'm not sure I would understand it at this point!"
He completed his graduate work in three years and told Pauling he would like to move into biology. He wanted a position in Copenhagen with Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang, a prominent protein chemist, but Pauling said he needed more chemistry training and refused to write a recommendation. Instead, he wrote a recommendation for Felsenfeld to go to Oxford University to work with noted mathematician and theoretical chemist C.A. Coulson.
Although it sounds odd today, young scientists expected this level of guidance back then. "The idea that graduate students were people with rights had not yet really emerged," Felsenfeld says with a quiet laugh. All joking aside, he has no doubt about the wisdom of Pauling's decision.
"I was grateful. Pauling said 'I think this is what's right for you,' and I appreciated his guidance."
Felsenfeld had a productive year with Coulson, predicting one of the earliest molecular structures using crystal field theory (the chlorocuprate anion CuCl42-) and completing what would be his last purely theoretical work.
He returned to the United States in 1956 and took up a post at the NIH, following an arrangement he had made prior to departing for Oxford. His draft board (the Korean War was over, but the draft was still active) had told Felsenfeld to obtain an officer's commission while in England or he would be serving in the infantry when he returned. Fortunately, Alexander Rich, whom Felsenfeld had befriended at Caltech, invited him to join the NIH as an officer in the Public Health Service. Together with Rich and David Davies, another former Caltech colleague, Felsenfeld began working with synthetic polynucleotides, in vitro synthesized RNA segments of defined sequence, that in a few years would prove instrumental in cracking the genetic code.
Felsenfeld, Davies and Rich, though, were using these building blocks to understand how nucleic acids formed stable ordered structures like the recently solved DNA double helix. This was his first project with nucleic acids – and it proved to be an auspicious start.
While analyzing the salt requirements for double helix formation using complementary strands of poly-adenine and poly-uracil, Felsenfeld noticed that his spectrophotometer readings displayed some unusual absorption data at certain salt concentrations. Initially he tried to ignore it – perhaps he had made some experimental errors – but eventually he accepted that the data, which suggested a helix with twice as many U's as A's, was real. He remembers asking Davies, "Is there any way to fit a second poly-U into the structure?"
What they had uncovered was the formation of a triple nucleotide helix. "It was a wonderful, wonderful moment, exhilarating. You're so lucky to have something like that when you're just starting out."
After three years at the NIH, Felsenfeld was offered a faculty position in the biophysics department at the University of Pittsburgh. Biophysics was still emerging as a distinct field, and it was an unusual opportunity to join a discrete biophysics department. Recently married and ready to set out on a new endeavor, he accepted their offer. While continuing his biochemical characterizations of synthetic polynucleotides, Felsenfeld also was given leeway to start working on the copper protein hemocyanin, which he felt would be an ideal project to weave together his scientific interests in quantum chemistry and biology. However, only two years later, the NIH brought Felsenfeld back to Bethesda with an offer he couldn't refuse. The intramural research director of the Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases (now NIDDK), DeWitt Stetten, had been persuaded to form a new laboratory of molecular biology. In a twist from the norm, this new group would be composed entirely of young, rising investigators rather than established scientists.
Felsenfeld recalls those early years as a marvelous time, and the lab was full of energy and enthusiasm. The only downside was that Felsenfeld quickly realized that his studies with nucleic acids would be all-consuming; after a few years, the work with hemocyanin fell by the wayside.
He continued investigating the stabilization of multistranded nucleic acid structures by counter ions; this soon led to studies using polylysine and polyarginine as models to examine the interaction of DNA with basic proteins in the nucleus. Eventually, though, he got tired of saying they were good models, "because they weren't good models!"
So he decided to work directly with chromatin. The move resulted in a big change for the longtime chemist. "The thing with chromatin," he says, "is that I got sucked into the biology and trying to figure out what is the biological function of this DNA-protein packaging."
Felsenfeld's early work in chromatin biology was aimed at understanding how a gene is controlled through a combination of histone interactions and transcription factors. He used the four-gene chicken beta-globin gene locus for his studies, which was an ideal system for his work, because chicken blood cells have stable chromatin that can be isolated easily in large quantities. Using the beta-globin model, his group contributed numerous findings regarding the role of structural and biochemical changes in chromatin in regulating globin gene expression.
Later, Felsenfeld became more intrigued at what lay at the edges of the beta-globin locus. In blood cells, the globin locus is an open and accessible chromatin domain; at the terminus, where the locus borders a stretch of condensed chromatin, there is a DNase hypersensitive site that appears to mark the boundary. (HS sites are short regions of chromatin distinguished by their extreme sensitivity to nuclease cleavage.)
Felsenfeld proposed testing this region to determine if it did, in fact, constitute a boundary between the open and closed domains. At the time, there was only one published example of such an insulator element, the gypsy element in Drosophila. Victor Corces and Dale Dorsett had shown that gypsy could block an enhancer's ability to increase gene promoter activity if positioned between the two, effectively insulating the promoter from enhancer influence. Felsenfeld's group tested the HS site and found that it behaved similarly.
They commenced studying the insulator region in detail and discovered several protein binding sites, one of which, they showed, bound a protein that was necessary and sufficient for enhancer blocking. The protein, CTCF, had been known for some time to regulate gene activity; however, this new discovery suggested it might also be involved in higher order chromatin organization.
They looked for other locations where CTCF might function and found that it played a critical role in the control of the Igf2/H19 imprinted locus. This two-gene region is special in that individuals only express the paternal copy of Igf2.
Felsenfeld's group described a regulatory mechanism in which the H19 and Igf2 genes are separated by an imprinted control region containing CTCF-binding sites. The ICR on the paternal allele is methylated, preventing CTCF from binding and allowing a downstream enhancer to promote expression of both genes. The maternal allele, however, remains unmethylated and capable of binding CTCF, thus blocking enhancer activity and preventing it from driving expression of Igf2. Similar results were obtained independently in the laboratories of Shirley M. Tilghman at Princeton University and Rolf Ohlsson at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.The role of CTCF now is well established, and it's been shown to function by promoting the formation of DNA loops that bring distant genetic elements physically closer. "CTCF is part of a regulatory network that's three dimensional and physical, long-range physical," Felsenfeld says enthusiastically. "We just keep going up in scale."
Felsenfeld is continuing his own upward trajectory, and recently his group began working on human pancreatic cells. Given that the insulin gene is close to the imprinted Igf2/H19 locus, Felsenfeld has become interested in potential long-range contacts between insulin and other genes mediated by CTCF, and that has led to his most recent findings that the insulin gene's physical proximity with a distant gene's regulatory elements affects that target gene's expression.
Despite the rapidly changing nature of his work, Felsenfeld has managed to keep a proper focus on the "big picture," an ability that arises from a keen intellectual discipline honed over many years and mentors. "Always keep in mind what you are trying to answer," he says. "Something may seem interesting, but if it's not directly relevant, note it and hope to remember that it exists, but you have to move on.
"Edsall once said, 'I stop outside the atomic nucleus; I've got enough to think about,'" Felsenfeld recalls. "And it's true. You can only do so much!"
In Felsenfeld's case, though, only so much seems to be a lot. This year marks the 50th year of his lab at the NIH, an institution he credits with much of his success. "The NIH Intramural program is one of the few places in the world where I could do science the way I wanted to."
Along the way, Felsenfeld has had the fortune to have great people around him. Foremost would be his family (including three children and eight grandchildren), which has long been a pillar of support. And of course, all the work carried out over those 50 years would not have been possible without a remarkable group of postdocs and grad students. Many of his former protégés now are distinguished researchers in their own right, which provides great pride for Felsenfeld, who considers training young scientists to be one of his most important responsibilities.
And he shows no signs of slowing down. "Whenever someone asks, 'What's the most exciting thing you've done?' I say, 'What we're doing right now,' because that's all that counts."
Xu, Z., Wei, G., Chepelev, I, Zhao, K., and Felsenfeld, G. (2011) Mapping of INS promoter interactions reveals its role in long-range regulation of SYT8 transcription. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 18, 372 – 378. Wallace, J. A. and Felsenfeld, G. (2007) We gather together: insulators and genome organization. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 17, 400 – 407. Gaszner, M. and Felsenfeld, G. (2006) Insulators: exploiting transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms. Nat. Rev. Genet. 7, 703 – 713. West, A. G., Gaszner, M., and Felsenfeld G. (2002) Insulators: many functions, many mechanisms. Gene. Dev. 16, 271 – 288. Bell, A. C. and Felsenfeld, G. (2000) Methylation of a CTCF-dependent boundary controls imprinted expression of the Igf2 gene. Nature 405, 482 – 5.Felsenfeld, G. and Rich, A. (1957) Studies on the formation of two- and three-stranded polyribonucleotides. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 26, 457 – 468.
