By now, the saying, "God is in the details" (van der Rohe) is probably a cliche, but for me it still rings true.
This chimney is part of a white aluminum-sided home in a nearby neighborhood. (I took off in a different direction this morning, actually a couple different directions.) I turned to this house because of the siding. To my delight, out of the black-capped mountain of white metal this lovely chimney arose. This architectural detail clearly marks this house as Tudor Revival on a modest scale. How amazing its condition. I see no chips in the stucco, no missing mortar around the bricks. The great condition of the chimney would seem to suggest that the entire house has been preserved, well cared for.
But let us imagine what this house once looked like, pre-siding. Let us imagine the warm browns that blended seamlessly with the chimney. Notice the interesting design at the top. Where else on the home might this geographic, Wright-like, design have been repeated, around the front door maybe?
While the white siding now frames this detail, allowing us, yes, to see its singular beauty, we are missing the whole of which it is only one part. And that is just one, albeit a great one, problem with siding. It dismantles, distorts, and, of course, obliterates. Not only can we not see this home's most distant past, we may never be able to know fully the artistic point of view that went into its making. I have either rightly or wrongly identified Wright architecture as inspiration for the architect or mason of this home, but this is just the sort of question that would lead to yet others that would, in the end, tell us something not only about the history of this particular house but about the history of the area in which it is located.
Ultimately, while the siding may tell us who we are most recently--the things that motivate us, scare us, or excite--this strange covering cannot tell us who we were at just the moment in time when this house and others were created.
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