Early Sanborn Fires Insurance maps (if they exist for your area) may be
telling.
Good luck,
Rich Green
Historic Archaeological Research
4338 Hadley Court
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Office: (765) 464-8735
Mobile: (765) 427-4082
www.har-indy.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tina Devereaux" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 6:08 PM
Subject: New here, couple of questions
> First off, hello! Love the board.
>
> #1.... I have a home built in 1870. It's a very simple "servants cottage"
> next door to, and set pretty far back from, "the big house". The big house
> has a fresh water cistern beneath it. On the other side of me used to be a
> very old home as well, also set far up in front and to the side of my
> house, and it was turned into a malaria hospital (!!!) then later
> destroyed. However, a newer home was built over top of a fresh water
> cistern, which the top of was barely covered with cement. Now, those two
> cisterns are almost exactly in line with each other. I have an area in my
> front yard, also exactly in line with, and between, the two cisterns, that
> is dipped down quite a bit. One of the former owners of my home tried to
> conceal the spot with several azaleas, but they don't do well there. Last
> summer, as I was pruning the shrubs, I noticed many antique red clay
> bricks laying about in that dipped area. The area also was quite moist.
> I dug around in the dirt a bit and discovered mo
> re of the bricks. My husband told me to knock it off before I uncovered
> something we couldn't handle, hahahahaha! **** SO.... my question is
> the obvious: What do y'all think? Since my house sits so far back,
> perhaps there was another structure/home there and there WAS another
> cistern there? Or maybe because of all the red clay bricks it was a
> bucket-type well? If there's a chance that there's a well there, I will
> SO reconstruct that sucker! I have at least 200 full size bricks that I
> have carefully pulled from the ground all over the property. They're so
> fragile when they're wet that I can break them in half, but they
> strengthen a bit when they dry out.
>
> #2... I discovered, through a 1960's photo I happened to see of my home at
> Town Hall, that my house originally had two identical front doors, about 4
> feet apart. I asked the clerk to scan the photo and email it to me. Due
> to a former owner (Mr. Azalea) making a horrible judgment call, MY house
> is THE only house in the ENTIRE Historic District with vinyl siding on it.
> Sigh. Fortunately, the original clapboards are still underneath and the
> house sits far enough back from the road that you can't really tell. So,
> after taking a good look at the photo, running my hand down the porch wall
> several times and finding what I was looking for, I took a Whiz Wheel and
> cut the vinyl siding away from my hidden door!! It was still there and in
> beautiful condition, frame and all! Can you believe he had just slapped a
> piece of plywood over the door opening and put the siding over it?
> ANYWAY.... the home has a center chimney, but is accessible from one side
> only, and that appears to be from
> the "less used" OR maybe "newer" side of the house. The other side has
> pot-belly stove vents still in place. The flooring on the fireplace side
> is narrow tongue and groove pine, and is in pretty decent shape. The
> flooring on the pot belly stove side is random width pine, which has
> probably never been refinished and only had more lacqure applied to it
> over the years to seal the very wide cracks. It's in pretty bad shape, but
> I love it. The entire house is balloon framed, both sides. But the odd
> thing is, both sides have huge beams, and mortise and tenon joints with
> tree nails..... as well as a million nails of every shape and size, both
> square head and round! There is no insulation of any kind, except what
> Mr. Azalea & Vinyl Siding stuffed in here and there. ***** So, my
> question: Do you think both sides of the house were built at the same
> time, or at different times? And, what in the WORLD are these house with
> two front doors called, and where can I read more about them
> ? Any links you can suggest? I have found very little info!
> rmation
> through Google.
>
> THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Sorry so long..... Tina
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