Wednesday, June 18, 2008

snow roofs

Built by the Fed in 1891, the Custom House has been a courthouse, post office and government center, back when shipwreck salvaging (wrecking) had made Key West the richest city, per capita, in the United States. Today it's an art galley and museum.
If you've noticed the pitch of the roofs, at first blush, you might have thought that once upon a time, our Federal Government had a sense of humor. After all they are snow roofs, angled so steeply that when snow comes down on them it slides right off again. They were a bit more costly to construct than conventional roofs but at least there'd be no collapse from the weight of the accumulation and everyone working underneath them would be safe.
Except it has never and, unless global warming has it's way with the world, will never snow in this sub-tropical climate.
Maybe someone forgot to mention that to the Washington bureaucrats of the day or maybe, and I'm just spit-balling here, some politician's pal took unfair advantage of a lucrative government contract.
Hmmm. . . Imagine that concept.

1 comment:

Robert Kelly said...

A very unusual view of the Custom House and a nice juxtaposition of the roof and the tropical foliage surrounding it.

I'm happy to feature it (the blog) as my Real Key West Blog of the Week.