Category Archives: Houses

A Very Merry And A Bright And Happy

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Christmas Card, circa 1920s – 1930s. Made in U.S.A.

Price:  $4.00        Size:  4 and 15/16 x 3 and 1/2″

“To wish you a very Merry Christmas and a bright and Happy New Year”

Signed,  “Emma & Will.”

Lots of snow in this picture isn’t there? The hidden-in-plain-site sort 😉 that the holiday wishes are carved into. And, in the foreground are holly branches with their bright red berries; in the distance a red house (the elongated – somewhat anyway – type as mentioned in the last post) with its snow-covered roof and then some evergreens. A common scene, but still charming. And fun to imagine for a second, the unknown artist in Manhattan dashing this one off, (they were often in Manhattan – you can notice lots of artists there in the census records). And if something strikes you as odd about the house – the chimney seems unfinished – it’s white and the house is red, or it’s sides are snow-covered but that doesn’t equate, and then the trees near the house have no snow. It’s like one of those puzzles where you need to find what doesn’t match in the second drawing.

Merry Christmas To One And All

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Christmas card, circa 1920s – 1930s.

Price:  $5.00           Size:  4 and 7/16 x 3 and 7/16″

On the reverse,  “From Bessie & Dickey. To the Jones family.”

Let’s see….in researching all the Joneses on the census records with a Bessie and Dickey in the vicinity…..(totally kidding, of course)…..But, you know, if there was just one out-of-the-ordinary name there, I would. Anyway, this is a nice, Art Deco style, we presume, card, and I’ll confess that I find Art Deco not always easy to identify, other than the more obvious. I love the old holiday cards that have that elongated look to the houses, and true, this one only borders on that, but it’s got that upward flow to it from the rising smoke and tall tree trunks.

A Happy Birthday From Percival

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Vintage birthday card, circa 1930s. Made in the U.S.A.

Price:  $5.00         Size:  6 and 1/4 x 4″

“A Happy Birthday

I’m sending this Greeting

To joyfully say,

May you have many Happy

Returns of the Day.”

A striking card for its colors and design:  Bright and pale pink, purple, blue (what was the Crayola crayon color for that blue? It’s driving me nuts 🙂 ) black, thin gold trim throughout…..Two houses in the background (with pink roofs), tree in the foreground (windy day or it might remind you of Dr. Suess, like Thing 1 and Thing 2 but, not really), long flower bed (with daffodils). Similar cards can be found indicating Art Deco, and I’m no expert, but definitely the repeating gold pattern at the bottom of the card, gives it that look. I wish I knew who the artist was, or the publisher. We’ll keep a look out for more info.

Understated Elegance

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Real Photo Postcard, unused. Circa 1930 – 1950. EKC stamp box.

Price:  $3.00

A courtyard (maybe). We can’t see whether this fits the definition of an enclosed or semi-enclosed space. The card was found in California, and there’s a good chance that the photo was taken there. This view is beautiful in its simplicity. Spanish-style home, with tile roof. Note the beautiful wrought iron gate, the archway around the window on our right. Is that a magnolia tree? And the wooden or stone bench, if not marble. I love the pavers stones around the tree, how they are quite pitted and rustic. I didn’t see any of the same type online. In general, they go under a variety of terminology, found online as “stone tree ring planters” and “retaining walls around trees” and “stone planter beds and “tree mulch rings.” The home owners have planted some type of ground cover around the tree and some ferns by the side wall. No earth-shattering revelations here…..just a nice, restful photo that someone made into a postcard.

A Folk Victorian Home, About 1910

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Divided back, Real Photo Postcard. Unused. KRUXO stamp box. Circa 1908 – 1910.

Price:  $10.00

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this house style is Folk Victorian. Two such features are the lace-like decorative spandrels (side-brackets) that help form the archways on the front porch and porch posts that are either turned spindles, or in this case, square with chamfered (beveled) corners. Enlarge the image twice to see the detailing. The thing that seemed weird at first, to me anyway, is that each porch support appears to rest on a short and very narrow piece. Seems like that would be the opposite of what any builder would want to do. However, I’ve been informed that those narrow pieces are likely steel secured from below and going up into each post. The advantage is that rain won’t collect as in a wood-on-wood situation, won’t pool underneath and rot the deck and won’t wick up to create rot in the wooden posts . Smart builder and/or designer!

Other details: We see part of a barn on our right, behind the house, and part of maybe an outbuilding on our left. And….not really noticeable at first, there’s a little boy in one of the windows! Too bad there is no identifying information on the back of the card, but it’s such a nice house, looking brand new, and so charming, almost like a doll house that was just set down on someone’s farmland.

The estimate of the postcard date was determined from scrutiny of the KRUXO stamp box examples online at Playle.com. (Two examples are really similar but I think ours is like the one Playle’s has dated 1908 to 1910.)

Sources:  McAlester, Virginia, and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. 1984. New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Print.

Real Photo Postcard Stamp Boxes. K-L. Playle.com. (accessed December 12, 2020).

