Mystery
So part of the joy in owning a home for me has been, so far, exploring the mysteries. I would imagine this is the similar drive that inspires those who love geneology. I do find ancestry to be quite fascinating, but spending time in a house where there are more questions than answers has driven me to do some exploring. These are the biggest questions we’ve come up with so far- and just a few of the answers…
-We know that the back of the house has an addition built in 1980. If that was not there before then there was only two rooms downstairs, and two rooms upstairs. This leaves no room for plumbing or kitchen/bathroom. As our house is dated 1920, it seems they would have had plumbing somewhere, but the wood floors downstairs are the original subfloors so if there were holes we would see them. Plus the fact that the door on the bathroom (part of the addition) is really really old. They could have bought it old but whoever lived there before didn’t seem too concerned with keeping it architecturally consistent. Maybe part of the original house was torn down and rebuilt? But still, standing outside the house it looks like it just used to be the original 4 room structure.
-So then what would that mean, the house is so old it had no plumbing? (and electric, which I’ll get to). That seems like that would have been long before 1920, although the house in general does give off a feeling much older than 1920. We had a friend stop by this weekend, and she mentioned (which internet research verified) that in the ‘20s in Franklin County the courthouse burned down, and that anything dated prior to 1920 is probably wrong (does this include 1920?). The only thing I’ve found so far online is a map from 1920. The house is there, it looks like without an addition, but that’s about all it told me.
-Also, we can vaguely tell what was original based on the trim. We have two kinds of trim downstairs- the original, really old ornate trim, a more simple trim around windows that we assume was added in the 1980s, and upstairs there’s a third trim that really doesn’t match either of the first two. The downstairs is pretty consistent but upstairs it’s a trim menagerie. It’s not that interesting of a mystery but it drives me crazy- why was all the trim upstairs moved around and switched out? You can tell because sometimes there’s trim around a door that has areas cut out for hinges on the outside part. I’m sure I’m boring all of you to tears with this trim talk- but I wish I could be a fly on the wall to see when it was done, and why. Is all this mismatch original? Did they buy salvaged trim originally? Or did some kooky owner do it 10 years ago for some inexplicable reason.
-AND- could part of that reason have something to do with the fact that they seem to have raised the upstairs floor approximately 5 inches. There are a few clues that suggest this. (1)The windows in the bedrooms seem oddly low, the distance to the floor is much less than the distance to the ceiling. (2) At the top of the stairs there is one small half step. (3)The trim on the doorway that is just to the left of the top of the stairs is staggered. The trim on the left starts at what I think was originally the landing (on the ½ step) while the one on the right starts at the new landing. If it was done, it was definitely awhile ago, there are multiple coats of thick paint on the upstairs floors. My current theory is that they had to raise the floor to run electrical in the house. This is a wild guess though- I have no other theory or possible explanation.
-the last, but more insignificant mystery involves a burn in the wood of the closet floor. How exactly does one burn one small area of a closet floor?
So these are our biggest questions to date. I’m sure much of the rationale behind some of this will never be discovered, but we’d like to try. Is there such a thing as a house detective? In the meantime I’ll give it my best (can you tell I work in research?).
Part of my detective work will include finding out who used to own the house. Searching the archives of our local paper turned up two bits of information on previous owners, neither particularly pleasant:
LEE A FORREST, 25, (OUR ADDRESS) A WOULD-BE RAPIST, IS NABBED WHEN THE INTENDED VICTIM'S HUSBAND RETURNS TO HIS E 25TH AVE HOME
Date: Monday, August 28, 1972
ROBERT E JOHNSON, 27, (OUR ADDRESS) AND MRS BONNIE LOU THACKER, 31, 6259 ALKIRE RD IN GALLOWAY, ARE INJURED IN SEPARATE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS*
Date: Friday, August 22, 1969
I plan on completing extensive research by visiting the library, courthouse, and historical society to see how much I can dig up about the place. I’ll keep you in the loop.
-We know that the back of the house has an addition built in 1980. If that was not there before then there was only two rooms downstairs, and two rooms upstairs. This leaves no room for plumbing or kitchen/bathroom. As our house is dated 1920, it seems they would have had plumbing somewhere, but the wood floors downstairs are the original subfloors so if there were holes we would see them. Plus the fact that the door on the bathroom (part of the addition) is really really old. They could have bought it old but whoever lived there before didn’t seem too concerned with keeping it architecturally consistent. Maybe part of the original house was torn down and rebuilt? But still, standing outside the house it looks like it just used to be the original 4 room structure.
-So then what would that mean, the house is so old it had no plumbing? (and electric, which I’ll get to). That seems like that would have been long before 1920, although the house in general does give off a feeling much older than 1920. We had a friend stop by this weekend, and she mentioned (which internet research verified) that in the ‘20s in Franklin County the courthouse burned down, and that anything dated prior to 1920 is probably wrong (does this include 1920?). The only thing I’ve found so far online is a map from 1920. The house is there, it looks like without an addition, but that’s about all it told me.
-Also, we can vaguely tell what was original based on the trim. We have two kinds of trim downstairs- the original, really old ornate trim, a more simple trim around windows that we assume was added in the 1980s, and upstairs there’s a third trim that really doesn’t match either of the first two. The downstairs is pretty consistent but upstairs it’s a trim menagerie. It’s not that interesting of a mystery but it drives me crazy- why was all the trim upstairs moved around and switched out? You can tell because sometimes there’s trim around a door that has areas cut out for hinges on the outside part. I’m sure I’m boring all of you to tears with this trim talk- but I wish I could be a fly on the wall to see when it was done, and why. Is all this mismatch original? Did they buy salvaged trim originally? Or did some kooky owner do it 10 years ago for some inexplicable reason.
-AND- could part of that reason have something to do with the fact that they seem to have raised the upstairs floor approximately 5 inches. There are a few clues that suggest this. (1)The windows in the bedrooms seem oddly low, the distance to the floor is much less than the distance to the ceiling. (2) At the top of the stairs there is one small half step. (3)The trim on the doorway that is just to the left of the top of the stairs is staggered. The trim on the left starts at what I think was originally the landing (on the ½ step) while the one on the right starts at the new landing. If it was done, it was definitely awhile ago, there are multiple coats of thick paint on the upstairs floors. My current theory is that they had to raise the floor to run electrical in the house. This is a wild guess though- I have no other theory or possible explanation.
-the last, but more insignificant mystery involves a burn in the wood of the closet floor. How exactly does one burn one small area of a closet floor?
So these are our biggest questions to date. I’m sure much of the rationale behind some of this will never be discovered, but we’d like to try. Is there such a thing as a house detective? In the meantime I’ll give it my best (can you tell I work in research?).
Part of my detective work will include finding out who used to own the house. Searching the archives of our local paper turned up two bits of information on previous owners, neither particularly pleasant:
LEE A FORREST, 25, (OUR ADDRESS) A WOULD-BE RAPIST, IS NABBED WHEN THE INTENDED VICTIM'S HUSBAND RETURNS TO HIS E 25TH AVE HOME
Date: Monday, August 28, 1972
ROBERT E JOHNSON, 27, (OUR ADDRESS) AND MRS BONNIE LOU THACKER, 31, 6259 ALKIRE RD IN GALLOWAY, ARE INJURED IN SEPARATE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS*
Date: Friday, August 22, 1969
I plan on completing extensive research by visiting the library, courthouse, and historical society to see how much I can dig up about the place. I’ll keep you in the loop.
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