5March2009
Posted by mattmorrill under: Uncategorized.
I found this tool on another blog. Although my thesis is only about 75% complete (only?? 
), I figured I’d run my text through Wordle anyways. The tool takes a block of text and creates a collection of words sized based on how often they appear in the text. The results are pretty cool:
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25December2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
So I finally finished my first chapter of my thesis last week and passed that in for my Research Methods class. It ended up being 26.5 pages. My first draft was horrendous so the final needed a lot of revision and reworking. I’m fairly happy with the final product, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to cut up the chapter after my adviser reads it.
My biggest problem was going off on tangents that don’t directly relate to my thesis. I think the subsequent chapters offer less danger for tangents than the first chapter, but I still think there’s a danger. I’ll have to be extra careful especially in the last chapter.
So the stuff I have left to write:
Next Chapter: focusing on the design and layout of Merchants Square. The unique design and harmonious relation with the rest of CW contributed to the success of the area. Also included will be an analysis of the tenants. Perhaps discuss similar developments??
Third chapter: Show how the square changed williamsburg. This will include the Sanborn maps showing how the center of the town changed. It will also discuss how the town changed in subsequent years due to the development of merchants square.
Epilogue: This will discuss how Merchants Square transitioned from a community clientele to a tourist clientele as a result of development along Richmond Road, most notably Williamsburg Shopping Center. Then maybe discuss six other similar developments? (Stony Brook, Williamsburg Shopping Center, etc.)
I guess that’s the general outline for the thesis.
Ok so goals over break:
1. Outline at least 2 chapters, IN FULL
2. Create the map showing how commercial and public buildings moved. Use tracing paper.
3. Start writing another chapter, maybe.
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23November2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
By my calculations, I have completed 44.3% of my work due after Thanksgiving. That includes 14 pages of my thesis. I actually had a nightmare about my thesis a couple nights ago. I dreamt my adviser read my draft of chapter one and decided that the first 10 pages weren’t relevant and told me to rewrite the whole thing. Scary! But after rereading that section, I am still confident that it is relevant to the overall goal of the chapter, which is showing why W.A.R. Goodwin wanted to rearrange life on Duke of Gloucester Street, and how he did it. Now that the why part is pretty much done, I’m focusing on the how, and will do that for the remaining text of the chapter. I’m looking at what decisions Goodwin and co. made, why they made them, and what some of their other options were.
I have another 10 page paper to work on, and a project for another class, so I’ll be busy the next few days. Hopefully I can take Thanksgiving off and relax. I don’t know if it will be possible for me to do anything once I’m sitting on the couch watching football and high off Tryptophan.
Ok, next set of goals:
Complete 20 pages of thesis by Sunday, November 30
Finish my 10 pager by Monday, Dec. 1.
Somehow finish that group project for GIS. by Mon. Dec 1
17November2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
Monday I had a meeting with my adviser. He said I was making good progress and had good sources, but I don’t feel that confident after this week. Tuesday I continued to tweak my outline until I had a solid one for my chapter. I started writing on Wednesday, and got through a pretty solid into to the chapter. The real danger for this chapter is straying too far from my overall thesis topic. I want to set the stage for my discussion about Merchants Square with a brief overview of Williamsburg before the Restoration, but I’m worried that this may be too much of a tangent. At the same time, I think it’s important to understand Williamsburg so the reader will get a better idea of the changes as a result of the Restoration. I think I really need to focus on commercial life and what Duke of Gloucester Street was like in this section for it to really be effective.
The rest of the chapter is going to focus on W.A.R. Goodwin’s plan for the Restoration the decision he, Rockefeller and staff architects made to concentrate businesses in Merchants Square. The problem is, I haven’t done a ton of research on Goodwin yet, and although I think I have enough for the chapter, I’m not sure the depth of my knowledge will be enough.
Writing itself is going slower than I anticipated. I’m hoping it picks up once I get rolling, but right now I feel like I’m still trying to get in rhythm. I’ll dedicate a lot of time this week to at least get words on paper. As long as I put something down I can always go back and revise. I just don’t want to be bogged down with writer’s block.
Ok, so goals for the week:
1. Have at least 10 pages written by this time next Sunday.
2. Patch any holes in my research that need shoring up.
3. Don’t fail my other classes.
10November2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
Despite the Homecoming festivities I made a decent amount of headway this week on my project. Saturday through Tuesday I read Main Street Revisited by Richard Francaviglia, which turned out to be extremely informative. The book covered the importance of the image of Main Street to American culture and gave an analysis of its history and commercial architecture. The last section, however, was not all that useful, as the author sort of goes on a tangent while he looks at how the image of Main Street was built, emphasizing Main Street USA in Disneyland. Other than that last confusing chapter, however, the chapters on architecture and history provided some of the most useful secondary material to date.
