So you've noticed the 'doornob' of the front door? Well, since you asked...

Early in the development stages of Ruined for Life, I was on the hunt for the primary 'image' in each room. These images were important, because they were the first expression for the feel and essence of the room that visitors would experience, and as such, needed to be the "everlasting gobstoppers" of website eye candy. The front door image was no exception, and in fact, I knew it was the most important one since it would be seen every time someone came to the site.

'Lo and behold, I went through a few variations, including an ugly, green, old door, before settling on somthing more intriguing - something with the history, personality, and uniqueness that I wanted the first page of the site to convey. The picture I found can be seen on the right, and I found it on the personal website of Matt Adcock, a wedding photographer. As as you can see by the end result, although I loved the composition as a whole, I needed a floating image to be consistent. I didn't feel right about taking the photo off of the internet and making alterations to it, especially because it was definitely not a "run-of-the-mill" internet stock photo, but the personal, artistic (and copyrighted) work of a very talented photographer.

So, I actually e-mailed Matt and asked for permission to use the photo on my site. I didn't expect much, but to my pleasant surprise, he responded, and indicated that he would be happy give me permission to use the photo.

The best part, though, is he gave me some background as to where the photo was taken:

"The doorknob you speak of.... I'm not sure of the actual age of this particular doorknob, but it was in a building called 'Lincoln Center' which is in a small town outside of Corning Iowa...The same building my late grandmother attended grade school in. She then went on to teach school in this building. Very much history here for my family and was very special to me to get to photograph it. Very soon, this building will fall and these memories will be lost forever. Please, post this image on your website."

Intrigued, I asked for the full history behind this building. Matt responded after conferring with some of his relatives on the history of the building:

"Lincoln is a Township in Adams Co., Iowa. Each township had a school every 2 miles in every direction to serve the local farm communities. (It was too far for kids to travel to the largest city to go to school.) The Methodist Church and the school building were established in 1883 and together were called Lincoln Center. The land (2-3 acres) was donated and is still owned by a local family. As the number of family farms in this country diminishes, the old school buildings are left to disintegrate. Currently, I think there are a total of eight (8) members of the church still attending. The school house was in use as a school until the 1960's - then kids started riding school busses into town. The building was still used as a voting place until the late 1970's.

Your grandmother (Darlene Calkins-Eno) & Aunt Rosie (her sister) attended school at Lincoln Center. I think it's a 3 mile ride - and they rode horseback every day to get there and back. When Grandmother was 18, she began her teaching career there - grades 1-8 in that one room schoolhouse."

He was also kind enough to send another picture of the Lincoln Center itself, which is below. It occurred to me that not only did I have the perfect picture for my site, but it was literally going to become the "front door" of a new home - across generations and thousands of miles, from a building that would soon fall to a place that was just starting, from years of history to a story that is just beginning.

And that's just awesome!

So, thanks to Matt and his family for sharing this piece of their history with my site. Do check out Matt's wedding photography page; he is a truly gifted artist, as you will see.