Fannie and Walter’s House

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Divided back, Real Photo Postcard. Postmarked August 4th from Seattle Washington. Year not readable. Circa 1910s – 1926.

Price:  $7.00

Addressed to:   “Leo H. Ouellette. 113 North Norah St. Fort William Ont. Canada.”

“Leo – This is the little house where Fannie and Walter lived when she taught at Manchester. Harold and I often went over and stayed with them for weeks at at time. It was a nice little house. She liked it too. [signature not readable] ”

A very nice little house, indeed, and with a wrap-around porch! No luck in finding out the surname of Fannie (or Frances) and Walter, though. And we’re not sure if Manchester was the name of a school or a town, but either way, no definite results were found. If a town, then likely it’s the Manchester that’s west of Seattle, across Puget Sound. And though this photo was postmarked in August, it must have been taken in winter – note the bare deciduous trees.

The address of Leo Ouellette, 113 Norah St. N., appears to be an empty lot today, in what was formerly Fort William, now the city of Thunder Bay. Leo’s obit appears below. He was born April 16, 1893 in Duluth, Minnesota, father’s name Henry, and died January 23, 1927 in Seattle. His WWI Draft Registration Card, dated Jun 5, 1917, shows he was, at that time, single, living in Evanston, Wyoming and employed as a brakeman for the Union Pacific Railroad. His prior service was two months in the National Guard in Colorado. (B. P. O. E. in the notice below, stands for Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.)

Sources:  Fort William, Ontario. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William,_Ontario (accessed December 12, 2020).

Microfilm. Washington State Archives, Olympia, Washington. Ancestry.com. Washington, U.S., Death Records, 1883-1960.

Registration State: Wyoming; Registration County: Sweetwater County. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.

Seattle Daily Times, January 25, 1927. Tuesday, p. 21. (genealogybank.com).

George Paden, Sardis OH

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Old photograph, white border, circa 1920 – 1921.

Price:  $8.00            Size:  2 and 1/2 x 3 and 3/8″

We’re estimating George was four or five years old here, so cute in his double-breasted checked coat and white hat. The house across the “street” is likely George’s paternal grandparents’ George E. and Catherine (Kate) Paden’s house, per the 1910 and 1920 Federal Census records for Lee Township, OH. Sardis is in southeastern Lee Township, Monroe County. George is the son of Clyde Paden and Martha (Mattie) Dunn.

Sources:  The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Pennsylvania, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1896. (Ancestry.com).

Marriage Records. Pennsylvania Marriages. Various County Register of Wills Offices, Pennsylvania. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1920; Census Place: Lee, Monroe, Ohio; Roll: T625_1419; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 52. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1910; Census Place: Lee, Monroe, Ohio; Roll: T624_1219; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0155; FHL microfilm: 1375232. (Ancestry.com).

Zola I. Proudfit, April 1916

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Real Photo Postcard, unused with writing. April 1916. AZO stamp box.

Price:  $12.00

“Miss Zola Proudfit, 8 years 4 months, Taking in April 23, 1916.”

A cute moment:  Zola posing on her front porch step, (assuming she was at home) in a white lace dress with a scalloped hem, dark tights and black shoes (they look new). The home is wood-framed and sided, with a wooden sidewalk leading up to it. There may have been electrical wires nearby, note the pattern of the two parallel lines, which must be shadows, appearing on the eave.

Zola, an Oregon native, is the daughter of Fred Proudfit and Rose Fitzgerald. She married California native, Robert Blake Galbraith, on November 25, 1926 in Oakland, California. At the time of their marriage, Zola was a telephone operator, and Robert a locomotive fireman. His parents are Joseph Galbraith and Elizabeth Blake.

Source:  Marriage records, select counties and years. California State Archives, Sacramento, California. (Ancestry.com).

Grandpa McInnes

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Real Photo Postcard, unused. AZO stamp box.

Price:  $5.00

A beautiful photo-turned-postcard of a handsome guy in profile, with white beard, in suspenders, one hand resting on hip, the other holding his straw hat and with what we might think of as the “old homestead” in the immediate background. The only identification is written on the back as,  “Grandpa McInnes.”  The stamp box is an AZO, two triangles up and two down, which is estimated anywhere between 1910 and 1930, per Playle’s. See https://www.playle.com/realphoto/photoa.php.

Another Log Cabin

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Old photo, circa 1920s – 1930s.

Price:  $4.00     Size:  2 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Might as well use the blank bar space for the watermark, kinda cool! So, here’s another cabin. We need the Barnwood Builders on this one, but from our inexpert eye, it looks like most of the chinking is gone or very hard to see (rather than a new cabin not yet chinked). Seems pretty tall, and then also there are no windows, so maybe it wasn’t finished yet? No, but then some of the logs have rotted or are bug-chewed so, that doesn’t make sense. Maybe this was the view from the back and all the windows were in the front. And that supposed door there is kinda weird-looking, it almost looks like (click to enlarge) it’s been Photoshopped on – where is the door frame? Still, it’s a cabin with rather a majestic look to it. A beauty with some stories to tell.