We moved almost two years ago to our current home, and we were told by several people that there was a carriage barn between the kitchen ell and the barn. The outline of a bad repair was pretty evident on the barn. The back of the house had a door to nowhere with no steps or porch. I recently found a few websites that let you see aerial photographs from many years ago. The flight path in 1983 went over our area and our house was photographed. So that documentation is where I found what it looked like. Current side of barn with roof pitch and remaining peak of the old carriage house. 1983 partial photo of the carriage house. The earliest aerial photograph I found was from 1938 and it was in place back then. From what I could tell, the structure was torn down in the mid 1990's A 1938 picture showed all farmland surrounding us. We have a stand of mature red pines out back here and one year you can see in the aerial photos, the young trees planted in rows. They were set in the late 1960's from what I could see. I'm a bit of a history nut for early New England history, so this stuff fascinates me.
Frame those pictures and hang them. We received pictures when we bought our house. Showing it being moved to its current foundation. Very cool to have a bit of history on display.
That's amazing there's an aerial photo of your house from 1938. Rare indeed. My house is part of a newer development from the mid 1960s so the only thing I could find online was a 1940s black and white aerial image of the original woods that once stood here. The properties on either side of me have a few wolf trees but for the most part all the lots along my street were cleared when it was developed. Living in New England, I eventually want to get a metal detector. There's so much history here.
Most of the city is in the 1938 picture. Very grainy, but it shows the carriage house intact and tilled fields. Our city was settled in 1640, and was frontier land at the time. Lots of colonial history here.
This is awesome!!! I love the old photos. What site did you find those old pictures? I have a farm from 1862. I'd love to see some old pics of this place. I only have one picture with the previous owner with a horse and buggy out front.
Very cool!! not as clear as yours though... I like to think back and wonder what those old timers went thru. Like splitting all their wood by hand, and carrying it into an house with no insulation, no lights or electric. and keeping 3 wood stoves going, like in my house, those guys were tougher than a coffin nail. Here I am just took a hot shower, got my feet up in a comfy chair. They never even heard of a recliner. They were tougher back then, that's for sure.
We have an 1875 farmhouse here. There is a walk up attic with full flooring that had curtain holders in the windows, some old pipes ran up from the basement too. What we figured is possibly was sleeping quarters for farmhands. I am always looking for clues. My wife researched city records and found all the owners since it was built. Pretty interesting stuff.
Try this one too. This is where I got the 1983 picture. Vintage Aerial | historic aerial photography of rural American farms and homesteads
sooooo cool. I'd love to see a couple more pic's of that house. Or if you don't want to that's kewl. Mine has 2 stairwells that lead to the same level but they don't connect upstairs. one side was for the servants and the other (nicer) side was for the farmstead owners. Also there is an attic in the oldest part that has a stairwell so steep its almost a 60* angle.
My mom’s parents house was the same. That second upstairs attic bedroom thing was the summer room for all the kids as it normally was cooler. It was essentially separate from the house and uninsulated. They did not have heat pumped there so they moved to a room on the other side of the upstairs for winter. There was 7 of them sharing one room. We tore that room out when he died and they were going to sell the farm. All horse hair plaster and tons of old 1800s newspapers in the walls for insulation. That house was built in the 1850s.
Any idea of how it was heated Jon? My grandparents had one of those octopus type wood furnaces ducted through the living area. It was unhooked when I was young and a different type of stove was piped in. All I remember is no matter what the temperature outside was that house was always warm despite its age and build. Whoever set up the heat knew what they were doing. I don’t know if it was original or added later on.
A lot of folks still split by hand. How bout the cutting it part...I think that'd be the doozy for most of us. I ran a 2 man cross cut saw a few times back in college...trying to get low and go fast while keeping everything important out of the way. Next morning had to slide out of bed.... felt like somone split open my inner thigh from knee to nether regions.... Makes me dread if we dont have our beloved chainsaws one day for some crazy reason...
That's neat! I always thought our pool was put in in the 60's, but it was sometime between 1971 and 1978.
Originally, coal fired stoves in the bedrooms and living rooms. The snouts are plastered over and easily seen. Lots of coal ash around here and clinkers. There was a beautiful small coal stove in the barn that was once in the house. It had nice castings and isinglass windows. It was removed before closing unfortunately. Would mave made a good conversation piece Radiators are hydronic now. I've have seen those octopus ones. They take up some floor space in the basement. Last house had gravity feed furnace at one time. All the rooms had floor grates and a big one in the living room where the old furnace would have been.
Yeah that thing was huge. Hand dug rock foundation wasn’t all that big and definitely short ceilings. It took up most of the basement. I was just a kid when they had it removed but it sat in the equipment shed until we hauled it off when he died. It was in bad shape. Also has some old stove gas cook stoves out there. My mother could remember those in use. I wish now I’d have kept a few things from there when we cleaned it all out. Most of it probably wasn’t any good, hence it was out in the shed but as you said something to talk about.