More from the current issue


text:
As retailers rejoice in December, debt collectors despair
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
"Everyone's thinking about the family getting together, the exchanging of gifts, and they start to think about the disposable money that might otherwise be used to pay down bills," Ann Arbor Credit Bureau vice president Thomas Oldani said.
"There's just more competition for every dollar, and when consumers think about the priorities for those dollars, fulfilling their outstanding obligation falls pretty low on that list."
Bill collection is a very difficult industry in the best of times. While common perception is that debt collectors are successful 50 percent of the time or more, collectors say it's not so easy.
According to the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, debt turned over to third party collection agencies was only collected at a rate of 17 cents on the dollar until the economic recession began in 2008. Major contributors to the low rate included bankruptcies, death of debtors, and simple inability to pay.
Since the recession began, the collection rate has dipped to under 10 cents for every dollar of debt passed onto the agencies.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
"When the payments start to dry up that's because there's either an inability or an unwillingness to pay because there isn't work available."
Maslow theorized in his hierarchy of needs that humans prioritize their efforts first based on survival, then safety, then belonging, then esteem.
Similarly, Oldani said that consumers go through prioritization when they decide what they will pay as they look at their various bills and obligations.
"Things that are urgent — the roof over their head, the mortgage or rent, food, the car they take to work, the telephone bill, nowadays the mobile phone and internet — those are all going to be paid first," he said. "And then other bills fall down to the bottom."
Both Barden and Oldani said that the goal of debt collectors is not to be a burden on consumers, but to help them manage their obligations in a way that allows them to raise their credit score and be free of obligations.
"Communication is the best thing for us, keeping that link open between us and the consumer," Oldani said.
"It's a cooperative endeavor. We don't want to collect disputed debt or debt caused by fraud. With the cooperation of the consumer we can work together to an agreeable solution."
As the economy improves, Oldani said that the bureau starts to field more calls of consumers who want to repay old debts.
"What typically happens is that it was not at the front of their mind, but now that they have a job they're looking at replacing their old car, or looking at getting a home," he said.
"And that requires a financial review of their credit file. Then these debts show up and they realize they have to take care of their old payments before they can take on new ones."
There's no typical "January bump" of people following through on New Year's resolutions to put their financial houses in order, Oldani said, but he thinks it would be a great idea for people to consider as they do their last minute shopping.
"The key is planning," he said.
"Make a budget and stick to it. Recognize that you can get yourself into real tough troubles when what you're trying to do is get in the spirit of the season."
Barden agreed that making a budget was key, and he went even further in his advice to consumers.
"If you don't have the money, don't spend it," he said.
"Don't buy on credit because it will snowball on you. It happens to everybody. Sooner or later the collector will come to call."
Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at email@example.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2
Jeff Wendel
Mon, Feb 4, 2013 : 8:31 p.m.
Good luck
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 5:26 a.m.
Sure. I admire our Garbage Collectors. Good Guys! Credit Bureau employees are in the same category. However, if a Debtor files Federal Bankruptcy, then I respect their assertion of their Constitutional Right. (Google "Constitution, Article One, Section Four"). Do it Clean! Quit Quibbling! Yer an American! Right?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:35 p.m.
I really wish we could get past the false dichotomy of good vs bad. Not all debt collectors are bad. Not all debt is created with bad intentions. There are debt collectors who are kind and compassionate and are willing to work with people who are going through some difficult times. Then there are the vultures, who prey on the poor and the high risk. Often times accounts are turned over to a debt collector because it allows a variety of repayment options. It's not simply a matter of good vs bad and we need to start acting like it.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 9:19 p.m.
Under-appreciated debt collectors? In this town folks grumble when people living in tents ask for spare change on the street. Next time you don't want to be bothered on a 5 hour flight, very enthusiastically tell your seatmate first thing how much you love the lucrative world of being a bill collector.
Milton Shift
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 9:55 p.m.
And how you're selfless enough to be a debt collector, who makes great sacrifices to help consumers.
Milton Shift
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 8:53 p.m.
Debt collectors can't collect debts? Good.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 7:58 p.m.
Actually, never in the world's history were taxes cut while a war was waged.
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 4:21 p.m.
You know what, Basic Bob, I agree with you! At the end of he day, both parties have warmongered and are, in no way, parties of peace. Our country is the cheif purveyor of violence. I think, however, those who are staunchly anti-war associate with the left, while the "any war's a good war" crowd, are on the right side of the fence.
Basic Bob
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 3:22 p.m.
"The Vietnam War escalated over time." "Vietnam did not pick up until AFTER Kennedy died" Yes, it escalated over the duration of the Johnson presidency. He was a Democrat and, as vice president, advised the Kennedy administration to send advisers (training staff) to Vietnam. How the Democrats were perceived as the party of peace after 1969 is incomprehensible. The next two (Republican) presidents pulled back, scaled down, and ended the war.
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 2:47 a.m.
@M-Wolverine. Yep, I love it. "We never declared war in Vietnam followed by: "If we want to split hairs" Typical.
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 12:37 a.m.
The Vietnam War escalated over time. The Iraq War was a large, expensive surge. Had Kennedy tried to lower taxes when it full-blown, he would have failed, as i would have been irresponsible fiscal policy. My point was, traditionally, countries do not lower taxes and go to war at the same time. It is wildly asinine to do so. If we want to split hairs, we've almost always ben involved in some conflict throughout our history, so any tax break would have coincided with a military intervention. Vietnam did not pick up until AFTER Kennedy died, while Iraq's apex was in the beginning.
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 12:22 a.m.
We never had a formal declaration of war in Iraq either....so which is it? You have interesting double standards.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 10:48 p.m.
We never declared war in Vietnam.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 10:31 p.m.
So: "never in the world's history were taxes cut while a war was waged." I take it, that wasn't part of "history" or "never". Sorry, the old: 'bad if a Republican does it, good if a Democrat does it' is tired and busted. Just man up and say you were wrong.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 10:14 p.m.
Those Kennedy tax cuts were before the escalation of the war. When they were inacted, the war was having a minimal inpact on the budget. It doesn't change the fact that Bush put an expensive war on a credit card.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 8:41 p.m.
Do you ever even do the most basic research before writing down an incorrect fact? 1964 26 16% 77% $400,000 $2.85M Tax reduction during Vietnam war 1965 25 14% 70% $200,000 $1.42M http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States That took like 8 seconds.
say it plain
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 5:49 p.m.
Yes, the retailer/debt-collector dichotomy, so timely. The beginning of the Christmas season...which of course in our modern world is almost exclusively an economic concept...is called Black Friday for its bringing retailers out of red and into black for the year. And it's the buy buy buy of this final stage of the Christmas season that AA.com has been chronicling that had me wondering whether it's really a 'better' year or not economically. If sales are up at many retailers, does that merely mean that the debt-collectors' burdens are 'up' as well? Any "reality" associated with our commerce is so obscured by its basis in easy credit. But we've seen what happens when the too-rich/big-too-fail get the collector's phone call! It's a tricky balance, to get consumers to buy enough to keep 'sentiment' positive in the face of a jobless 'recovery', but not to spend so much that they get hopelessly behind in their debt payments...maybe the Fed can offer some advice!
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 5:13 p.m.
Ever hear of the Kyoto Protocol. It was signed in 1997, but the US didn't ratify it despite widespread protests Go look it up, for it was well-documented. I do care about debt, that's why i beleive we should slash pentagon spending, invest in education and infastructure, and tax those who have benefited the most from our great country. Having wealth concentrated in the hands of a few benefits almost nobody.
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 6:53 p.m.
Pssst: 127 + 300 = 427, the deficit was $1203 you have a LONG way to go. You don't get to "not count" social security, since it IS included in the 1203, but nice try. or, you get to go fin another $800 or so in reduction/taxes. You can't have it both ways (you know, like only count 'wars' as 'wars' if they happen during a Republican's term - see yesterday' double standard)
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 3:48 p.m.
Here's blan B since you asked...$773B to social security comes off the top, as it is a seperate entity, and has been, at least in theory, already paid for. A $127B cut to defense spending (don't worry, we'd still be spending more than the whole world combined). Finally, another $300B in higher taxes. There you go, almost no defecit!
Tom Todd
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 4:22 a.m.
And Jealousy rears it's ugly head.
Tue, Dec 25, 2012 : 2:37 a.m.
Still waiting for plan "B"?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:44 p.m.
Try again, we did sign; we didn't RATIFY.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:29 p.m.
The US never signed the Kyoto Protocol. Just sayin.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 8:32 p.m.
Yeah, i guess Clinton-era tax rate is punishment.
Basic Bob
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 7:56 p.m.
