April 12, 2006

about glass doorknobs?

On our trip to New Orleans, we found a shop on Magazine Street selling great 20th century stuff, including a selection of glass doorknobs.

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Posted by john m at 03:48 PM | Comments (4)

February 21, 2006

our house was first occupied in 1898

We've very recently discovered the Hill's Directory (or the Hill Directory, I'm not sure which...), a sort of address look-up for different cities by year. We've been able to find out that our house was first occupied in 1898 by Charles Lucian Arnall, a roller-coverer working at 1434-1446 East Cary Street.

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Posted by john m at 04:11 PM | Comments (6)

June 30, 2005

folk victorian

We knew from the first that our house was sort of Victorian. When we began to research the architecture of the time, we kept finding information about Queen Anne or Stick style Victorian houses, but neither seemed to fit.

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Posted by john m at 07:27 AM | Comments (2)

April 23, 2005

old maps of Richmond and our neighborhood

In our one prior attempt at tracking down some of the history of our house, we had previously discovered that the date that it was built won't be easy to ascertain. Yesterday I found a map from 1864 that shows the streets in our area.

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Posted by john m at 08:38 AM | Comments (5)

April 18, 2005

fake history

If you live in a big, old, decrepit house and have no idea of its backstory, you may want to rent Grey Gardens and try to imagine that it happened in your house.

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Posted by john m at 07:21 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2004

there used to be a trolley here

One hundred years ago we could've caught the trolley 2 blocks from our house.

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Posted by john m at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

January 19, 2004

an old photo of a house almost exactly like ours

When the city assessor came out in October to set the value of the house for the Real Estate Tax Abatement Program, we noticed that he had an old file with him. This file had an abundance of info about the house, including an older, undated photo and assessment info going back to 1956.

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Posted by john m at 06:21 AM | Comments (0)

an old photo of a house almost exactly like ours

When the city assessor came out in October to set the value of the house for the Real Estate Tax Abatement Program, we noticed that he had an old file with him. This file had an abundance of info about the house, including an older, undated photo and assessment info going back to 1956.

Continue reading "an old photo of a house almost exactly like ours"

Posted by john m at 06:21 AM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2003

some house history

According to the city, our house was built in 1900. We've heard from a few people, though, that 1900 is often given as an approximate date when actual date is unknown, and that our house could've been built anytime before or around then. We've been intending to look into this, and yesterday we got a chance to spend a little time at city hall and at the Library of Virginia.

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Posted by john m at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)