Beyond the Surface

Here, in Beyond the Surface, Walter C. Kidney describes the epiphany he experienced in 1948, when he suddenly became aware of the magnificence of Victorian architecture which was then so thoroughly despised. The effect must have been electric, because by the time we made our walking tours of the city in the mid 1950s, he seemed to know every building we passed, no matter how modest it might be. He took his buildings, as he took people he knew as they came. Although he lived his life as a solitary man, never marrying or taking a partner, he fully enjoyed the company of others and the sociability that might flow between them.