"tax those who have benefited the most from our great country" Well, that is a long list: retirees, children in poverty, public school teachers, investors, manufacturers, homeowners, single parents, illegal immigrants, doctors, lawyers, farmers, and oil tycoons have all benefited. I'm sure you have your own idea who has benefited the "most". As with most Ann Arbor progressives (not easily mistaken for liberals), you would like to financially punish everyone except themselves - the obscenely rich, the inner-city poor, households with more than one child, and anyone who works hard and receives a check from a non-government entity, a.k.a. "capitalists". I am personally thankful to have received a nearly free college education from a large public university. Unfortunately too many people older than myself require unfettered access to free health care and endless government cash to maintain their second homes and European vacations. I won't be so lucky.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 6 p.m.
"I do care about debt, that's why i beleive (sic) we should slash pentagon spending" US tax receipts 2011: $2303 B Expenditures 2011: $3598 B Deficit Spending: $1203 Stay with me now..... Defense spending $700 B (this is less than $1203 B) - so even a reduction to ZERO won't cut it. Pssstt - Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid total $1560. What is your plan "B"?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 5:19 p.m.
My mistake, i meant to hit reply to a previous post. Sorry if there is any confusion.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:28 p.m.
Get real. Debt collectors are predators. We don't care if they are suffering, as they are, as a general rule, unsavory and unscrupulous.
Milton Shift
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 8:57 p.m.
We don't care if they are suffering? Not true. We enjoy their suffering.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:22 p.m.
@ EyeHeartA2, re "Obama's" loan from China: You're talking about the debt that Bush ran up, then handed off to Obama, along with the rest of the financial mess, right?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:50 p.m.
No Eyeheart. I said that you need to use appropriate measures. Nominal measures of quantities measured in dollars at different locations in time are not appropriate.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 7:36 p.m.
We are paying for two wars and the tax cut that gave the most to the richest. Never before, did the U.S. have such a tax cut while fighting a war. The cost of the Iraq War shouldn't be seen as an unexpected cost due to 9/11 because Iraq wasn't involved in 9/11 and Iraq didn't have WMD's.
Unusual Suspect
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 5:07 p.m.
"where were all of the budget hawks from 2000-8? Nobody was bitching then." We were bitching then as well. This is the basis of our statement that George Bush was not a conservative. Actually, the spending that he and many Republicans participated in gave us the even more disastrous Obama era. When we point out the obvious that Obama has made things even worse, it doesn't mean we're making excuses for George Bush.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 5:05 p.m.
^^^Yep, same as I said about the debt, there was "bitching" going on back then. I guess you just told me there was "bitching" going on about climate change as well. I'll take your word for it. Which still leaves my question to you unanswered. Are you saying debt doesn't matter? Has the window of opportunity to say anything expired now that a Democrat is in office?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:52 p.m.
What???? We emplored, we begged but nobody would listen about climate change. Now there is no debate to be had, as all major scientific bodies agree that global warming is anthropogenic. We were right all along, but I wish we wern't.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:43 p.m.
@radlib2 "where were all of the budget hawks from 2000-8" Where were all the "climate change" hawks in 1995-2000? What's your point? Are you saying debt doesn't matter? BTW, plenty of people were "bitching" (your word, not mine) about the debt then, myself included.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:25 p.m.
sure sounds like Governor Granholm all over again. Took 8 years for the state to figure her out...
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:24 p.m.
It is not one person's fault, however, where were all of the budget hawks from 2000-8? Nobody was bitching then.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:05 p.m.
So, Alan, you are saying debt isn't going up? Or are you saying we are only a little pregnant and it doesn't matter since the last guy did it too?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:02 p.m.
Here we go again. Nominal dollar debt is not a comparison. Try total debt as a percentage of GDP. 1/1/2001, 56.8%, 1/1/2009, 79.9% for an increase of over 40%. 7/1/2012, 101.6% for an increase of 27%. Looks about the same over 2 terms. Reagan increased it by 62%, the worst in the last 50 years. The first Bush increased it by 27%, the same as the current administration. Then there are the issues of does it really matter and how you can consider one individual responsible
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:58 p.m.
Is Bush still in office? or Obama? Did Obama man up and take responsibility? (Hint, watch the video). BTW, Carter sucked as a president too. People have given it up already. Also, I'm projecting that Michigan wins the Outback bowl. Big deal. Projections work until somebody flies an airplane into some skyscrapers.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:47 p.m.
Hmm...when Bush came into office, there was a projected surplus, when he left, economy in shambles, nearly a trillion dollar defecit.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:35 p.m.
2008 $10,025 debt 2009 - Obama blames Republicans, then claims he will fix it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQBSTomBWls 2012 $16,066 debt So, sure, whatever, the data is there. Spin away.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:20 p.m.
@ Ben Freed, re: "Rouge collection agencies." Now you've got me picturing the ex-governor of Alaska collecting debts at gunpoint.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 2:38 p.m.
Hello, Mr. Obama; Yes.....about that loan you have out with my client, China. Well, I have some bad news.......
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:42 p.m.
Debt collectors "despair"? Yeah, sure. Oh the humanity!
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:41 p.m.
Sorry, I've been gone all day -- are they still "despairing"? Yes?? Excellent.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:36 p.m.
Kant's categorical imperative: When deciding if an action is right or wrong, one should first evaluate the action in terms of the consequences if everyone acted in the same manner. If all college students cheated on all examinations, a college degree would have no value. Those of us who do our duty need Bill Collectors to protect us from those who don't (do their duty) viz if all credit card customers failed to pay their account, the economy would collapse. (nice citation of Maslow in the article . . .).
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 2:45 p.m.
Idealism is nice but it's still just ideal...you must ALSO be pragmatic...yes I said ALSO...
Wolf's Bane
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:30 p.m.
Seems like living within your means is just an outdated anachronism these days. Whatever have happened to fiscal responsibility in this town?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:26 p.m.
You're a company that BUYS other people's debt so that YOU get to be the ones that HARASS people... A LOT of the debt this kind of company buys is debt that people were outright tricked into through deceptive marketing practices....which is why that debt is sold so cheap to these "debt collector" companies and they can STILL make a fair profit off of that "10 cents on the dollar" collection ratio. There's a reason all these 3rd party debt collection agencies sprung up in the past decade or so...and the ONLY way they can be profitable is if they buy that debt ULTRA cheap....if they collect "10 cents on a dollar or less" then they HAVE to buy that debt for less than that. 3rd party debt collectors in NO possible way perform any kind of public service NOR is what they do a respectable business. And you want me to feel sorry for the people who work for them? That's like asking me to feel sorry for Datastat employees. They KNOW who they working for....it's not like what their employer does was sprung on them....
Tom Todd
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 7:48 p.m.
AMEN Duane.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 5:37 p.m.
"Rouge" like they are red in the face from trying to collect from poor people? Or "Rogue" like they are not commissioned from legitimate creditors, and they try to collect orphaned or already settled debts using unscrupulous means?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:39 p.m.
Companies try and scam you into debt all the time. Before it even gets to the credit agency they just hope the person will pay because they feel afraid not to. U-M Health System had at a basic doctor appointment a nurse come in to "demonstrate" how a breath test device worked. Took less than 5 minutes; no warning that this might be an extra cost or not part of the visit. Afterwards the insurance company wouldn't pay and they claimed it was a $200 service. Because it was "separate from the visit", with no notice so an education that a monkey with a pamphlet could have conveyed could be refused. Told them to fight with the insurance if they really wanted to scam someone. After trying they eventually turned it over to a credit agency. A lot of what they do is stuff like that. It's not everyone with a widescreen tv laughing at not paying for it.
Ben Freed
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 3:05 p.m.
Billy, Actually, debt collection bureaus like the Ann Arbor one do not "buy" debt. They are commissioned by creditors to collect the debt. They are paid a fee plus commission on debt returned, however the majority of the money paid goes to the original creditor. The companies do not perform a public service, they are a business, but they do help many businesses that are unable to allocate the resources to collect debts owed to them that can make the difference for some companies between a net positive or negative year. No one is asking you to feel sorry for debt collectors, but they run a legitimate business collecting legitimate debt. They often work with consumers to find ways to pay down debts and unless the matter is taken to litigation do not tack on large fees. There are "rouge" collection agencies that do that and the operators of this business expressed that they were extremely frustrated by the bad name they give the industry. Best, Ben
Duane Collicott
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 2:48 p.m.
Unless somebody signed their name while a gun was being held to their head, it's all legitimate debt. The trend away from personal responsibility these days is extremely disturbing.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 2:40 p.m.
lol...you think because I'm calling a business out that I'm absolving those that legitimately racked up debt in the first place? I said, or implied, no such thing. I mentioned that they buy a lot of "illegitimate" debt, which means the kind of debt that was created by giving credit to people they KNEW wouldn't pay the debt...so as to rack up "fees" and increase that debt...and then sell THAT for a profit. Or were you unaware such a thing existed?
