The Houses of Cherry Hill

The houses on Cherry Hill, are very nice to say the least. They are probably worth much more than the houses in Flagstaffs southside. Once you start the walk up Cherry st, you notice the road starts to curve and lose the linear, grid pattern we see downtown, the building become much more isolated - set farther back from the road, deliberate landscaping to shield from road and neighbors. When compared to the business section of DT this is a great break in landscape. From wanting to be seen and seen as convenient to wanting to be secluded and not open to outside viewing. This goes hand-in-hand with the switch from commercial to residential.  


I really like that most of the landscaping is done with native vegetation- saves water & prevents intrusive species from killing native ones. Although, honestly this is not peak lawn season so I doubt that is really that case. I am sure there is an HOA in this neighborhood as well. Another think I noticed was the great embellishment of the outsides of houses, they may not want you seeing their house but if you do they want it to look good. The use of non operational shutters, cutesy flourishes,  and false windows as an aesthetic for the outside viewer makes the home owner appear ... something. Fashion before function is usually the best way right?? 

The Mormon Church that is a predominant landmark along the main road shows a wealthy Mormon influence as opposed to Baptist or Catholic churches else where around town. I wonder if any other littler churches were constructed on this neighborhood after this church?

Aspen St & Cherry Hill

      The architecture in the downtown area is very different from the construction with Malpais basalt in Flagstaff's south side area.  The downtown area of Flagstaff of built at a higher elevation, as to avoid a flood when and  (if) the Rio De Flag ever floods, but it is also the chosen place for all the governmental buildings, and more recently more governmental building have expanded and more operations have been put in this downtown vicinity. ( The Picture above is of the Weatherford Hotel, the Old courthouse has the same type of architecture, and building materials.)

     Another feature of this area that I noticed was the "building up" most of the building I saw down town were tow to three stories high, and most with commercial or business on the street level and apartments on the top floors. This is different from Southside, Flagstaff because there is not the agrarian or pastoral need for pasture land.

  This Building downtown is an example of the multi level building very common dowtown. It also seem that SBS west and some of the building downtown were built are around the same time due to the very similar architecture. Heritage square is also a very interesting feature of Downtown Flagstaff. "Empress Amphitheater" is a great place, especially during first Fridays. This is a aunty picking up trash in the glorious Heritage square. 

Place Attachment and Identity

 

Home for me, and the place that I am attached to is Crested Butte, CO and Gunnison, CO which is about 30 miles down the road. I grew up here both of my parents worked on the Mountain, which is also how they met. I was born on Gunnison County Hospital in 1990, and lived in the town of CB until I was about 15. This is home for me because I feel more comfortable around big mountains and snow, than big flat area. Mountains are the most solid thing in the world. I feel at home here because I have so many childhood memories here, my name Hasley come from a basin in this area, and my Father still lives here. The greenish building the in lower right hand corner of the picture is the town school where K-12 attends; my father built the town bank, as well as the white house in the lower middle section of then picture, plus numerous other structures in town. This is a olderish picture because the school has already been remodeled, but there are several things that exist now that are not shown in this picture. The mountains shown are Gothic MTN where the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab is, they do super cool stuff there.  The predominant peak in this picture is Cinnamon Mountain, and the one disappearing up on the left of the picture is Red Lady, where my Godmother died in an avalanche. so many memories, that what make this home.       

Southside: Benton and San Fran

When I was doing the walking tour of Flagstaff's Southside neighborhood I noticed several different things. One the in particular was the utilization of Malpais Basalt in construction. It is a dark brown rock, slightly poreous. Basalt  which is very hard on the hardness scale making it very hardy against the Flagstaff weather, especially the wind which is very effective in breaking down rock. And melting salt, which erodes most things over time. I really like the masonry on the building I saw, it is really a craft.
Wow they much paint this church everyday. It is a shocking. almost glowing white, very surprising because we are in the middle of a faux mud season in January, and claymud gets EVERYWHERE. I wonder who does all the upkeep on this church? but kudos to whoever it is. this is the whitest, cleanest church i have ever seen. This pastor who works here is very nice always says hi to me on Sunday mornings when I am undoubtedly walking across Flagstaff to retrieve my  car from the previous night. I think he may live next door because when I was walking around I saw him BBQing next door with a bunch of Auntys and kids. Maybe he is the one who does all the upkeep. There are many little kids running around chasing each other with sticks, they are mostly of Hispanic, or Native American decent, alluding to the ethnic demographic of this area. I would love to live down here, but I live pretty close so its cool. I like this street in the Fall when all the colors on the big trees are changing.