Introduce Yourself - Why Do You Love Old/Historic Buildings And Places
 

I'll start us off.
My name is Fergus, I love old and historic houses and places :lovestruc:
I have pretty much always loved them, I love how old they are and all the stories that they could tell. I love pretty much all of the historical architectural styles too. I wish I could save every old/historic home or place that was at risk of being lost.
So what about you?

Hey!

I love art, I love history, and I love architecture. So that's all covered.

I don't necessarily have a favorite period. I am a bit of a formal person. I'm a fan of more structured layout, where spaces have defined purposes, where there are rules to how one entertains and lives, and as time has gone by more modern styles break some of these rules and I don't like them as well. I have a great fondness for brick and stone. I hate seeing a refrigerator from the front door, and garage doors are ugly.

Yay, brief intro done.

Hi! I grew up in one of those towns that's considered historical. Couldn't go a block without seeing a building that's part of a preservation society's efforts. Basically, I was inculcated unknowingly and when I was old enough to get in my car and drive off into the great big world, I realized that I kept looking for things, places, buildings, that had a certain feeling, or design. I may not be an architect, but I know what I like! And, it's so varied. Houses -- any thing from fancy San Francisco Victorians to southern shotgun shacks. Modern buildings if they have that...edge that sets them apart. Frank Lloyd Wright, for a common example. What I don't care for? Neighborhoods of cookie cutter ranch houses.

Right now, I am trying to adapt a set of plans from a 1903 house into the sims 3. I think I may have to learn how to create my own objects and architecture to get it looking right.

Yay! I'm not the only memeber anymore
I'm growing up in a small village near England's smallest town and Britain's oldest recorded town, so I'm surrounded by historic architecture most of the time. The main building of the college where I study wasd built in 1912, it's why I chose that college over the new modern one which my (ex)girlfriend chose. Although admitedly 1912 is quite new for the town considering the norman castle was built on the foundations of a Roman temple which was burned to the ground by a local hero a couple of thousand years ago. I have a love for anything old that hasn't been greatly altered since it was built. So I will admit to a fondness for houses built in the 1950s,60s, 70s and 80s, provided they look as if little has changed since they were first built. Like cutsocks I like the old houses where all the rooms served a purpose and occupied their own, individual space. The idea of modern open/plan living scares me a bit. I don't see a need for lots of fancy modern gadgets. I like tradition, especially when it comes to houses/buildings. I also have a passion for history too.

I love old/historical houses because they are just beautiful. I love walking through one and thinging "who walked before me?" Maybe a young gentelman came onto this very porch, palm sweating, dressed in his best suit, to call on a young lady. Maybe a lord or a duke was born in this very room. Maybe an old woman, gray and feeble died here surround by her loving family. Most certinly there were fancy dinners, after which the men went to the libary to have a brandy and a smoke. While the ladies went to the drawing room to gossip about the men. If I concentrate and listen maybe I can still hear the children running through the halls, laughing. Or hear the music from the balls. The girls skirts "swooshing" as the are twirled around the floor. If I put my hand on the knewl post, am I putting my hand where a solider put his hand to brace himself as his mother rushed to hug him, because he came home safe and sound? Historical houses are just beautiful, not just because of their looks but also because of their history.

I know just what you mean. The castle in a town near me has seen over 2000 years of history, with all kinds of people doing so many things, it's just so inspiring to think/learn about all the people that graced it with their presence, right from when it was a temple in roman times, to a castle in medieval times, to a jail in Tudor times, then to a ruin during the last couple of centuries and then currently partly restored to a musuem. Soooo many years, sooo many people, every part of it has a story to tell, even the oak tree growing on the roof :lovestruc:

Yay! More love for older houses. Forbes, I know where you're coming from. I've lived in the same house I was born in my whole life. Although my Dad built it himself in the late 1990's, just before I was born. Although as far as updates and renovations are concerned, my house has never really been finished properly. I agree that buildings of any period can paint a vivid picture of the time they belong in. Although it can be sad when they get altered/renovated/modernised and lose the features they had when they were first built. Thistle Hill looks gorgeous, especially that staircase. I think I'll have to set up a a thread for this group where we can share pics of our favourite old houses and say why we like them.

Hi! My name is Sue and I'm quite addicted to visit historic places Sadly, there ain't many old buildings near place I live. There's a Renaissance Great Market Square in my city. In fact, all the old town was made by one of Italian architects. I really adore all the buildings, because of that southern inspiration.
Maybe it'll sound a bit creepy, but... I also love cemeteries! C'mon, guys! Imagine all the stories about the people who lie there! I mean soldiers, politicians, princes, or even merchants and nannys! Once I saw beautiful tombstone of a nanny; it was a tall block of a black marble. <3 I even knew the great story of that nanny's life, but now I can't quite remember...

