1885 Job interview…
Lady Burdett-Coutts: I heard you picked up a building and moved it.
CT: Ah, yes. Chicago. It had its difficulties, being brick. Some fell off. But we did it. Big crane. Leverage. Steam. Lifted it up, turned it around and plonked it down on the piles prepared on the other side of the street.
LBC: My advisors were impressed. So they suggested you design a hotel for Southend on Sea. In brick. It would not need lifting.
CT: I have a year ahead of me.
LBC: You are not staying in England?
CT. It remains to be seen. There are opportunities in the Antipodes I hear.
LBC: Ah, you’ve been reading Samuel Butler?
CT: Actually the New Zealand Company prospectuses.
LBC: Well, we’d better press you into service before you leave us again.
___________
Voice-over
Who knows what other buildings CT would have designed in England? But he migrated to other shores, other stories. But before setting sail, he left this one which stood for eighty years.
 |
| Westward Ho |
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