What I'm doing now...

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Thesis: complete. Somehow, I wrote over a hundred pages, shocking because I usually lose interest in anything longer than a takeout menu. The whole thing is based on three architectural plans—just three!—for an early 20th-century formal garden on a 3,000-acre estate of leisure that’s so rarely open to the public it might be a government secret. I thought I’d run out of things to say by page ten. Instead, I became fully immersed in the thrilling world of lichen-speckled brick paths, axial alignments, and the kinds of planting lists that seem designed to confuse people who’ve ever bought mulch. It turns out that if you squint long enough at a blueprint, it will tell you its secrets. Or possibly you start hallucinating. Either way: it’s done.

This summer, I will conduct architectural history fieldwork in Boise’s North End, focusing on resurveying its urban fabric to reassess noncontributing properties—many of which may now be eligible for historic designation—through cultural landscape analysis and an architectural survey in collaboration with SHPO, the North End Neighborhood Association, and City of Boise Historic Preservation staff.

If you spot me with headphones on, caught in the rhythm of discovery, stop me. I'll happily trade you a coffee for your take on the world. Also, visit ellery@deepwell.media if you need anything.

I am grateful to the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Henry J. Javor Bicentennial Scholarship, the Peter R. Kutscha Endowed Memorial Scholarship, the Peter L. Page Scholarship, and Grant, the Frederick Doveton Nichols Award, the UVA Society of Architectural Historians, and the UVA Architecture School's Center for Cultural Landscapes, Darden School of Business. 

jefferyholley@virginia.edu

Editor: characterhome.com 

Architectural, Art Histories + Historic Preservation - BArH '24, MArH '25

UVA School of Architecture

UVA Society of Architectural Historians President

Moven Sustainability Lab Special Projects

415.776.5333 Anytime

The past persists as unpredictably as the future unfolds - Daniel Abramson.