Our House: Then & Now

Last night, my husband and I attended our neighborhood's version of a Pub Crawl-- we walked to three host houses, stopping at each one to eat and drink.  For us newbies, it was a great way to meet our new neighbors (and take an authorized tour of their homes without having to peek through the windows!).  One home in our neighborhood dates back to the 1700s-- it was the second stop on our neighborhood "crawl".  This historic home was the original farmhouse for the surrounding 32 acres.  Their land was divided up during the 1800s (our home was built one block away in 1892) and then, the remainder of the land was divided again in 1912. 

When the developers marketed these lots for sale in 1912, they created a tiny booklet to illustrate the desirable neighborhood and thriving community (at the time, many Philadelphians were escaping the city and spending their entire summer in our town, so this was an effective marketing technique).  This booklet contained images of the local businesses and existing homes.  And, guess what?  Our house was featured as one of the existing homes!  I about died when I saw the picture, and begged our neighbor to let me borrow it (so I could scan it and have it forever).

Here is a picture of our house in 1912.  It was exactly 20 years old...

It's so interesting to see that the shutters on the 1st floor were a different color than the shutters on the second floor.  Our side entrance, which was added when the home was briefly used as two apartments is gone (you can make out the small side entrance here).  And, of course the bad addition (on the back of the house) doesn't exist.  But, other than that, everything looks the same!  Just as a comparision, here is a (very cruddy) picture of our house last June, before we pruned the overgrown side yard...

The booklet even had a map, illustrating the available lots for purchase, and our house was listed right there as an existing structure. (I know this seems like obvious information, but it was such a thrill for us to see proof of our home's history!)

I also learned that our town was home to a flour mill, lumber yard, cigar factory and blacksmith.  When the Pennsylvania Railroad starting sending a train through town in 1856, the population boomed.  Hotels were built, summer homes were established (yay!), they built a Post Office and the town had one large school.  I even learned that during the Civil War, the blacksmith (about 4 blocks away) made ammunition wagons for the Union Army! 

Fun stuff. 

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