Wednesday I visited Williamsburg City Hall to check out the Williamsburg City Council Record book. The Town Clerk was really helpful and let me check out any record books I wanted. These books are really cool because they’re basically just hundreds of pages of primary documents. I found some interesting facts about the Restoration’s early days, most notably the decision to remove the county courthouse from Dog Street to a location south of there. These records complemented a lot of the other documents I’ve looked at in the past.
Probably the most valuable source I found this week were the Sanborn Fire Insurance Plats on microfilm in Swem. These maps show every structure in Williamsburg in 1910, 1921, and 1933 (a few years after the restoration). They’re really exciting because you can see how businesses were formerly spread out along DoG street prior to the Restoration and then concentrated near the College afterwards. It’s also good to have spatial evidence to back up the written record. Definitely glad I found these!
10November2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
Until Chapter numero uno is due…time to get cracking. I think I’ve outlined the chapter I’m writing pretty well at this point, now it’s just a matter of getting down to the grindstone and writing. I’m really worried I won’t have enough research/material to adequately make my points, which will force me to go back to sources and look at them. Oh well, we’ll see how things go once I start putting things down on paper…
One more thing I have to do concurrently to my writing is conducting an architectural survey of Merchants Square. I was over there on Friday with my National Register of Historic Places Application (which gives a detailed architectural description of each building in Merchants Square) trying to get my vocabulary up to speed. Architectural terms like hyphen, modillion cornice, and glazing are now familiar to me. At some point this week I plan on going out later at night and measuring the dimensions of all the buildings in Merchants Square so I can eventually make an architectural plan of the area. I’m actually really excited about going out into the field, especially because William Perry and W.A.R. Goodwin did the same thing when they were making plans for Williamsburg’s Restoration (they went out measuring at night so that residents wouldn’t get suspicious).
6November2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
Sorry this post is late, it’s been a busy week.
I ACTUALLY HAVE AN OUTLINE! That means that the outline might turn into words that might turn into a thesis! I’m a planner at heart, and it feels really good to at least have a vague sense of where I’m heading as I move forward.
I’ve decided to write my chapter this semester on the decision to build Merchants Square. This section will also include a discussion of the architectural features of the area that make it such a strong place. I think this will provide more than enough to talk about for 20 or 30 pages.
That will be the second chapter of my thesis. The first will focus on Williamsburg prior to the Restoration and will paint it as a small typical Southern town with a strong heritage. Chapter 4, which I also considered writing, will most likely be the strongest section of my argument, as this section will deal with the consequences of Merchants Square. I will use the Sanborn Insurance maps and other photos/accounts to show how the commercial center transitioned and concentrated towards West DoG street. Also included in this chapter will be racial implications (maybe include a discussion of Palmer’s Square in Princeton?) of the development and its role as a community center for the white population. Chapter 4 will then cover Merchants Square’s transition from town center to tourist hub and examine some possible reasons and consequences of that transition. Chapter 5 (if I have room) will look at Merchant Square’s influence in other communities across the nation.
So there it is. Now I just have to do it.
As for sources, I hit the jackpot for historical accounts. Lifelong Williamsburg resident Ed Belvin published a book in 1981 called Growing Up in Williamsburg: From the Depression to Pearl Harbor. The book reads like a journal and is the author’s memory, so when compared with other sources this account will be really valuable.
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22October2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
I was just brainstorming several commercial areas that I want to look at in detail other than Merchants Square that exhibit Colonial references. My adviser described the use of Colonial Revival architecture is almost “cliche” now, so there are probably many more examples than the following list indicates. But anyways, here are the commercial areas I’m going to analyze in my 3rd chapter:
1) Edmonson Village Shopping Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
2) River Road Shopping Center (1960) in Richmond, VA
3) Stony Brook Village Center (1941), Stony Brook, NY
4) Palmer Square, Princeton, NJ
5) Williamsburg Shopping Center, Katy, TX
6) Sites on Virginia’s Eastern Shore/Tidewater region.
I hope to use these areas as evidence that the Merchants Square pattern did indeed make appearances beyond Williamsburg, and sometimes even further like Texas and New York. I also hope to show how Merchants Square may have directly or indirectly influenced these developments. Although it will be difficult to construct a cause and effect change for influences, the fact that the Williamsburg Restoration was common knowledge after 1930 especially in the architectural community (as shown in several articles in Architectural Record) may shore up this argument. Hopefully I can find some more influence linking these developments to Merchants Square but right now that’s all I have.
As far as sources are concerned, I just got in a crucial book I ordered this week entitled Main Street Revisited by Richard Francaviglia. Although the last section of the book is tenuous, the first two sections involve the architecture and use of space in small town Main Streets across the country. It has been a great tool and reference for me so far. I’m starting to realize that Merchants Squares real importance may have been as a redeveloped Main Street rather than as a planned shopping district. There were several other planned shopping districts, like J.C. Nichol’s Country Club Plaza, prior to Merchants Square. Since the concept of the shopping center was not mainstream in 1927, William Perry most likely saw the new Williamsburg shops as a revitalized downtown district rather than a shopping center. However, Merchants Square is still important in the history of shopping centers as it is one of the first developments to unify tenants under a single association/owner.
