FOLKWAYS NOTEBOOK: FAMILY FARMS

Showing posts with label FAMILY FARMS. Show all posts

Sunday, January 25, 2015

GRANGE HALLS AND RURAL COMMUNITY

FERNWOOD GRANGE ENTRANCE

Grange halls have existed in rural areas of our nation since the mid-1800s. Their growth was attributed to community activities associated with farmland living -- serving as a meeting house of sorts for country folks. It was a time of real family farms not corporate farms,

They played a large role in our historic agricultural community. However the grange buildings have been slowly disappearing as land is being bought up for housing developments, malls, and commercial structures.

I always look for the old grange buildings that usually sit forlornly on our former rural lands. As family farms have been exiting these areas, now one might find a grange sitting next to many commercial buildings or new subdivisions -- deteriorating ever so slowly. So many have disappeared from our landscapes. At one time the above Fernwood Grange was among six granges in the Newberg area of Oregon. Today Fernwood Grange is the last remaining of the original six -- the result of city encroachment.

Grange buildings are dying off as our culture changes.

For more info on granges across the nation click here

WELCOME

Recently lived in the Appalachian area of the U.S. -- I have now moved to the Pacific Northwest. My blog has covered several years of Appalachian folkways and beginning this year of 2013 will begin to cover the Pacific Northwest. Therefore, there will be a potpourri of Appalachian and Pacific Northwest ways reflected in my posts. I'm an observer of cultures and nature both here and beyond and will bring those observations to you through my writings and photography. Please feel free to leave comments. ~~ barbara. -- http://folkwaysnotebook.blogspot.com/ All photos on this blog are mine unless otherwise designated -- use of photos or text should carry FOLKWAYS NOTEBOOK credit designation.

Much of the Pacific Northwest is forested. The Georgia Strait–Puget Sound basin is shared between British Columbia and Washington, and the Pacific temperate rain forests ecoregion, which is the largest of the world's temperate rain forest ecozones in the system created by the World Wildlife Fund, stretches along the coast from Alaska to California. The dryland area inland from the Cascade Range and Coast Mountains is very different from the terrain and climate of the coastal area due to the rain shadow effect of the mountains

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Sunday, January 25, 2015

GRANGE HALLS AND RURAL COMMUNITY