Searching the Classifieds for House History

I'm one of those people that enjoys reading the real estate ads for fun.  I like to know if any of my neighboring houses are for sale or anything unique pops up and such.  There is always something interesting you can find in the classifieds from help wanted jobs, to rentals, to sales.  I really don't think that much about classified after that usually.  They appear daily in the newspaper and the following day a new set is in its place.  This is the cycle that goes on and on and on.  I thought wouldn't it be interesting if I could find out if any classified ads had ever been written about my house, 100 years ago.  I thought it would be fun to find out, but sounds like looking for a needle in a haystack right?  WRONG!  Turns out the US Library of Congress has some cities newspapers digitized and you can search by keywords!  So I typed in my address and look what I found!:

 Looks like the Schlenk Family was looking for a maid.  Either they couldn't find good help or they went for an extended time without help.

After the Schlenks moved out the Keller family found rental agent J.W. Shepard to lease the house.  Nice marketing on the house Mr. Shepard! $30.00 a month is a good deal for rent!

Seems 1897 was a tough year for rentals.  But eventually it was filled. 

 During Mr. and Mrs. David Backer's stay at the house they had a yard sale and appears they didn't need all the rooms in the house.

 1904 was the latest I found thus far.  Who knows what else will be out there hiding in the newspapers.  The website to search the newspapers is http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ .  You should try different variations  of your address and street name, as the digitizing process can sometimes make a mistake. I would also suggest putting your search keyword in quotes as this can help narrow down the searches.  This can also be very helpful for genealogy searches and such.  Who knows what you might find reading the newspapers of 100 years ago.  Try it and see how much fun it can be!



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