Welcome to the club Sue! A Renaissance Great Market Square sounds spectacular, especially being designed by Italian architects. Poland has its fair share of beautiful architecture, from what I've seen in books and on the internet it seems to get its influence from both the Western world and the Eastern one too, I certainly wouldn't mind visiting the country sometime in the future on my architectural vacation. As for cemeteries, I kind of agree, although ever since I was a child I've kind of had this phobia of stepping on someone's grave, it just felt disrespectful, but I have to admit, cemeteries can be really beautiful places, especially when they get overgrown, there's some beautiful ones in London(England) that were started in Victorian times but have become a bit derelict and so they have a really macabre atmosphere. Just reading the engravings on them and seeing all the different names from many years ago is really quite interesting, not to mention who these people actually were and the stories they could tell. One London cemetery that comes to mind is Abney Park. The cemetary of New Orleans, LA, U.S.A. is very interesting too. It's very different to what we have over here in England.

OMG *___* The Abney Park is extremely magnificent! I absolutely fell in love with that romantic scenery. Is the cemetery all filled by old tombs or is it just a part?
English buildings are excellent and... magical? I love the photo of castle you've posted. Such a great walls made from little pebbles - that makes an impression.

Abney Park is mostly a cemetary, but it also serves as a public park and aboretum too, you can read more about it here. If you like Abney, you'll find some more cemeteries in London just like it, here.
As for the castle, it originally looked something like this:

Untill local tribes burnt it down, the pinnacle of Roman power in England, destroyed by 'primitive' tribes:

The woman who started the rebellion; Boudica, is quite a local legend. But only the cellars remain of the temple, almost hidden below the Norman castle built on top of it centuries later.

I figured I'd better do this before my courage flees once again so here we go. I'm Rugile and I got a thing for historic places as well as history/architecture in general. I guess that's what growing up in a city with one of the largest surviving old towns in Eastern/Central Europe does to you. Though admittedly I've grown fond to modern/contemporary/loft kind of houses lately. :D

Well Rugile, Welcome to the club! It's great to here from fellow historic place lovers all around the world. And what a wonderful part of the world it is that you come from. That city looks gorgeous! Just having looked it up on google I'll now have to add it to my list of places to visit all around the world, if I can ever afford such a trip.

Thanks, Fergus! It's really flattering to hear such compliments for Vilnius. It's indeed rich in both history and architecture (renaissance/baroque especially).

Well, I've posted already, so might as well introduce myself, I'm Samuel, and I grew up (and still am) in the vast suburban swathes surrounding London, England. I have something for older houses, since I've never lived in something built after World War II. While my 1930s Semi isn't that old (or even that different to much else for quite a while around) Its given me something to compare to that newer than it. With little quaint meaningless features, Tiny Garages, little porches, and the defining bay window, its a style I like... And the way they were made for a way of living completely different to that of today's, its something I love, and something that some 1970s Estate could ever surpass for me.

I love 1930's semis. They're so iconic and British. It's awesome when you find one that has been touched very little since it was first built and so retains all of its original features such as the gorgeous stained glass in the windows and front door, the equally gorgous tiled fireplaces and also the wonderful panelled doors, tiled flooring in the hallway and original wooden staircase too. If you're lucky, they'll even have their original bathroom and kitchen suites too. :lovestruc: I've found a very good example, even though its detached, that's for sale here. I personally consider it a sin to even consider taking out that kitchen or replacing the windows and doors or blocking up the fireplaces.
It's quite sad to see them modernised, although the thing that has to be understood is that not everyone appreciates historic homes in the same way that some of us do.

We still have the fireplace there, even though its gas powered now, and doesn't work anymore... My parents extended the house, doing away with the wonderful old passage running behind their and my bedrooms... (Though bringing the bedroom count from 2 to 4 and adding an addition bathroom)
We've done-up every room, but we still have all the original doors, and we haven't removed any skirting boards downstairs, (all the picture rails at the top had been removed unfortunately) we replaced some of the windows, (to get double glazed) but we kept the stained pattern, and carried it over to the new ones...

It's not that bad then, I've seen much worse. At least you live in a house that has some history to it. As I already mentioned, the house I'm growing up in was built by my Dad, he started building it the year before I was born and it was just about finished a year or two later. It still has many features that you wouldn't find in a house built at the same time. We have a gorgeous oak staircase and hand-carved/made oak doors and skirting boards too. We did have hand-made oak windows too, although they were replaced with plastic double-glazed ones. We also have a wonderful old fashioned log-burner. I love the house very much, but it lacks the history that the derelict cottages that stood on the site before it had. Our farmhouse is a different story. The current house was originally a galleon that sailed the seven seas, before being dismantled and rebuilt as a farmhouse a few hundred years ago. The house was then renovated during the Georgian era which was when it gained its considerably more gentrified exterior. But there's whole lot more history buried beneath the house and meadows itself; our farm stands on the site of an Iron Age settlement. So it goes back a very long time. It’d be quite nice to rebuild the roundhouses that are currently below one of the meadows. But I doubt that will ever happen. The past is such a wonderful thing.

