So DAMN close.....but not close enough!
The journey to restore my 1889 love has not be easy. Aside from the physical work of restoring the house one thing I have desperately wanted to find is a photo of my home with the original porch. As you may know my house is a series of 8 houses that were all built at the same time by the same architect. A full history of the buildings can be found here on a pervious post I did: Keller Row History 5 of them are one style and 3 of them are my style with the tower. All 3 of the houses that are my style have lost their original porches. 4 of the 5 of the other type still have their original porch roofs which give a sense of architectural rhythm. So why did the towered houses lose their porches? I have one theory and I will get back to that shortly. To give you a reminder of the houses let's look at the first 5 of them.
These are older photos, but it gives you an idea of these houses. All of them except one had their original porch roofs in varying degrees. All 8 houses had the 3 arched windows in the attic gable. They all had the same window configuration on the 2nd floor with an arched stained glass windows and below it a picture window with two smaller windows.
The 3 towered houses, all of which look better than these photos display. I should have chosen a better photo of mine than this one, but I want to give you an understanding of what they share for architectural elements. The middle photo shows one of the houses that is missing the tower. Luckily my family owns this house and my hope one day is to restore the missing tower roof. These all had arched windows in the gable but notice that these porches are all different. Mine on the far left was replaced in the late 1920s I believe and the middle one had the porch replaced probably around the same decade. The last one has no porch, but why would only these 3 lose their porches and the rest remain? If we look at what is remaining on the houses I believe these houses had a somewhat flat mansard type porch roof. Let me explain. If you look at mine on the far left it has a long line right below the windows on the 2nd floor where I believe the original porch was attached to the house. My current porch roof was lowered and is in no way original. The one in the middle is interesting because I believe that when it was replaced, the contractors built something with a flat roof to tie into what was there before and replace what must have been rotted. Now look at the last house. It again has a mansard type remainder of a porch roof, which is what I believe should have been on these houses. This is what I think our porch roofs looked like:
This one was really exciting to find because it shows the houses across the street that are missing their porches. This now gives a great deal of information that I didn't know before.
Here is the fronts of the houses around 1930 showing MY UGLY NON-ORIGIONAL PORCH!!! It does show some interesting aspects. It shows the neighbor's houses with their older porches and the 3 arched windows on top and interesting it does show my house with early columns that look to be replaced in probably the 19teens, but it still doesn't show what I want! SO DAMN CLOSE YET SO FAR!!! So while I am so excited to now know what all my neighbors houses looked like I am still desperate to find one of mine. I have 1 more lead up my sleeve which I am hoping will pay off. It will probably involve me flying half way across the country to dig through someone's old photographs in hopes that it will contain something I can use. Send good vibes to me friends because I am desperately running out of places to try to find what my old porch looked like.
These are older photos, but it gives you an idea of these houses. All of them except one had their original porch roofs in varying degrees. All 8 houses had the 3 arched windows in the attic gable. They all had the same window configuration on the 2nd floor with an arched stained glass windows and below it a picture window with two smaller windows.
Being in a historic district I have a higher degree of proof I need to provide to recreate something that is missing. So I have been on a quest for going on 13 years now to find early photographs of my house. Specifically to find what my porch, heck what ONE of the towered houses porches looked like. I was able to locate an early one of my back porch from someone who had lived in my house, but this didn't give me a huge amount of unknown information. I still have the original back porch roof and so it just confirmed that it had nice turned columns, but didn't tell me much more.
With these 8 houses being rental or invest properties when built, there weren't many families that stayed for huge amounts of time early on. So I began researching the owners of the houses across the street to see if their descendants had any early photos. I would also need to find a photo pre about 1920 since that is when I believe my porch was replaced. I did have some very exciting luck when I met a descendant of the family that lived next door to me. I was so excited because they had lived there from about 1914 until about 1940. I was sure they MUST have an early photo of our houses. With baited breath I went through their photographs.
Photos of the neighbor's back porch taken from my back yard
This shows my other neighbor's original porch. Shows the old spindles and such so now those porches could be restored, but still not showing mine!
This one looking up the street shows the house that is currently missing the tower.
Here is the fronts of the houses around 1930 showing MY UGLY NON-ORIGIONAL PORCH!!! It does show some interesting aspects. It shows the neighbor's houses with their older porches and the 3 arched windows on top and interesting it does show my house with early columns that look to be replaced in probably the 19teens, but it still doesn't show what I want! SO DAMN CLOSE YET SO FAR!!! So while I am so excited to now know what all my neighbors houses looked like I am still desperate to find one of mine. I have 1 more lead up my sleeve which I am hoping will pay off. It will probably involve me flying half way across the country to dig through someone's old photographs in hopes that it will contain something I can use. Send good vibes to me friends because I am desperately running out of places to try to find what my old porch looked like.
Hello Matt, You have done some amazing research. I hope you find some old photos of your house soon--they have to be out there! I have number of old house photos from the Cleveland area, some with addresses marked, and I hope to donate these to the local historical society, although few if any of the houses are still standing. Usually when you can find old photos of existing buildings, original porches are towers are the first things to go. I assume that you have thoroughly checked out local historical societies. Also city offices--building commissions, and so forth. Sometimes they have blueprints and even photographs. Good luck with the search. --Jim
ReplyDeleteJim that would be the greatest gift to identify old photos that show somewhere and put them in the public domain so people like me aren't spending decades trying to find a single image. Thanks for your encouragement Jim.
DeleteI feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteThe porches on my 1894 house, while rotted and with missing parts, were all nonetheless intact.
Even a seriously ruined original porch is better than no porch because the rotted parts can be used as templates for new parts.
But with no porch and no images, yes, HOW does one move forward?
I wonder if your back porch columns matched your lost front porch columns? Also, have you gone into the attic of the current porch? I wonder if some information might be revealed on the wall plane?
Also, this post was really interesting. Thanks!
Hello again,
ReplyDeleteIn the last image, could the roof be original?
Even though the original columns and railings were replaced early on (either due to rot or changing fashion), why replace the roof? Roofs normally last many decades longer than fragile columns and railings.
I'm fairly certain it's not original because it was lowered about a foot. Above the windows I'd a great little detail of corner blocks. The 7 other houses have theirs viable. Mine is hidden behind the beadboard and rafters of the current porch roof. I peaked when I put the porch light in and there they are.
DeleteVery interesting that several of the houses did not have their original porches in the 1930's. My 1910 house still has the original porch and it is perfectly serviceable but has had minor alterations due to rot.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe all those porches rotted out before 1930's. I wonder if the street was widened or something that cause several of them to be rebuilt?
My best guess is that these 3 porches has flat roofs and were just built poorly to withstand the harsh Minnesota winters. The street wasn't widened as I know most of the history of the public works improvements on the street (including when the electric street lamps were put in). So this is my best guess why only these 3 were removed. A real question which I sincerely hope to answer one day..
DeleteI am amazed at the results of your research, dedication and results. A round of applause for you, Matt.
ReplyDeleteI own a 1905 VictorianQVictorian Anne near Rochester, MN so our climate is not all that different from yours, my from porch has kept it's character through the last century.
I am very lucky in that the original plans came with the house (during construction substantial changes were made).
Also I have found period postcardsopostcards of my house on eBay that show my original porch. I'ld be happy to send you some pictures of you are interested.
Congratulations.
Rich.
Thanks Rich! You are indeed lucky to have your old porch AND plans? That is so, so rare it seems. I wish I could have been that lucky. Perhaps in a bigger city like St. Paul these things get lost and houses so often change hands. So glag you enjoy my blog!
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