Maze of the Week #14 - Rockford Tower Maze

April 4, 2022

We stay in the state of Delaware for this weeks maze with the Rockford Tower. The tower is located in Wilmington, Delaware and is located in the middle of the Rockford Park. The maze is a draw and cut construction using the stones as walls that pathways move through, I made 2 variations of the maze….with only one change - the better version is below.

Some information about Rockford Tower

The Tower includes a historical marker with the following inscription:

“In 1895, Theodore Leisen, engineer for the Wilmington Board of Park Commissioners, recommended that “a large pavilion and observatory” be built in Rockford Park on what was called Mt. Salem Hill, the highest point in the city at 330 feet above sea level. His proposal coincided with the Board of Water Commissioners’ conclusion that Wilmington was in need of a new water tower in that neighborhood. The two boards merged their projects in Rockford Tower. Built between 1899 and 1902, the half-million-gallon water storage tank and observatory is constructed of natural field stone and is an example of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. Rockford Tower is 57 feet in diameter at the base, 75 feet high to the floor of the observatory, and reaches a total height of 115 feet.”

— Inscription

You can read about the tower history here, and see some great old pictures including one showing it’s construction. Or if you are a sucker for drone videos like I am, check this one out:

The mazes:

Black and white. This is a new and improved version of the maze. The outline of the tower changed…from straight lines to lines that are shaped more like the individual stones. It was a slight change but make the tower look more natural !

I hope you enjoy the maze. You can find downloads of the maze at the mazes permanent home.

Coming next week:

A sign maze.

Maze of the Week #13 - Clayton Theatre Maze

March 28, 2022

My favorite maze of the year (so far) is this week’s maze of the Clayton Theatre in Dagsboro, Delaware. I love movies and enjoy going to old movie theaters. The maze construction I used for this maze is a draw and cut. The bricks used for the façade make a natural "maze wall for the maze pathways to work themselves through.

Some information about the Clayton Theatre

Built in 1948, this is the last first run single screen theater in Delaware. After watching the video below and seeing the marquee lit up at night, I have been tempted to do a version of the maze “at night” showing off the wonderful colors. I put that on my to-do list. I also am suddenly hungry for some popcorn ! You can find what movie is playing here.

The maze:

Mostly a black and white maze, with a small pop of color in red for the PG-13. But, this is NOT a black and white maze as this this the actual coloring of the theatre !

I hope you enjoy the maze. You can find downloads of the maze at the mazes permanent home.

Coming next week:

A maze of another building in Delaware ! I think you will like it !

Maze of the Week #12 - Waterbury Clock Tower Maze

March 21, 2022

Maze #12 of the year features the Waterbury Clock Tower at Waterbury Union Station in Waterbury, Connecticut. It is a building maze, and is the first maze that does not use perspective, and instead uses a flat, geometric drawing of the tower. The maze is a simple standard construction. I did 2 versions, the original in black and white, and a colorized version. For the colorized version I used the drone footage below (Thank you Manxcat73) ! Without that footage, the pictures I found did not show the colors clearly.

Some information about Waterbury Union Station

The station was built in 1909 and it features a 240 foot tower, the subject of my maze. The station is the last stop for its branch of the Metro North railroad. It is a long 2 hours and 45 minutes to Grand Central Station. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 1978.

Here is some wonderful drone footage of the tower where you can see it’s features and the surrounding town up close !

The maze:

A simple black and white maze. I should mention this is not REALLY a maze of the clock tower, but the top portion of it, I I made the full tower to scale it would be much longer !!

Waterbury Union Station Clock Tower Maze in black and white — Waterbury Clock Tower Maze

And here is the colorized version of the maze. Which version do you prefer ?

Waterbury Union Station Clock Tower Maze in color — Waterbury Clock Tower Maze in Color

I hope you enjoy the maze. You can find downloads of the maze at the mazes permanent home.

Coming next week:

A great maze of a movie theater that I think you are going to like !

Maze of the Week #10 - The Alamo Mission Maze

March 7, 2022

Our second building maze of the year takes us to San Antonio and the famous Alamo Mission. I had made a maze of the Alamo before and decided I wanted to upgrade and see if I could improve on the previous version, I think I did. Why am I fetauring this maze, this week ? Well, The Battle fo the Alamo was fought between February 23 – March 6, 1836.

Some information about The Alamo Mission

Famous for the 13 day siege that was part of the Texas Revolution. Despite losing the battle, Texas defeated the Mexican army a little of a month later to form the Republic of Texas. A nice place to plan a visit if you are in the area. Take a tour and learn more in the video below.

Before we get to the mazes let’s take a look at a photo of The Alamo Mission from JOSE GIL from Pexels

The original maze:

I did a simple outline of the building, colored it and included a standard maze. You’ll notice the building is symmetrical with perfectly straight lines and it uses only two colors.

And here is a photo from David R Tribble that I used to make my more detailed Alamo Mission Maze.

The new maze versions:

And here WAS the updated Alamo Mission Maze that I was going to feature this week: It is a large size maze 22x34 inches in full size and is in black and white. The maze construction is draw and cut, and because of the scale it does not look like a maze at first glance (IMO). I used the stones that make up the building as the walls of the maze. Now about the WAS. I like this maze a lot but I decided to take the time colorize it a bit to see if it would improve the maze…