DESIGN INTERVENTION APRIL: Window Guards – Overlook Beauty

We walk past them every day and never take notice.  They keep us safe and we never say thank you; without them, we would be vulnerable.  Their pristine condition and aesthetic beauty belies their age and their purpose.  A marriage of art and function, found on every house in every city on every sidewalk, “they” are cast iron window guards.  The 19th century witnessed the birth of modern day ironworks, specifically cast iron.  If it could be imagined, it could be cast!  Kitchen equipment, wood stoves, laundry irons, public fountains, statuary, railings, balconies, fences, bed frames, cradles, farm machinery, verandas, gazebos, planters, urns, door grilles, window guards and even entire building facades!    Cast iron was the answer to centuries of dealing with the nuisance and costly repairs associated with decaying wood, and the intense labor and time inherent with the production of wrought iron. To read the full article from Lancaster Newspapers CLICK HERE.