Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness. – Frank Gehry

Sometimes just walking through the neighborhood with Max can turn into a visual feast. The river, the Town Common, the picturesque churches, Main-street, the trees.

Yesterday morning, cloudy with the threat of rain, the colors all seemed more saturated and the houses more interesting. So I took a few photographs heading down Saint Patrick Street before turning into our home.

I didn’t stake out the best angles, or pause to frame carefully, or even think much about which houses to shoot. I just responded in the moment, thinking, “Oh, this one looks lovely today,” or, “I love that view through the trees,” and, “I don’t think I have noticed before how well he takes care of his garden.”

Just a series of Saint Patrick Street homes. But they speak to me.

There is, as the quote from Frank Gehry puts it, a sense of timelessness to this place; it is what makes for great architecture. These homes speak both to the story of Tarboro’s history and to the story we are telling today.

I am beginning to understand what a treasure it is that we have here, and what a responsibility too.

A museum simply tells stories that are frozen in the past. A historic home holds some of those stories too, but it continues to tell new ones every day.

It makes me wonder – from our perspective – what Saint Patrick Street story “The Rebekah and Derek Maul Era” (2025-????) will tell?

Of course we do not know how this adventure of ours will play out, but I am confident the narrative will continue in the spirit of celebration and restoration and promise and renewal where it has begun.

I think I may take another walk, this time in the rain. Showers of blessings and more – DEREK