I also got this book Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. It’s fiction, but I was wondering if there was any way I could work in cultural references from the book into my thesis? I know fiction is usually a big no-no, but do you guys think this book could be of any value to me?
16October2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
This post is really late, I apologize, but my access to a computer was pretty limited over break.
Anyways, this past week I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress. On Monday I interviewed Richard Longstreth. He bled knowledge out of his ears. He helped me clarify questions about my topic and to refine my thesis. I’m realizing that Merchants Square’s real importance lay in its status as a redeveloped existing commercial district and not simply a shopping center. I’m pretty sure my thesis statement is going to be as follows:
The redevelopment of Williamsburg’s uptown district on Duke of Gloucester Street in the late 1920′s and 1930′s became a model for future shopping districts and centers because it successfully applied “colonial” imagery and architecture to a commercial setting.
So, my thesis would probably be organized into 3 chapters:
I. The planning and construction of Merchants Square and its impact on Williamsburg
II. The transition of Merchants Square from a community center to a tourist depot as a result of periphery shopping center development.
III. Other redevelopments that followed a similar design to Merchants Square
On Tuesday, I went to the Library of Congress for the day. As an aside, I’ve decided I will never live near D.C. if I have to commute into the city to work (it was REALLY bad). Anyways at the archives I found some census data and a Boston Globe interview with William Graves Perry from 1963. I also found some good material for my vernacular architecture term paper!
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6October2008
Posted by mattmorrill under: research.
I went back through one of Longstreth’s bibliographies and found six more sources to look at. So I may have jumped the gun a little on my secondary source progress. I’m wondering how many sources other people have? Obviously, every project will require varying amounts of secondary material, but I’m wondering what everyone’s ballpark figures are? My bibliography has about 40 books, articles, etc. in it right now, and I’m not sure if that’s too little, just right, or what.
My advisor had an interesting quote about research. He said that it’s easy to keep doing research and reading, but hard to know when the time is to switch over to writing. The way you know apparently is when you stop finding new things and further research just rehashes what you already know. I’m definitely not even close to that level with my primary source material so far, but I feel like I’m starting to reach a plateau in my secondary source research. I’m starting to see my sources repeat ideas about commercial decentralization, parts to a shopping center, and effective design. So maybe I should start spending more time on primary material…which I’ll admit I still have a ways to go on.
I found some difficulty researching newspapers. Does anyone know if special collections has the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia Gazette, Newport News Daily Press, and the Virginia Pilot on microfilm? I’ve searched online for archives but haven’t been able to find any.
I finished reading a fascinating dissertation this week in special collections. The author, Andrea Foster analyzed the Restoration in the context of race relations and Southern small-town culture. She argued that the whole Restoration process amount to an urban renewal which empowered Williamsburg’s white elites while shunning its black and poor white population. In her view, the Restoration perpetuated themes of white dominance prevalent in Southern culture and celebrated white history. She had some interesting quotes on Merchants Square’s role in all this, most notably:
“Merchants Square served all the residents; however, only white shop owners could rent space there. By 1933, many had reopened near their former business locations, others relocating from “downtown”. According to residents, the courthouse green served as the dividing line between uptown and downtown. (Virginia Gazette, 27 January 1933, 1.). Shops in Merchants Square included groceries and dry goods, eateries, a pharmacy, a bank, theatre, and haberdashery. The new Virginia Gazette offices stood in a court near the post office buildings off Henry Street. A few African-American merchants had be resettled in a section northwest of Merchants Square, in a triangle between Prince George, Scotland, and Boundary Streets. African-American businesses no longer existed on Duke of Gloucester Street [emphasis added]. (176) ”
This book made me realize who shopping centers and districts are built for: the white middle and upper class. It seemed like Merchant Square’s presence signaled to the community, through its architecture and commercial establishments, that downtown was only meant for whites. It would be interesting to see how shopping centers in other towns affected race relations.
One of the unique things I’m realizing about Merchants Square is that unlike most shopping centers, it did not compete with downtown, it became downtown. As such it actually concentrated commerce rather than decentralizing it from downtown, which is the effect of most other shopping centers. It is interesting, then, that in the 1930′s when the trend in the country (most notably Los Angeles) was to build regional shopping centers away from downtown thereby decentralizing commercial activity, that Williamsburg was actually doing the exact opposite: revitalizing and concentrating its downtown retail. Even more fascinating, is that this concentration ultimately failed to keep business downtown with the opening of Williamsburg Shopping Center in 1950. From then on Merchants Square became a mere tourist trap while Williamsburg’s businesses moved to the new shopping center and Richmond Road. For a business district that seemed to have everything going for it (location, architecture, market) it is amazing that it nevertheless bowed to the shopping center. This seems to imply that no matter what developers and planners could design or do to keep business downtown, decentralization with the coming of the shopping center was inevitable. It would appear that even with excellent architecture, parking, stores and location, downtown was still unable to compete with the shopping center.
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