I've been REALLY into researching the history of our home lately. I've taken numerous trips to the library, in search of books that will tell me something about our home.
When we moved into our home almost 4 years ago we knew that it was very old. The realtor told us that the house was built in 1910. But research is now suggesting that it was built around 1891 instead.
I found a big binder in a drawer that the previous owners had left. This binder contains a wealth of information about our home. In fact, we have an Abstract that dates all the way back to 1837 when William Farnsworth, the founder of Sheboygan, owned the land that our home sits on. Crazy!
Included in the binder is a receipt from a professional decorator that quoted carpeting at $793 and draperies at $297 -- and that was in the year 1930! I would love to see what those carpets and curtains looked like in our living room back in the 30's.
Matt and I went to the Sheboygan County Historical Society a couple of years ago and did a little research off of the names that are found in the abstract. But we had limited time there, so we didn't find much out.
The most important thing to me in doing research on our home is finding out who lived here. And what our home looked like back in the day. I would do anything to see some photos of the interior and exterior. I'm pretty sure that our home had cedar shake siding at one time, and cedar shingles as well. We also know that the kitchen was once split into two rooms. And that there was a staircase at the backside of the home as well. There's also a creepy room in our walk-up attic. I'd love to know what that was used for. We've been told it may have been a maid/servant quarters. The driveway and garage used to be at the north side of our home, now it's at the south. I wonder why they moved it?
The street that we live on was the first street in Sheboygan to be paved with concrete. There were some well-known families that lived in homes on our street, so I wonder - did anyone really important ever live here?
I'm hoping to get back to the Historical Society soon (during "mama time") and really dig into things. They have rows and rows of old photographs there and I just want to get my hands on some photographs!
I'll let you know what I find out.
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| Here's the binder of information that we found in a closet. How cool that this has stayed with the house over the years! |
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| Here's the abstract, dating back to 1837. |
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| A loan dating back to 1921. |
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| A plat map dated 1921. |
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| Home mortgage dating back to 1891. |
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| Expensive decorating bill for the year 1930. |
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| Old landscape renderings. |
Has anyone else every done research on their old home? Have you found our anything interesting? If you have, please share!
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DAILY SMILES
Things that made me smile last week:
3.29.13
I bought a cute little newborn baby gift for a friend
3.30.13
Matt, Liam and I walked to our polling place and voted
4.1.13
The three of us explored the library for an hour
4.2.13
Liam and I went for THREE walks around the neighborhood
4.3.13
We put our deck furniture out on our deck (in hopes that Spring finally arrives)
4.4.13
We enjoyed our neighbor's delicious homemade soup and applesauce
4.5.13
I caught up on some episodes of Kourtney & Kim Take Miami :)