Basic Bob
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:54 p.m.
What a relief. I thought I bought more stuff than I could pay for. Now I know I was tricked into it. Heck, I could have bought a big screen home theater system. Thanks, Billy.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:33 p.m.
Billy, is anyone ever responsible for their personal behavior in your world?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 12:46 p.m.
Sounds like a real Republican, dont't spend what you don't have.
Stan Hyne
Thu, Dec 27, 2012 : 9:29 p.m.
Re Ann English; You hit the nail on the head. That is seldom done. Many commenters have trouble identifying the problem, let alone giving a knowledgable reply.
Ann English
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:05 p.m.
It was the Democrats who dreamed up the idea that "Everybody should be able to buy a home, and government can make it possible." No, government cannot create prosperity needed for there to be more homeowners, but all over the world, it can and does cause poverty, through high taxation and burdensome regulations. When the Democrats passed legislation forcing banks to lend to people who should never have bought homes in the first place, sooner or later reality hit the borrowers. The legislation created a temporary illusion that would-be homeowners COULD spend what they didn't have.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:33 p.m.
Actually, if that is the message then he sounds like a responsible person. You should never spend what you don't have. Im absolutely not a republican, and I think am a bit concerned that you think responsibility isnt important. Beyond the terrible things that it causes the person themself when they go in to debt, it places a burden on their community. Have the Lessons of the housing crisis faded already?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:32 p.m.
And what is wrong with that? the opposite is spend what you don't have, expecting others to cover for you! Before credit cards, things worked pretty well.
tom swift jr.
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 11:54 a.m.
Why do I find it odd that the President of the local credit union refers to us as "consumers", not "customers", not "partners" (which, for a credit union is true), not even a generic "people", but "consumers". Happy holidays, folks, you've been defined.....
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 6:24 p.m.
Commenting before READING the article is usually a bad thing. Collection Agency v.s. Credit Union. This story is about a collection agency.....
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 4:03 p.m.
Where did credit unions come from?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:39 p.m.
Why do you find it odd? I don't know. Maybe it's because this guy isn't president of a credit union, but of a credit bureau?
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 1:32 p.m.
A credit union is still just a bank....don't care if they say "member controlled," cause it's really not. When you have a board of directors you're a bank...
Mon, Dec 24, 2012 : 12:33 p.m.
"Consumer" is the generally accepted word used when referring to customers or people utilizing services. Been that way for at least 10 years.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'alabama clay' tag.
A couple of weeks ago we had a dumptruck load of clay delivered from the new clay deposit. I guestimated the pile was around 5 tons or so, but as it turns out, our neighbor, who drives for the same kind of truck, told me one of those trucks heaped up with clay like it was, holds something closer to 27 tons (or more?)!! All 27 tons, just for the cost of trucking it to our studio not 15 – 20 miles away. (If you have bought commercially prepared clay, you can probably do the math for what the equivalent would be).
We've left the dumped clay uncovered and open to the elements now for two weeks or so, in order for the rain to wash away a little of the residual sand off that was picked up in the dump truck onto the clay's surface. The mound is already starting to turn from a reddy orange to more of a amethyst-y pink clay color. Yesterday I broke apart a clump to reveal a piece of nice, clean, sandless solid clay. Since the time the of the delivery, three or four batches of clay have been mixed. I have thrown some of it, and the rest I have left to age a little more. ..well, until tomorrow, at least, when I start my throwing cycle again.
Before it was time to mix the second batch, though, Lowell took me out to the new deposit site for the first time to help gather some dryer clay for the mix, since the clay we already had at the studio was still a little too damp to crush to a powder. So off we went..
We drove for about 20 minutes down familiar roads and around familiar turns, when all of the sudden Lowell turned into a little dirt driveway entrance. It was a lot closer than I thought it would be.
Well! I thought the truck load that was delivered was a lot, but I saw where it was excavated from and it took barely a dent out of the mountain that lay before me. Here is a picture of what I first saw. It stands about 20 feet high and is at least 60 feet long . Its mostly pink clay, though there are layers of white, and red, and a layer further in the middle of some dark shale-like material which I assume is the remnants of decomposed vegetation .
I was chipping away dry surface clay and filling up my bucket, as the fog gradually cleared. It was almost like a dream. Off to my right, was another clay mountain .. and yet another further on.
Here is a photo of a hillside that had been excavated with a backhoe. Sorry, I couldn't get the entire hill in the shot but you can get an idea of the various strata. This layer starts down about 6 feet from the surface and, in this spot, is about 4-6 feet thick.
I'll try and post more pictures as I can.


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It all started with a typo my friend Mitch made while were setting up an upcoming Gamma World adventure on Facebook. Gramma World created a few chuckles and seemed to have run its course except that it kept striking me as funny. A few times a day I would think about it and finally I drew a few pictures of sassy grammas and thought, "this game MUST exist!" As a parody inspired by a gonzo post apocalyptic adventure I couldn't resist creating a setting of elderly people trapped in a world they never made. The dungeon crawl explorations and strange familiarity of the mutants of Gamma World fit nicely with this conceit. When asked to describe the influences and flavour of this game I would consider it an amalgam of Scooby Doo Mysteries meeting the Golden Girls.
Compatible with Swords and Wizardry Whitebox and all other versions of the original game.
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/200949/Gr ... _id=195160


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Title OSX Keyboard Shortcut For Insert Date And Time, Insert Date/Time In TextMate
I use TextMate on Mac OSX Mountain Lion to write notes. One thing I find myself needing a bunch is to insert the current date and time so I can track specific events. For instance if I am writing an article for Question-Defense.com and I am doing the initial formatting in TextMate, which is a typical scenario for me, I might take ten screenshots and I like to note the current date/time in case I get pulled away from the article writing for something else. So having a keyboard shortcut that outputs the current date/time is really valuable so I don't have to type it out by hand. Below I describe how to install a OSX Service that will provide various date/time outputs via Keyboard Shortcuts. The OSX Service called WordService also provides a bunch of extra awesome services which I briefly touch on below as well.


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Diy Anti Wrinkle Cream With Coconut Oil
Healthy And Natural Facial Creams Help People Look More Beautiful
Wrinkle-free and younger looking skin is a popular topic among most women these days. There is literally a plethora of information on the internet regarding this topic. Finding something to restore and renew the skin should be an utmost concern for all the ladies interested in looking their best.
Many skin care products claim to be able to restore the skin to its more youthful and beautiful state. What separates these products are the active ingredients added. People would be be advised to read the label and read just exactly what the products have in them.
Natural products seem to be the direction many companies are going with their skin cream lines. One company that I came across in my research uses a "Smart Core Technology." To avoid the perception of endorsing their product, I wll refrain from using the company's name. Their claim is that smart core is an all natural ingredient mix that simply nourishes and protects the skin. Smart core science is based on Nobel Prize winning findings. Smart core claims to dramatically increase skin hydration even at the end of the day.
By contrast, some companies use a soap based emulsifier which can dry out the skin. All natural beauty products are supposed to be much better at hydration and healthier for your skin. But it also goes one step further. Smart core technology may reverse the signs of aging. This is done by reducing wrinkles and producing collagen growth.
Active ingredients in the all natural products include proteins, amino acids, & peptides as well as ingredients. These three ingredients specifically are supposed to target deep wrinkles, fine lines, and skin discoloration. If it does what it says, these beauty products could possibly turn back the hands of time and give the skin a much younger appearance.
Some of the benefits of these natural beauty products include improving cell respiration, helping in collagen production, and possibly even slowing down the loss of collagen. Amazingly enough, these different active ingredients may even target different problem areas of the skin.
Tired and aging eyes can be given new life with certain products. Some advanced creams claim to combine science and nature to firm and smooth puffy looking eyes. Attacking crows feet and sagging skin as well as energizing the skin cells can possibly produce brighter-looking eyes, and may even eliminate dark circles.
While research and advances in technology continue at an alarming pace, beauty product advances is not being left behind. Since we will always continue to age, there will always be a consumer audience ready to buy. It appears that the all natural beauty product line will continue to develop and be ready for that paying customer.
If you are interested in an anti wrinkle skin cream , and do not want to pay a small fortune, then go to the direct source and start looking your youthful best at http://perfectskincalifornia.com.
