Friday, September 17, 2010

THE PUZZLE






I love antiques. Antiques, whether they are jewelry, furniture, cars, or houses, have a past,and I often want to know about the item's history. Slightly , over 5 years ago my husband and I bought an old house. Initially, we didn't know much about the history of our home, but as time moved on some circumstances would occur to help give us more knowledge of it's history and inhabitants.We bought our home from the bank. We were told that because of delinquent payments the house was under the ownership of a bank vs. a person. Our house is very large. It is 2400sq. ft. The house has 4 bedrooms, large kitchen, 2 bathrooms, dining room, an extremely large living room with 12 ft. ceiling, and a sun room. We have slightly over 4 acres of land which apparently was part of an original 125 acre farm. On the property is an old barn as well as an old dilapidated red frame house located in a back area behind our home. It appeared that someone may have lived in this tiny house which had been wired for electricity, having a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. Unfortunately, this house needs to be torn down as it would cost too much money to get it into being livable for any person. Bits and pieces of information came to our attention. We hired an elderly gentleman to put up additional fence alongside the property. Well, it turned out that this man told us that when he was a boy, he came to our home as it once was a medical clinic. On another occasion, we obtained information from Mrs.B .Mrs.B owned an antique shop a few minutes from our home. As she and I would visit her shop, she shared that when she was 19 and a new bride, she and her husband rented our home for 2 years. Mrs.B is in her middle 80's. After learning this, she came to our home and gave a tour to determine how the house had changed through the years. During her time, there was one bedroom, a bathroom, living room and a kitchen. Somewhere, additional rooms were added. Mrs.B told me that the barn was on the property when she was 19. She went to the barn to cry when she had a fight with her husband. A large old oak tree has grown and overshadows the house. It, too, was in existence in Mrs.B's time. Wow! age!Continuing on, one day, a driver in a SUV came up our driveway. We approached this woman. She had tears in her eyes. She told us that this house was their family home through her childhood. when the parents died, a sister bought the house. She shared that family was unaware that her brother-in-law failed to make payments on the house although his wife gave him the money . This woman, very tearful said that they were not aware of the financial issue until it was too late otherwise they would have intervened to keep the house in the family.We assured her we would take good care and love this home. I felt some sadness for this family although we benefited from this situation.As to the old red house, we were told that a nanny who took care of the main house and the children had occupied the tiny house. Getting more settled in our home, we obtained more historical information on our home. We had ordered pizza. As the delivery man was talking with us he said, "I know this house". Apparently, he came to this house to visit with the children and to practice hitting golf balls. One of the things that my husband found was golf balls.Gerry would get on his tractor to do some bush hogging. We were amazed with the no. of golf balls embedded in the ground or found under bushes and trees. Our golf ball mystery was solved. Ideally, I would like to put an orderly breakdown of the house from start to our current time. Maybe I'll eventually obtain more information about the house pre-Mrs.B's time and discover who built the house and about it's earlier inhabitants. Oh! I went out to watch my husband give a jeep ride to our babies(4) dogs. Guess what I found? A golf ball under my shoe.

29 comments:

  1. That is soo cool! I love finding out the history of things, places and people.

    Your place is gorgeous, kinda like my dream home!

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  2. It's interesting to read the history of old houses and barns. Hopefully there was a lot of love in your house.

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  3. I love this post, Rose. I love old houses, and their history. How sad for that family that through someone's deceit and neglegence, their family home was lost--but how fortunate for you and your husband!
    I laughed about the golf balls, because our woods are full of tennis balls that our boys used to play baseball with! When we cleared some land to build our newer home, we found lost of half rotted tennis balls :)
    Our old original home is located next-door to us. We were going to just abandon it when we built a new, smaller house next to it, but our daughter would have none of that! She and her husband did some remodeling and moved in. I'm glad they did. Everytime I visit her, it's like "going home".

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  4. I love to hear home histories! I laughed at the golf balls because my boys often hit golf balls for fun and I find them everywhere in the woods...really far from where they began! I have a big container full of the ones I have found. Keep enjoying your home..I do feel sorry for the little red house, it sure looks cute in the pic. But, pictures are one dimensional and I understand the true inside stories of old homes!

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  5. What a neat story ---and you are so lucky to have a house like this. I always wanted to live in an old house with some land.

    And it sounds like someone had really fixed up your home. I may have asked you this before --but am drawing a blank this morning. I know you are in GA.. Are you in the upper part where there are mountains???

    Have a great day and thanks for the story of your home. SO interesting.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  6. I love this story, especially about the lady crying in the barn! We used to have a house built in the 1890s that we had hoped to fix up and raise our daughter in, but we were never able to piece together any history on it. It had so much character (though in desperate need of renovation!), and even today can bring tears to my eyes that we had to move a few years later.

    You are so lucky to have this lovely place, and I hope you'll share other stories and pictures with us (if you haven't already...which I just may not have seen).

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  7. Oh, I almost forgot - I'm glad 'Betsy' mentioned that you're in Georgia! I can't remember if I ever asked where you are...we're in Ringgold, right off I-75, a stones throw from Chattanooga.

