The Loring Building

From the Another Time series:

Nikon D7000 10-24mm 13mm ISO 320 f/11 Lr3, HDR Efex Pro; Color Efex Pro; PsCS5

Charles Morgridge Loring (November 13, 1833–March 18, 1922) was a wealthy flour miller and civic leader in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  With other local partners, Miller co-founded the Minnesota Electric Light and Electric Motive Power Company and created the first hydroelectric power plant in the United States in 1891.  Loring’s mill holdings eventually became a part of General Mills.

Loring also maintained a winter home in Riverside, California.  In Riverside Loring built the Loring Building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1890 from a design by architect A.C.Willard, this building was remodeled in 1918 to resemble more closely the Mission Revival architecture of neighboring structures.  (The Loring Building is across Main Street from the Mission Inn.)  Originally the home of City Hall, the municipal courts and public library, this building once featured an adjoining opera house as part of the Orphum Theatrical Circuit. Its stage played host to W. C. Fields, Sarah Bernhardt and other premier entertainers of the era.The Loring Opera House was destroyed by fire in 1990.

Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 20mm ISO 320 3-bkts f/11 Lr3, HDR Efex Pro, CEP3; PsCS5

The raw images in this posting were processed in Lightroom, then in HDR Efex Pro, then tweaked in Color Efex Pro; sharpening and noise reduction was executed back in Lightroom.  The smaller image on this page captures some of the detail in the building, contrasting the rough stone with the smooth wood trimmed facade.  The larger image of the entire building was also worked in Photoshop to correct the perspective distortion from the tilted lens.