Mary writes:

> I'd love to find out how other preservationeers got into all this in the
> first place

My first brush with the investigation of unknown conditions and the excitement
of older buildings:

When I was a kid there was a huge nursery and greenhouse complex several
blocks from where we lived. The place had not been in use for 15 to 20 years
and was completely delapidated with buildings caving in, etc. We were
frequently admonished to not go near the place, or the huge brick boiler
chimney would fall on us. We believed it too, the chimney was so tall, that if
it were to fall the top of it would reach us even outside the boundaries of
the place.  I was amazed by the idea that the chimney would know where we were
so it could fall on us.  We took shovels to the site to dig deep holes around
the foundation to find some kind of connections to the rest of the site. By
the time I was 10 I knew quite a lot about that chimney and its foundation.
Eventually the chimney did fall. We disavowed any knowledge of the event.

John Leeke