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  8. HI ROSE,
    WHAT A WONDERFUL STORY. I LOVE HISTORY OF OLDER THINGS TOO. WHEN I READ YOUT STORIES I HEAR THE JOY IN YOUR WORDS FROM YOU, AND THAT'S WONDERFUL. HAVE A NICE WEEKEND. RIZZI

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  9. Hi Rose, your home's history is interesting. You could go to the county court house and pull tax records to find names of previous owners and dates. Our 150 yo house is somewhat difficult to track as General Sherman burned our court house down during the Civil War. Have a blessed weekend. hugs♥olive

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  10. This is so interesting. I love hearing all about what you are finding out about your home.
    Looking forward to hearing more. Enjoy your weekend. (the golf balls are a strange story)

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  11. You have a beautiful house, and I am glad that it now has someone living in it who will take care of it and appreciate it's history! How amazing, all the people who knew it!! Is that because this is a small town? It seems that many people came there and have such good myemories of it! Please let us know more as you unravel the delicious mystery!!

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  12. Wow, what a fun bit of history today! I loved hearing all about it!

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  13. Your house is beautiful, and I think you are the perfect person for it because you respect the fact that the house comes with a history. How wonderful that you have run into people that can tell you parts of her story. I love stories like this.

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  14. How interesting. We lived in an old home for awhile but it was just too costly for upkeep and the neighborhood was going down...so we built. I never cared a hoot about history until I started doing my husband's family genealogy. Do you ever watch that show on HGTV about older homes and all the interesting things people find in them? I know you will be a great caretaker for this home.

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  15. I love learning about old homes and old places! The histories can be really fascinating, as yours is!

    Jane

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  16. It is really fascinating and heartwarming to learn about the lives who inhabited your home in the past. It's a good thing the stories were happy ones, too.
    xoRobyn

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  17. NEAT- I DIDN'T KNOW BOUT THE GOLF RANGE!

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  18. Rose,I love this story!I know yall will make this into a wonderful home and live happily ever after!...Thanks for visiting LazyonLoblolly,to answer the location question,we are southeast Georgia between Tifton and Waycross in Axson Georgia....please drop by anytime,and I am excited about learning and sharing the CSA boxes of veggies and fruits.

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  19. I LoveLoveLove history and am loving that you want to find out more and I hope you share it with us! I want an old house for this exact reason, it walls could talk. :)

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  20. It's a lovely home Rose and so interesting to hear the different stories that folks are sharing with you about their memories of the home in earlier years. I know you must really enjoy living there.
    My husband is undergoing a lot of medical tests, so I will take a break from posting but I'll still be visiting. Have a good week.

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  21. There used to be a show on HGTV about houses with history and the things people discovered about their home and the people who used to live there. Some really interesting stuff!

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  22. I, too, love old homes (though I don't currently live in one). There is such a rich history in them, and you always wish the walls could talk, don't you?

    It's great that you were able to get some history on your home.

    The old house I think of often is my grandparent's home, and it wasn't old as yours is. They built in new in about 1941, and they lived there nearly 45 years, until health issues made them feel an apartment was what they wanted. But I often wonder who lives in their house now and if my dad's name is still carved into the bannister and if they can understand that one little girl, now all grown up, carries that house in her heart always. So many wonderful memories from there.

    Truly, our houses are much more than stone, boards, and brick...they hold memories of times and loved ones we hold dear.

    Thanks for such a beautiful post.

    Hugs,
    Patti

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  23. I like to watch the restoration of old homes on some of the cable TV stations. Bringing old homes back to life has always been interesting to me.

    :-)

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  24. It was fun to see you back and glad you have been busy with something fun...company!

    One of my favorite homes was an old, old house which had loads of "secret" features. A hidden wall safe, a tiny attic crawl space, a tiny cellar door in the middle of the kitchen.

    Fun to hear about your home.

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  25. What a fascinating story. I felt like I had just finished reading a historical novel. Great post.

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  26. Hey Rose!

    What a neat story about your house! It is nice knowing all of those little bits and pieces of information about your home. I would like to suggest that you go to the local county courthouse. The Assessor's Office should have a file with the deed book and page number of the past owners of your house. You can then go to the Records Room and look those up. You will find out who the owners were and how much they paid for your house. You can get a copy of those as well for a fee from the courthouse. When we bought our old farm house I did a 100 year title search on our property. I have copies of each and every deed that was filed at the courthouse on our property. I even have a copy of the survey maps. You should try to get the survey map too.

    Have a Great Day!
    Angela

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  27. LOVE this post - what fun! It's enjoyable when you can learn the history of your home - and yours seems to have quite a bit of history, from what you've unraveled! WOW!

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  28. What wonderful stories to go along with your wonderful home! It reminds me of that TV show, If Walls Could Talk. Did you ever watch that? I LOVE old houses, too, and always wanted one...but...it wasn't meant to be, I guess! Thanks for sharing all of this with us, along with the pictures, too!

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  29. Oh Rose, what a beautiful story. I was raised with horses and had a pony to ride. And the best thing was getting to hear about the house and how it had changed. We still live in an old house but it has done well for us for 40 years. Before that an old house on an acerage. Thank you so much for allowing us to be apart of all.

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