Wednesday, August 03, 2016

A Little More House History


Our new little stone house has yielded up more of its history. In the county library I found (locked in the archives! It was so exciting and it took a key!) a voluminous hand-made scrapbook of all the old houses around town, with their histories researched.

Our realtor had told us that our house dated from 1910 or so, but apparently it was actually built in 1890--a frame structure, not stone. And it was two stories, with a "fancy porch!" Sadly, the second floor and the porch burned up. 

We had already suspected that the rock was added later, by the stonemason who bought the house in the 1940s, and the scrapbook confirmed that. And now we've seen the "original" siding under the stone, when we replaced a door! It's painted soft gray. I'm not sure that this should even count as original, because I suspect the kitchen was added some time after the house was first built. Maybe when indoor plumbing came to town?


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of my own house, which was originally built by my great-grandfather. Every generation has added things or made changes to it to account for changing times and needs. But when I stand in the garage, my feet know they stand in my grandmother's washhouse.

Lisa said...

I would never think you could apply stone to an already built wood house! But of course, the stonemason would know it.

Lisateresa

Instagram.com/melissasnotes said...

Interesting bits of information.

Carol said...

Enjoy the home and I am sure you will learn more history as time goes on.

connie said...

Will enjoy watching the renovations.

Carol said...

What an exciting find. How thoughtful of someone to make the book. (MD)

Jodes said...

I am already in love with your little stone house, I look forward to seeing it blossom into a home again!

Heather said...

So delightful!

Amy said...

What a fun mystery! I can't wait to see what you do with it -- how lucky that you have already found people who can do the work!

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