Original article published on amazines.com
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Andrew Hallidie and Horses
The story goes like this: Andrew Hallidie once saw a team of horses, while pulling a tram up the Clay Street Hill, fall to the cobblestones, exhausted and injured. Deeply moved by the incident, Hallidie became determined to develop a system to save the noble beasts from further fatal exertion. Voilá (so the story goes)! The Cable Car is born. Evidence: Hallidie's first cable car descended the Clay Street Hill at 5:00 am (so no one would get hurt in case it didn't work) on the morning of August 2nd, 1873 (well recorded in newspapers of the time). But what really happened here? Things you should know: Andrew Smith, the mechanical genius who originated cable r.....
• Carleton Watkins - Photographing Early California
Carleton Watkins - Photographing Early California
Carleton Watkins was an early photographer who captured the Western landscapes, new cities, and industries. He photographed burgeoning San Francisco, land baron estates, Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Pacific coast, and mining and rail operations. His photographs of Yosemite, seen by few people at the time, encouraged Abraham Lincoln to sign a bill which was the forerunner for the National Park System. Considered one of the best landscape photographers, he made thousands of majestic images. However, Watkins had financial problems, and many of his photographs (including many in the San Francisco History Center collection) are attributed to other people who acquire.....
• West side known as city's playground
West side known as city's playground
(Reprinted from the Sunset Beacon, August 2014) The Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods are often seen as sleepy, quiet communities for families, immigrants, surfers and college students. People from outside the area rarely visit for entertainment unless they are attending a concert in Golden Gate Park or spending the day at the beach on a rare warm day. However, this part of the City has changed dramatically since San Francisco's early days. At one point, it was a hotbed for amusement and leisure.
On the evening of July 15, the SF Public Library hosted a lecture at the Anza Branch about the area's history. Presenting a slideshow titled "The Outside Lands: A History of Ent.....
• San Francisco's Old Clam House on the Lost Waterfront
San Francisco's Old Clam House on the Lost Waterfront
The Old Clam House, opened in 1861, is one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco. Located on the corner of Bayshore Boulevard and Oakdale Avenue, it has also been called the Clam House and Oakdale Bar. When it opened, the restaurant was on the waterfront, sitting on Islais Creek which flowed into San Francisco Bay, and surrounded by a shallow marshy estuary. At that time, the restaurant was connected to downtown San Francisco by two wood-planked roads. Within ten years the marsh was filled in, more than 100 buildings were constructed on piles over the creek, and the area became known as New Butchertown. After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, even more debris was dumped into the marsh. .....
Mark Twain at the Bancroft
The Mark Twain Papers and Project at UC Berkeleys Bancroft Library is converting the works of Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens) into HTML files, making Twains work available electronically and for web searches. The Twain Project is translating all of Mark Twain's surviving private papers and published works, including notebooks, letters, unpublished manuscripts, drafts, deleted chapters of published books, essays, newspaper columns, editorials, and speeches. There are approximately 27,000 letters, 150 books from his library (many with notes written in the margins), clippings, scrapbooks, interviews, bills, checks, and photographs. The Project is converting not only items in the .....
Honest Harry Meiggs
Of the many dreamers, promoters, and con men who built Gold Rush San Francisco, perhaps none was as hard-working and well-liked as Henry Honest Harry Meiggs. Born in 1811 in New York, by his mid-twenties Harry had managed, through his own energy and abilities, to purchase a lumber mill in present-day Brooklyn. Caught by a business downturn in the 1840s, Meiggs joined the throngs heading West. But before departing, the resourceful lumberman used his remaining funds to purchase a sailing vessel and load it up with lumber to ship around the Horn. Arriving in San Francisco in January 1849, he fetched a fabulous price for his cargo. With his profits he built a sawmill and a small wharf.....
• Adolph Sutro Arrives in SF (Part 4)
Adolph Sutro Arrives in SF (Part 4)
City Guide Jack Leibman, a volunteer at the Sutro Library, has been sharing with GuideLines readers descriptions from the letters of German immigrant Adolph Sutro about his 1850 journey from New York to San Francisco. The previous installment featured Sutros description of his dreadful passage across the isthmus of Panama. In this fourth and final installment, Sutro, after further adventures, at last reaches his destination. After six steamy, disagreeable days in Panama, on November 1, 1850, for $300, Adolph boarded the California bound.....
• Talbot Green and His Green Street
Talbot Green and His Green Street
Running from the Embarcadero to the Presidio, Green Street was named in William Eddys 1849 survey of San Francisco. But just who is the Green of Green Street? Like many of San Franciscos earliest settlers, he was not who he seemed. Talbot Green came west in the spring of 1841 in the first immigrant party to travel over the Sierras to California. The arduous journey of this group of forty-eight settlers who set off together from Independence, Missouri, was chronicled in the diary kept by their secretary, John Bidwell. After surviving the grueling journey, Green traveled to Monterey and joined Thomas Larkin as a junior partner, conducting business on Larkins behalf in Los Angeles and .....
• Goats on Goat Island in San Francisco
Goats on Goat Island in San Francisco
Goat Island now called Yerba Buena Island is located halfway between San Francisco and Oakland. This piece of land has had a number of names, most referring to its inhabitants. José de Canizares, believed to be the first European to sail through the Golden Gate, named it Isla del Carmen in 1776. Apparently that name never stuck, because the locals referred to it as Sea Bird, Wood, and Yerba Buena (for the mint plant growing all over the island). When people started settling in California after the Gold Rush, there were a large number of goats brought to the island by squatters hence the name Goat Island. The first California legislature, when passing an act establishing t.....
San Francisco's Birthday
June 29, 1776just a few days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence a continent away in Philadelphiais celebrated as the official birthday of San Francisco. It was on this date that the Spaniards celebrated their first mass under a temporary shelter at the site of the future Mission Dolores. In March of that year, a Spanish scouting party under Captain Juan Bautista de Anza had determined the sites for a future presidio overlooking the entrance to the bay and, in a sheltered valley to the southeast, a mission. They named the small stream and lake where the mission was to be built Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Lake of our Lady of Sorrows). De Anzas advance.....
• Diana Statue in Sutro Heights Park
Diana Statue in Sutro Heights Park
Diana the Huntress Artemis. If you have been on our Lands End: Sutro Highs and Lows tour, you have seen this statue at Sutro Heights, the park located in the northwest corner of San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was once the home of Adolph Sutro, Comstock Silver Baron, San Francisco mayor, land developer, and builder of Sutro Baths and the second, most grandiose Cliff House. Sutro loved statues, and at one time had 200 surrounding the grounds and niches on the cliffs above Ocean Beach. Only two original statues remain--the Stag and Diana the Huntress. In addition, gracing the entrance gates are copies of the original Lions that were replaced after they deteriorated. Sutro collected thes.....
• San Francisco Armory in the Mission
San Francisco Armory in the Mission
City Guides offers three different tours in the Mission. None venture remotely near the hulking ugly pseudo-Moorish Armory building at 1800 Mission Street. With clinker brick exteriors, four octagonal towers, and 200,000 square feet of space, this forbidding structure was built in 1912-14 as an arsenal for the US National Guard, replacing one in the Western Addition destroyed in 1906. Its ultimate cost, including land, was $500,000. Besides its official function as a military training and storage facility, it was used frequently for sporting events and prizefights. Said to be the largest building of architectural importance in the Mission, it has the largest unsupported enclosed volu.....
The Irish in San Francisco
I am the granddaughter of four Irish immigrants. They all came to the United States in the early 1900s, part of the wave of Irish immigrants who came to the United States because of the political unrest in Ireland during her struggle for independence from England. My mothers parents first settled in Oakland and later in San Francisco, and my fathers parents lived in Los Angeles. They all came to California by way of the transcontinental railroad. They were sponsored by relatives who were already living here, and when they were able, they themselves sponsored other relatives from Ireland. I grew up in San Francisco very conscious of my Irish roots. We would celebrate St. Patricks.....
• San Francisco Coffee Roasters
San Francisco Coffee Roasters
Coffee is one of the most exported commodities in the world. It originated in Yemen and by the 1400s trading brought it to Africa, Arabia, and the Mediterranean. After achieving popularity in Europe in the 1600s, the Wine of Araby traveled to America, where by the end of that century it overtook beer as the favorite breakfast drink. During the Mexican-American War in 1846, it was a ration for soldiers. Traders spread coffee to other hot climate growing areas, including the East and West Indies. And just like the Gold Rush immigrants traveling to California, green coffee beans also came by ship. San Francisco became a center for coffee roasting businesses, with coffee a main part of t.....
John W. Geary
The following are excerpts from Rand Richards newest book, Mud, Blood and Gold - San Francisco in 1849. All throughout the year 1849, thousands of people poured into San Francisco like bees to a swarming. One of those was John White Geary. Geary, for whom Geary Boulevard and Street are named, spent only three years in San Francisco but he looms large in the Citys early history. picture1left300 Geary was born in western Pennsylvania in 1819. His penniless father died when he was 14, forcing young Geary to leave school to work to support his widowed mother. He put himself through college and studied law and civil engineering. During the Mexican War, he served as a .....
