Finding Lost Photos of the house

It has been nearly 2 weeks since I last wrote, but I have been productive.  Today is my 29th birthday and I got a wonderful present that I wanted to share with everyone, old photos of the house.  I tracked down the desendent of the family that owned the house and she shared with me a treasure chest of old photos of the house from the 1960s and 1970s.  How lucky was I??  How did I track them down one might ask? Well with the release of the 1940 census I was just browsing through the information on my house.  It was what I had already known but gave me more information about the families.  So I went onto Ancestry.com and searched the family trees.  Lone behold I got in contact with the family that owned and lived in the house and she had some albums she wanted to share.  She drove down here, not being inside the house in nearly 30 years and was able to answer a few questions for me.  It gave me some more information on the house and neighborhood that I didn't know.  So I want to share a few with you.

How can you not love this photo from the 1940s?! It shows the back porch when it was still open and more than likely its original posts.  The railings and balustrades I suspect are from the 1920s remodeling of both porches.  The size of the porch footprint enlarged slightly to allow 2 doors on the back of the house rather than the one door and one window.  

Here is the porch shortly after it was enclosed as it shows it unfinished in 1959. The house at this time had been covered by the asbestos tiles. 

Kids on the back porch. Shows that the other  houses up the block had similar back porches.

Back porch today.  Still to be restored, hopefully soon!!!

Front Porch Steps. 1940s or early 50s

Cute kids on the steps. 1962.

The house with its front steps in much worse times.. 

Looking up East 6th Street.  The street was still paved in brick.  The boulevards were full size and had beautiful tall elm trees that made a tree canopy over our peaceful street.  Sadly dutch elm disease struck in the 1970s and they all had to be cut down.  The descendant said she and others were crying at how bad it was and how it really changed the feel of the street.  

Notice 771 East 6th St. at this time had already lost the tower cap roof

Again on the from the front steps.  One can see the sidewalks were just blocks.  You can also see the origional Sacred Heart Church with its beautiful steeple.  Torn down in the 1940s to be replaced by a more modern church.  I'll see if I can't dig up a photo of the old church but here is what it looks like now with the new building:

So with a little luck I found some great photos.  More to come!

If you like what you read and want to see this blog and projects keep going PLEASE feel free to donate something, even if it's only a little bit.  Every little bit helps on this restoration project. Thanks again!