Woah? How much money do you have? That farmhouse sounds awesome, and that house... How old were the cottages? Georgian, Victorian?

My town is at least 1100 years old, bear minimum. Beans were grown around it. I could go on for ages about ------- history, but I haven't the time now.

Would you mind posting photos, or at least sketchy floor plans? I'd love to to see your houses they seem amazing.

Everyone in my family lives in a thirties house, and all my life they have, except my auntie, who lives on some rundown Edwardian terrace off the north circular. And my other aunt and her family who live in an 80s new build near Tunbridge wells.

My nan and grandad used to live in a Victorian? Terrace in Fulham, but they sold that and moved out to a 30s bungalow in the suburbs.

Our farmhouse isn't as grand as I probably made it out to be. Most of it is only one room deep. But to me it's a very special place. My grandparents tell me of how it was derelict when they first bought it and they were advised to demolish it and build a brand new house in the meadow behind it. Luckily they fell for the charms of the existing place and fixed it up. It took about nine months before it was habitable. But looking back to the family that owned the farm before them its past becomes considerably darker and even tainted. To the previous family that owned it, this house seemed cursed. There were many tragic deaths; father of the family died of cancer and then his young son died from electrocution in the greenhouse, which was demolished by my grandparents when they bought it. But since it has come into our family it has been very much loved and cherished. One of my favourite parts of it is the veranda on the back of it, although it's called a loggia. It's quite a lucky house now, because many years back, when I was very little/not even born, some idiots decided to burn down our farm and barns, luckily the blaze didn't jump from the newer barns to the house or the older barns in our yard. The fire was respectful towards history, but not towards our machinery/tractors which all melted to the floor due to the intensity of the fire. It's kind of sad looking at the pictures of the fire's aftermath, but in them you can see just how lucky the historic structures of our farm were.
Then the other pics are some old pics of the cottages that were found in the ruins/rubble, then some pics of the cottages in ruin before my parents demolished them and built our house which is in the last picture. Our fireplace was built using the bricks from the fireplace of one of the cottages, so some of our house does date back a few hundred years. But I love it regardless.

Those cottages looked really old fashioned and quaint, the kinds I like... Ah well... At least the new house was built in their style. (Guessing the black and white photos are the cottages and the last one is your house)

That farmhouse looks really cool, I'm glad they didn't demolish it.

Have you tried recreating your house, or the farmhouse in the sims, I've tried doing so with my house, it's really hard! I mean the smaller living areas doesn't helpp, and my house has an odd roof... Not to mention its a semi... I done a better job at one of the houses near my house, which is slightly more conventional and spacious, despite being a semi too.

I've tried recreating both, but it's a question of proportion and not being able to do things in Sims as they are done in real life. For example, there are fireplaces either side of the central hallway in the farmhouse, then up in the attic the chimneys arch over and meet as one chimney in one of the attic rooms before emerging through the roof as the single central chimney. The porch is the other trouble I have as the roof start of lower than the ceiling height at either side and has a reasonable pitch to it but still needs to peak just below the window above which is pretty much floor to ceiling height. Then its a question of finding the right windows. This is a trouble I have with recreating my own home. The other trouble with my own home is the dormers and the fact that the main section of the roof will always intersect them and look weird. That's not to mention the setup with the roof and dormers around the back of the house. The other issue with my own home is the need to use CFE without having the space to hide the warping. Then there's the issue with the colour of the bricks and roof tiles always changing colour depending on the weather. Some days they're salmon pink then they're burgundy red/brown. It can be frustrating trying to get everything in proportion and recognisable. So I just prefer not to build houses that are supposed to look like real life houses. I don't mind old houses from video games though

Ahh right, yeah, I catch you point. Yeah, I usually do inspired houses that are a bit off, but still fairly close. But none of them are to this websites standards, you'll have to go to my Sims 3 page (Squaretable22) to see them.

Hiya, my name is Shaz and I love history and old buildings. My favourite period in history has to be the Tudor/Elizabethan periods. I love the architecture and landscaping of the homes built in this period.
I live in Stoke-on-Trent and our most famous Tudor home is Ford Green Hall. There are also quite a lot of listed buildings in this part of the country, a few which are protected because of the Potteries Heritage.
I too try to recreate some places in my sims builds, but, as as been said real life buildings are quite unique and sims wont allow for circular walls and old inglenook fireplaces and chimneys.

Yay! A new member!
Welcome to the group.
Stoke-on-Trent? From what I hear, Staffordshire has quite a lot of great historic places in general and has some very beautiful scenery too.