• Stockton and Kearny, Ending at Mason
Stockton and Kearny, Ending at Mason
There is no such intersection. Stockton and Kearny, like their street names, pursued parallel courses - but eventually collided and ended at odds. Both streets start at Market Street, but Kearny ends at Telegraph Hill, while Stockton, befitting its namesake, runs to the Embarcadero. Unlike their streets, the two men did intersect rather uncomfortably and ignominiously during the taking of California, and later at the sensational court-martial of John Frémont in Washington. Commodore Robert Stockton arrived in Monterey to replace the retiring Commodore Sloat, who had just occupied Monterey. This was a crucial moment in California history in July 1846, shortly after the declaration of war .....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 1
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 1
Isabelle Walton Lusk wrote her memoir in the 1920s, when she was in her 90's, about traveling to California. Her great-grandson, Eric Bennion, heard from his mother that Isabelle was looking for her lost father who disappeared somewhere near Nicaragua on the journey back to Bangor, Maine. Other relatives intimated that she was actually not looking for Dad, but for treasure he supposedly buried in California. More likely, thinks Eric, she just did not want to be the daughter who was assigned caretaker of her mother - and took her opportunity to escape Maine. Her memoir will be published in GuideLines in installments. Part 1 - Isabelle Prepares to Travel On October 16.....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 2
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 2
This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusks memoir. She journeyed from Bangor, Maine to the California Sierras. In Part 1, Isabelle described herself and her trip preparations. Part 2 - Isabelle Meets her Chaperon and Travels to New York So with my two trunks, my [several] hundred dollars, [I traveled over the Maine countryside] on the 23rd of November 1856 for California. I took a steamer to Belfast where I met my chaperon, Mrs. Lucille Barnard.(1) She with her two bo.....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 3
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 3
In the first two parts of Isabelle Walton's memoir, she traveled from Maine to New York City, and was separated from her chaperon on the way to their hotel. She mistakenly went to the luxury hotel Astor House, while Lucille Barnard was at another hotel. Part 3 - Isabelle dines at the Astor House, meets her future husband I sat a moment and said do you think it is possible they took Mrs. Barnard to another hotel? That might be, or my coach took me to another hotel. I asked quickly what hotel is this? "Why, this is the Astor House," [said Mrs. Ashley]. [I thought], I suppose their coach will take me to the [steamer]. [She also said], "The city is full of .....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 4
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 4
Twenty-one year old Isabelle Walton traveled from Maine to California, and wrote this memoir in her 90s. In Parts 1-3, Isabelle wrote about preparing for her trip, meeting her traveling companion, dining in New York, and meeting Mr. Salmon Lusk. You can see the earlier parts on the City Guides website. Part 4 - Boarding the Ship People were falling over Mrs. Barnard's carpetbag and jostling us right and left trying to find their staterooms [on the steam ship]. I found ours at last. We were so far in, what is called the aft.(1) Light filtered through from a small porthole in the side of the ship.
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 5
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 5
In her 90s, Isabelle Lusk wrote about her journey from Maine to California. At the time of her writing, she had lost her sight and much of her hearing. As she wrote her memoir on a manual typewriter, using onionskin paper, she often did not hear the carriage return bell. She typed over many of her remembrances and parts of this memoir are lost. In Parts 1-4, Isabelle described her background and trip preparations, meeting her traveling companion, and finding her way to the steamship. You can find the earlier installments on the City Guides website. Part 5 - Off to Panama When the dinner bell rang, Henry was sound asleep but little Charley was wakeful. I told [Mrs. Barnard.....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 6
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 6
Over the last year GuideLines has been publishing the memoir of Isabelle Walton Lusk. She traveled from Maine to California when she was 21, and wrote this memoir in her 90s. You can read the previous installments on the City Guides website where she describes meeting her chaperon Mrs. Lucille Barnard, arriving at the wrong hotel in New York, and being rescued from a hooped skirt mishap by the man who would become her husband (she refers to him as My Knight.) In this part, Isabelle has boarded the steamship that will take her to the Panama Railroad.
Part 6 - Life on the Ship
It seemed we were overloaded. Our steamer was only allowed nine hundred passengers a.....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 7
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 7
In earlier episodes Isabelle traveled by steam ship from Bangor to New York City, freshened up (accidentally) at the exclusive Astor Hotel, and met her future husband while getting stuck in her hooped skirt exiting a coach (apparently one of the reasons this fashion never really took hold.) From that point on she refers to Mr. Lusk as My Knight. In the last episode she described her traveling companions on the steam ship to Panama; and she continues in this part. You can read Parts 1 - 6 on the City Guides website. In 1856 more women and children were traveling to California. One man stated during this period, "The greatest annoyance on board the ship is the number of babies and ch.....
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 8
A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 8
This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusk's memoir about traveling from Maine to California. Even though steam ships did not depend on wind, weather was still important for smooth traveling. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of his trip on a steamer. "I was in the forward part of the vessel where all the great waves struck and broke with voices of thunder. In the next room to mine, a man died. I was afraid that they might throw me overboard instead of him in the night."(1)Part 8 - Coal Stop in Kingston, Jamaica
We soon [traveled] down to where it was beginning to be hot, and poor Mrs. Bernard almost suffocated w.....
The Missing Mission Lake
Well ..we are all embarrassed about this. The Mission Dolores Neighborhood and Mission guides held a special workshop with Christopher Richard. He is the Associate Curator of Aquatic Biology at the Oakland Museum of California, and has researched what he thinks is the story of the San Francisco mission founded on the shores of a "now-vanished" lake. Guides have all been telling our walkers about this lake on the Mission tours. He thinks it is a misconception.In his research, Christopher has come to the conclusion that there was no lake where Mission Dolores was founded. He has arrived at the position that:
• Pied Piper Returns to Palace
Pied Piper Returns to Palace
Public reaction was swift and vocal when the Palace Hotel in March announced plans to sell its Maxfield Parrish painting The Pied Piper at Christies auction house. Twitter feeds streamed, online petitions popped up, and the hotel switchboard began buzzing relentlessly. Even San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called, asking hotel management to reconsider.
How could a mere painting generate such passion and affection? The main reason probably is its longevity. Its been hanging behind the bar at the hotel since 1909, with a brief interruption during Prohibition when it moved to a ballroom after the bar was closed. The painting returned to the bar a.....
• Literary Industries: Chasing a Vanishing West
Literary Industries: Chasing a Vanishing West
Hubert Howe Bancroft is primarily remembered today as the originator of the world-renowned Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Voracious bibliophile, avid historian, and self-taught man of letters, Bancroft (or H. H. as he is familiarly known) followed an adventurous youth with a literary career that sought to chronicle and preserve the early history of California and the American West. In Literary Industries, edited from H. H.s autobiography by his direct descendent Kim Bancroft, we encounter the dynamic personality who, with the aid of his assistants, achieved this impressive goal. Literary Industries will be published by Heyday in January 2014.
• Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes and the Bells of El Camino Real!
Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes and the Bells of El Camino Real!
picture1left200 First in a series of articles about extraordinary women in California history. From www.mysfpast.com, used with permission. The El Camino Real was a trail blazed by early Spanish soldiers and missionaries in the 1700s, connecting the 21 California missions. By the 1850s, much of the El Camino Real had become overgrown and the missions were falling into decay. Around 1900, two womens groups, the Native Daughters of the American West and the California Federation of Womens Clubs joined forces to preserve the California missions and mark the historic El Camino Real. Mrs. Armitage Suton Carion Forbes (she preferred using her husbands name) helped design the be.....
• Rivet Rivet: The Birth of Blue Jeans
Rivet Rivet: The Birth of Blue Jeans
Merchant Levi Strauss could sell, and tailor Jacob Davis could sew. Working together they received the first U.S. Patent for blue jeans in 1873. The Levi Strauss & Co Archives, located at the companys headquarters, 1155 Battery Street, records the birth of blue jeans using thousands of posters, photographs, and garments. Designers from around the world visit the collection, called The Vault, for inspiration. Its open from 8 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday, and 10 am to 5 pm on weekends. Donations are welcome. .....
• The Cliff House: Celebrating 150 Years
The Cliff House: Celebrating 150 Years
Built in 1863 by Senator John Buckley and C.C. Butler, the Cliff House was a destination for the wealthy, to enjoy fine food and views. As high society gave way to the hoi poloi, Adolph Sutro, whose estate overlooked it, purchased the Cliff House in 1883, hoping to restore its grandeur and exclusivity. On Christmas Day, 1894, the Cliff House was gutted by fire. Undaunted, Sutro rebuilt it bigger and better, as a French chateau eight stories tall. It burned to the ground again, in 1907. The third Cliff House was built in 1909 by Sutros daughter, Dr. Emma Merritt, with support from John Taft and several investors. The most recent restoration was by restaurant owners Dan and Mary Hountalas and.....
