Adair Park I & Adair Park II

Lyrics

A body has a left hand, and a right.
A story has a beginning, and then the part that comes after.
You were platted in two parts.
Two heartbeats in one chest.
The first heart. North of Sylvan Road.
George Adair's first pencil lines, back in 1893.
Adair Park the First.
Queen Anne houses with their sharp rooflines,
their little turrets looking out over Lee Street.
The smell of coal smoke from the chimneys on a Tuesday morning in 1910.
The older sister, watching the streetcar arrive.
Holding the family name.
And I say your names to hold you.
Adair Park One.
Adair Park Two.
Two separate listings on the National Register.
Two different stories told by the rooflines.
But one single neighborhood, breathing in the shade.
The second heart. South of Sylvan.
Platted after the first war, around 1923.
Adair Park the Second.
The smell of fresh pine, framing the new bungalows.
Low-slung porches built for talking, facing each other down Lillian Avenue.
The younger brother, with sawdust in his hair.
Learning the family name from his sister.
And I say your names to hold you.
Adair Park One.
Adair Park Two.
Two separate listings on the National Register.
Two different stories told by the rooflines.
But one single neighborhood, breathing in the shade.
The Sanborn map from 1910, it shows the stable.
Where the mule waited to pull the streetcar.
One stable, serving both sides of the road.
Before the papers were filed in 2005, then 2011.
Before you were written down as two districts.
You were just... north side, south side.
One body, one bloodline, one slow walk home from the tracks.
Adair Park I.
Adair Park II.
My left hand. My right hand.
Held together.