Individual Post 1

For the “Devils in the details” walkabout, my group went to Federal Heights. I have lived in Utah pretty much my whole life but I have never spent much time in Salt Lake, and I had no idea that there are so many interesting places here. When we first arrived I could quickly see it is a very wealthy neighborhood. In the area where I grew up there are not very many old or interesting houses, and all of the wealthy people live in very big, extravagant, new houses. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the houses in this neighborhood were not in fact new or ornate in the sense I was expecting. The houses all had history behind their design and structure and yet it was still apparent that they were owned by the wealthiest and flashiest home owners, just like Martha Bradley mentioned in her lecture, the rich like to show off their wealth in their homes.

Unlike the previous walkabouts we have been on, this place, although public, seemed very private and peaceful. When we first arrived we met a woman and asked questions about her house and the neighborhood in general. She was very welcoming and enthusiastic to share her knowledge and help us make the most of our experience. However, as nice as that woman was, she was the only one to acknowledge our presence and interact with us. As beautiful as the neighborhood was, I did not get the sense that much human to human interaction occurs there. We were walking around at about five o’clock, when everyone was returning home from work, and we didn’t see anyone talking to their neighbors or out getting the mail. It seemed like pretty much everyone pulled into their driveway, went inside, and did not even pay notice to us walking around and taking pictures. There was even a father and his two children who pulled into their driveway right in front of us, then looked directly at us and walked straight into their house without saying a word or even nodding a head. On the other hand, the pure esthetic of the neighborhood made it a very inviting and interesting place. Everyone in our group was drawn to the beauty of each house and we could have kept walking around for hours because there was so much to see, so in that sense the space in itself seemed to encourage human interaction.

Since this walkabout was not so much related to our text, I used my notes from Martha Bradley’s lecture to interpret what I saw. In relation to the mass of the homes, I noticed that many of them looked more moderate from the front, but when seen from the side, I realized that most of the homes were actually quite large. The plan of the homes was harder to tell since we did not go in any of them, but from the outside, they seemed to have a more concise planned out design, rather than a large and sprawling layout. The details were very prominent on these houses. I would describe most of the houses as colonial style; so, many of the details were in the geometric shapes and the windows and borders of the houses. The placement of the details also seemed to be very well thought out and symmetrical. As for the ambiance of the neighborhood, it felt kind of elitist and fancy. We discussed as a group how it felt like the home owners did not want to acknowledge or interact with us, even when they were looking at us through a window as we stood in front of their house. At the same time the historical mood made it exciting and very interesting to learn about.

Going back to the details, some of the more specific things I noticed were that most of the houses were close to the street, and only a few had large front yards or long driveways where the house was not visible. I also noticed that most of the houses were natural colors like brown or beige and they were primarily built out of brick and in some cases stucco. In following with the colonial style, most of them had a lot of windows that were very symmetrical and ornate, with shutters and interesting shapes. The roof pitches on most of the houses were ordinary, but a few had multiple pitches like the Victorian style, especially the ones that had been added onto. Going into more detail on the outside, I noticed a lot of the homes had quoins and a few had turrets, and cupolas. There were also a few houses that mimicked the Elizabethan style with the brown and white wood look, and the overhangs. As for the landscaping, all of the houses had very well cared for lawns and very fancy shrubbery. I noticed that there were many old trees, I especially liked that they seemed to line every street we went down. I also thought it was interesting that they had post street lamps instead of the generic ones. It really added to the historical feel of the neighborhood. There were also a lot of wrought iron fences and gates which helped establish the feeling of privacy. The driveways here often just two strips of pavement, instead of being completely filled in, and behind some of the houses there was a small ally which we incurred was for the garbage access. Overall, Federal Heights is a very interesting and beautiful neighborhood, and it was my favorite walkabout so far. There is so much history and architecture in every house, and I would encourage everyone to just go walk around and see it for yourselves.