• The Beat Goes On: City Lights at 60
The Beat Goes On: City Lights at 60
picture1right300 Eat. Sleep. Read. Provoke. So says one of many eye-catching signs at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The independent bookstore, located at 261 Columbus Avenue, is a popular stop on North Beach tours. Step inside and youll find plenty to feed your mind. City Lights was co-founded in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin as the first all paperbound bookstore in the country. From the start it was a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. The bookstore became known as a gathering spot for the Beat poets, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, in the 1950s. In 1956, Ferlinghetti was arrested on obscenity charges for publishing Ginsbergs .....
• History of the Historic Ship, Alma
History of the Historic Ship, Alma
picture1right300 Built in a Hunters Point shipyard in 1891, the Alma was named for the granddaughter of shipbuilder Fred Siemer, a German immigrant. Shes had several renovations over her long life. In 1918, Siemers son-in-law and the real Almas father, James Peterson, removed her masts and used her as a barge to tow sacks of salt up from South Bay ponds. In 1926, a new owner Frank Resech installed a gasoline engine. Resech and his wife lived and worked aboard Alma, using her to dredge for oysters and haul containers of the shells up to Petaluma to be ground up for chicken feed. She was sold again in the 1940s to Peter John Gambetta who used her as a dredger until he retired in 1957. Th.....
• Sweet Treats: Chocolate and Chocolate Makers
Sweet Treats: Chocolate and Chocolate Makers
Tired of making the same old resolution year after year? Lose 10 pounds. Floss. Exercise. Eat more fruits and vegetables. This year, how about making a resolution youll want to keep? Support Bay Area artisans. Shop local merchants. Eat more chocolate.
Chocolate has been part of San Francisco history since the Gold Rush. The two oldest chocolate companies in the U.S. -- Ghirardelli and Guittard -- both started in San Francisco and still make their chocolate here in the Bay Area. Inside this issue, well share the history of these two iconic companies and their founders. But today, San Francisco is attracting a new breed of chocolate artisans. We visited se.....
More about chocolate
Three Chocolatiers: Charles, Recchiuti and XOXpicture1right200
In 2004, Charles Chocolates was launched by Chuck Siegal who started making chocolate creations in the kitchen of San Franciscos Jewish Community Center. This was actually Siegals second venture into the chocolate world; he started his first chocolate company at age 25 with the help of Joseph Schmidt, but later sold it.
Charles Chocolates soon moved to larger space in Emeryville using Guittard chocolate to make their hand-decorated bon bons and signature bars embedded with organic fruits and nuts. Now the company is back in San Francisco, where their selection includes edible boxes made of so.....
Making Chocolate History
San Francisco is the birthplace of two of the oldest chocolate makers in America: Ghirardelli and Guittard. Both have their roots in the Gold Rush. Both their companies still make their chocolate in the Bay Area today. Here are the stories of these two pioneer companies and their founders.picture1right200
The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is the oldest chocolate company in America. Domingo Ghirardelli was born in Italy, near Genoa, the son of an importer of exotic food. At age 20, Domingo went to South America to work in the coffee and spice trade. He opened a store in Lima, Peru selling coffee, cocoa powder and spices.
Domingos neighbor in Li.....
• Love, Love Me Do: Finding a Mate Out West
Love, Love Me Do: Finding a Mate Out West
From the 1870s through the turn of the century, matrimonial catalogs and periodicals flourished in America, full of ads that brought hundreds of lonely hearts together on the new frontier. Single women from the East, including Civil War widows, and eligible men living out West placed or responded to notices in Matrimonial News, a weekly paper printed in San Francisco and Kansas City. In Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier, author Chris Enss reports: A code of.....
• Mother of San Francisco: Juana Briones 1802-1889
Mother of San Francisco: Juana Briones 1802-1889
picture1right180 No diaries of Juana Briones exist to tell her story, but testimonies of people she doctored, fed, and gave sanctuary to speak volumes. One of the first residents of Yerba Buena, Juana has been called the Mother of San Francisco. Compassionate and resourceful, she was renowned for caring for the sick and for the medicinal tea she made from the Yerba Buena plant. She had learned healing practices from her Native Californian friends, and later became expert as both a bone-setter and midwife, training others including her nephew who became the first doctor in Bolinas. Historians have compared her to Clara Barton, the Civil War nurse who founded the Red Cross. The sketch on.....
• The Emporium: Grand Dame of Market Street
The Emporium: Grand Dame of Market Street
Many native San Franciscans have fond memories of the Big E. It was the place where you got your first grown-up jacket, did your back-to-school shopping, and rode the big slide on the roof or, at Christmas time, the train. Christmas also meant a visit with Santa and a photo. A trip downtown was something special that you dressed up for, and in the 1950s that meant gloves and a hat. picture1left350
The Emporium aimed for a middle-class clientele, and for over 100 years after its founding in 1897 it not only succeeded but thrived, despite near total destruction in the 1906 earthquake. The Union Square stores Magnin, the City of Paris, and the White House catered to the hig.....
• PPIE100: San Franciscos 1915 Worlds Fair and the Dawn of Championship Auto Racing
PPIE100: San Franciscos 1915 Worlds Fair and the Dawn of Championship Auto Racing
This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the international debut of the Miller Engine, an event that would completely revolutionize the aviation, marine and automotive industries, determine the identity and international relevance of American motor sports, and usher in a Golden Age of championship auto racing. The 1915 American Grand Prix and Vanderbilt Cup Race, held in conjunction with the Panama- Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, were seminal events in the history of auto racing. They occurred at a critical juncture in motor sports, when the automotive industry was growing at an exponential rate, and right before racecar design changed hands from big auto manuf.....
Seep City
At a time when urban development in San Francisco is more visible than it has been in generations, it's easy to forget nature. Yet the built environment, from building types and heights to locations and angles of streets, reflect physical constraints linked to the original natural conditions of our landscape. The Seep City Map of Water Explorations, a trove of technical data disguised as an art poster, was installed in March in an eight-by-eight-foot display on Divisadero Street at McAllister. Its been a magnet for explorers, especially those interested in water and history. The Green Earth food store has provided the exhibit space. The purpose of the project, which is presented by Th.....
Diana the Huntress
Artemis. If you have been on our Lands End: Sutro Highs and Lows tour, you have seen this statue at Sutro Heights, the park located in the northwest corner of San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was once the home of Adolph Sutro, Comstock Silver Baron, San Francisco mayor, land developer, and builder of Sutro Baths and the second, most grandiose Cliff House. Sutro loved statues, and at one time had 200 surrounding the grounds and niches on the cliffs above Ocean Beach. Only two original statues remain--the Stag and Diana the Huntress. In addition, gracing the entrance gates are copies of the original Lions that were replaced after they deteriorated.
Sutro collected these statues after traveling to Europe. He did not buy and ship home works of art from other countries, like many other wealthy people such as William Randolph Hearst. When he saw something he liked, he would have a statue maker in Antwerp, Belgium make copies. The Lions are copies of those in Londons Trafalgar Squaremaking the two currently at the gate copies of copies. The original of Diana at the Louvre in Paris is also a copythe Louvres huntress is believed to be a Roman copy of a Greek statue created circa 330 BC.
As you can see from the photo here, Sutro surrounded his grounds at Lands End with the statuary. He employed a team of gardeners to maintain the beautifully landscaped grounds and invited the public to use his home as a park while he was still living there.
The Diana statue often has little gifts left at her base and around her head and neck. These include little statuettes, flowers, candles, bows and ribbons, incense bottles, and notes placed in the cracks of the stone.
Everyone who has given this tour has heard stories of people gathering for the Full Moon, Solstice, or May Day in front of the Diana statue. These stories told of such events taking place at night. However, Carla once saw women dancing and singing during the day. A friend of mine who is a follower of Wiccan traditions told me she has been here on May Day with a maypole, and says that various goddess worship groups celebrate Diana at different holidays.
When Sutro died in 1898, his daughter Emma Sutro Merritt moved into the house at the park. As she aged she could not maintain the grounds, and the house became seriously deteriorated. After Emma died the house stood vacant. Throughout the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, people took away many of the rose garden plantings and vandalized the statues. In 1939 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews demolished what was left of Sutro's house.
Sutro Heights is not a city park, but is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. It is maintained by a neighborhood group, Friends of the GGNRA, many of whom live on the surrounding streets.
And if its been awhile since you wandered Lands End, why not join a City Guides tour? They start from the Lion statue, 48th Avenue and Point Lobos, every Saturday at 2 pm.
As noted in this article, Diana often has little gifts left at her base and around her head and neck. These include statuettes, flowers, candles, bows and ribbons, incense bottles, and notes placed in the cracks of the stone.
One of the sources for this story related that she was invited to help perform a Moving Out ritual for the last tenants of the Albion Castle, a group of artists. A pagan ritual is a spiritual ceremony with a specific purpose in this case creating positive energy for the people moving from the castle.
Because of the interest expressed in that article about the holiday gatherings at the statue of Diana the Huntress, GuideLines received photos of a May Day celebration held this year at Diana. The revelers are a group of morris dancers practicing a form of English traditional dance with roots going back to the 1400s in Europe. Cotswold morris (as seen in these photos) developed in the Cotswold hills of England during the 1700s into the 1800s. It is typically danced in the springtime around Whit Week, the period after Easter. The dancers wear bells and use sticks and handkerchiefs in their dances.
Information from: Adolf Sutro, A Biography by Robert Stewart Jr. & Mary Frances Stewart
Photo of Goat Hill Morris dances courtesy of Jocelyn Reynolds. Historic photos reprinted with permission, SF History Center, SF Public Library
Today the statues are no longer at the top of the ocean lookout, in the niches on the cliffs,
or lining the entrance drive. However, you can still walk this path around the grounds.
The group in this photo collage, Goat Hill Morris, has been dancing in and around San Francisco since 1998.
Send comments and questions to email@example.com
Material of San Francisco City Guides. Please give credit to the author and SF City Guides if referenced or reproduced.


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RIP (Rest in Professionalism): SFFS Boy Wonder, Jay Wertzler/
Five years of sparkling youth, karoke raps, and remarkable flashpants wisdom - damn how we will miss our Jaybird (aka Jay Wertzler)! Flying away from the SFFS nest, but first making a detour to pick up Pootie Tang at the airport for next week's SF Sketchfest. We appreciate all of you and know that your mark on us is for life. Big up and warm those vocals for the next SFIFF talent show - sa da tay!


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The Grove Street Cemetery, the first chartered burial ground in the United States, succeeded the previous common burial site, the New Haven Green. After severe yellow fever epidemics in 1794 and 1795 the Green, which held perhaps as many as 5,000 burials, was simply too crowded to continue as the chief burial ground. ln 1796 a group of New Haven citizens led by U.S, Senator James Hillhouse planned a new cemetery on a location at the edge of town. Their efforts were officially recognized in October, 1797 when the State of Connecticut incorporated the cemetery as The New Burying Ground in New Haven. The first burial, that of Martha Townsend, took place on November 9, 1797.
The pattern of the cemetery also appears to have been unique, for it was arranged in lots for families as opposed to random burials which had been common in the past. The grounds were also divided to give space to parishioners of the three churches on the Green, an area for strangers who might die in New Haven, one for the indigent, a section for persons of color and one for Yale College. The Green continued to be used, but to a lesser extent, the last burial there occurring in 1812. The stone grave markers on the Green were eventually moved to Grove Street. Some were used to mark out the boundaries of burial sites in this cemetery and a great many are lined against the rear walls in alphabetical order.
The Grove Street Cemetery antedates the expansive and distinguished cemeteries of Pere-Lachaise in Paris and Mt. Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Not long after its opening it was already shown with pride to foreign visitors. Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale, commented in 1811:
"I have accompanied to it many foreigners and many Americans who have traveled extensively on the Eastern Continent, none of whom had ever seen or heard of anything of a similar nature. An exquisite taste for propriety is discovered in everything belonging to it ... No plot of ground within my knowledge is equally solemn and impressive."
Even this solemn location, though, has had difficult times. By 1830 the wooden fences, in need of repair, had failed to prevent the cemetery grounds from becoming a thoroughfare and subject to vandalism. Those who valued the cemetery wanted a place for quiet reflection and a dignified environment for the repose of their families. Under the leadership of Professor Denison Olmsted, Yale's famed astronomer, the city, the public and the proprietors eventually raised $25,000 to establish the protection the grounds deserved. In 1845 the present wall with its imposing entrance was completed. Architect Henry Austin designed it in the Egyptian style favored at that time.
After organization of Evergreen Cemetery in 1849, the title "New Burying Ground in New Haven" was modified to "New Haven City Burial Ground." By the 1870s, however, the site was familiarly called "The Grove Street Cemetery," and that name has since become commonplace.
The building immediately inside the gate was built in 1872 as a chapel so that services could be held in inclement weather. Its only decoration, just under the eave, is a gilded bee (although it looks more like a moth) symbolic of the soul's release from the body. This Victorian structure now serves as the office of the cemetery's superintendent and assistant superintendent.
Foliage in the cemetery has undergone an extensive evolution from the days of James Hillhouse. Hillhouse prized trees; he conceived the extensive plantings that gave New Haven its title, The Elm City. For the cemetery he choose Lombardy poplars along the main streets, but these were dying by the 1830s. Therefore, when the new walls were built, new shrubs and trees, chiefly evergreens, were planted. Photographs from the 1890s show tall evergreens within the walls, but today the trees and shrubs are more varied. Replacing trees damaged or destroyed by ice, snow and high winds, especially old elms and oaks, is a current project.
Grove Street is an urban cemetery. Its geometrical pattern echoes the nine squares of the city. The paths give easy access to horse-drawn vehicles and automobiles. It allows no room for a grove of trees: space for burial sites is maximized. In addition to trees, shrubs and flowers, extraordinarily varied markers from obelisks to sarcophagi to the simplest grave stone decorate the cemetery. The history of New Haven with its many themes, crises and accomplishments can be traced in Grove Street Cemetery.
Among the internationally renowned persons interred here are Eli Whitney, inventor; Noah Webster, lexicographer; Josiah Willard Gibbs, Jr., scientist; Lyman Beecher, abolitionist and prohibitionist; O.C. Marsh, paleontologist and Lars Onsager, Nobel Prize winner. Persons important to American life are numerous: Roger Sherman, the only person to have signed all four basic documents of American sovereignty including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; Walter Camp, father of American football; Jedidiah Morse, father of American geography (and of S.E.B. Morse, painter and telegraph inventor) and Dr. Worthington Hooker, father of American medical ethics. New Haven's history is represented by industrialists, clergy, military figures, lawyers, physicians, and Yale presidents and professors. Mary A. Goodman, the African-American woman who gave her life savings to Yale Divinity School to educate African-American clergy, is buried here along with African-American Civil War veterans. Roger Sherman Baldwin who argued the case for the Amistad slaves imprisoned in New Haven, and Professor Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr. who deciphered the language spoken by the captives are also here.
Grove Street Cemetery
Located behind a brownstone wall and iron fence running along Grove and Prospect streets, the cemetery joins those select, historic structures and districts considered to possess exceptional value or quality in interpreting the heritage of the United States.
Sometimes referred to as the Westminster of Yale,The Grove Street Cemetery maintains the graves of most early residents of New Haven, along with those of Eli Whitney (Class of 1792), Noah Webster (Class of 1778), Walter Camp (Class of 1880), Roger Sherman, fourteen Yale presidents, and hundreds of other faculty members, alumni, and campus luminaries. One of the oldest burial grounds in the City of New Haven, the cemetery was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in September.
The cemetery was established in 1797 and was the first in the country designed with family plots. Beside serving as the resting place for many historically important figures and displaying tombstones ranging back to the 1700s and a collection of specimen trees, the cemetery also has an architecturally prominent, Egyptian Revival gateway entrance facing High Street.
The Grove Street Cemetery is one of only 60 National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut and is the ninth such landmark in New Haven.
Registry of Burials
Over 14,000 burials are recorded in the 200-year annals of Grove Street Cemetery. There is no charge to peruse the registry.
more >>
Download the current newsletter issue of The Grove Street Bulletin in PDF format
Over 520 gravestone inscriptions added! These are Transcriptions of Inscriptions on gravestones moved from
The New Haven Green to the Cemetery's West Wall and North Wall
more >>
Tours of Historic
Grove Street Cemetery
During the summer months and through the early fall,
the public is invited to free walking tours of the historic Grove Street Cemetery, the first chartered burial ground in the United States and the final resting place for many notable people in both Yale and U.S. history.
The Photo Slide Show contains over 50 images of Grove Street Cemetery.
In 1997 the Department of the Interior added the Grove Street Cemetery to the National Register of Historic Places.
Three years later the Department declared the cemetery a National Historic Landmark, the first cemetery so designated in New England...
A Chronicle of 79 Eminent People buried in Grove Street Cemetery with histories and a detailed burial map.
To Become a Member of the Friends of the
Grove Street Cemetery
Burial Plots are still available at Grove Street Cemetery! Contact us for more information...