Entering the drive way to the Mansion
Almost there..
Side view as you enter
I love this balcony
Front view: Isn't she beautiful?!
Entry Doors
Second story: The railing has not been put up yet.
Side Porch: This door on the side is Enormous, I
think it goes to the kitchen?
Side Porch: Brand new owners have painted in a
creamy yellow and white.
They have weddings here at the Gazebo.
I believe the columns are original but that I'm not
sure of either because there was a fire that burned the
top floor and second floor, but not all the 2nd floor
was burned. The last owner that had this place was
deep in debt so he torched it to get insurance. You don't
know how bad I wanted to get a hold of this guy!
It really pained all of this community, she had survived
all these years and then this guy comes along. The owners
before the arsonist had painstakingly brought her back
to her former glory and it was a restaurant. A very beautiful
restaurant that took only reservations because the whole
town wanted to get in to see the beautiful job that was done.
Just imagine years and years of neglect, the original wood
work had been painted over and over, so they striped all of
it and I am told they made it into a masterpiece. I still to this
day have not heard what happened to the arsonist. I hate it
when the story dies because it's tied up in court for so
long that its not "news worthy" to hear what sentence he
got. But thank goodness a new family has bought her and
they have been lovingly restoring her. Maybe perhaps with
not as much money as the couple that restored her, but still
she is beautiful. It's good to see her loved again.
We have a very old house in the area that is probably from the 1900's to 1920's. (I did some research but there is not much there.) It has 3
story's and it's ginormous! The story goes that a man built this home for his wife (I like men like this :) and they lived in it for many years. Then it was sold and it has since been a speak easy, a
nursing home, different
families have lived in it and ran it into total disrepair. When I was a young girl growing up I lived by this home and me and my
friends would go up to it (when it was a nursing home) and talk to the elderly patients up on its massive porch. The men were always making puzzles out of milk cartons and gave them to us, (I must have been 10yrs. old) we were happy little clams with our new puzzles and would play with them and talk to the men & women there. We would go over every weekend for a long time and do the same routine. Even at that age I loved that big old house, it held mysteries I could tell. I wanted so much to see the inside and one day a nurse took us through the place and I was in awe. When we went to the 3rd floor I peeked inside a room that you could tell was not being used, and there was a bench seat that ran in a long "L" shape along the wall and had a big square table in the middle of it. And in the bench's were cut out circle's. So when you sat there you sat in the hole's, not falling through but none the less holes!?? I thought that was strange and I asked my father that night what he thought the holes were for? He said "When it was a gambling place men would sit on those holes and it was there toilet, they would not even get up to go out of the room to a toilet because of people cheating in the room." Well after that story I thought "gosh men are pigs!" that grossed out this little ten year
old's mind. Then again through the years it sat empty and fell into further disrepair, at 23 I had a girlfriend who took beautiful
photography and not being able to afford a
photographer I asked her to take pictures of me in my old dress from "Bloomingdale's" (I found it in an antique store) so off we went and
trekked right up to the porch and she shot
numerous photo's of me. Well they turned out gorgeous and there my favorite photo's. I put this little shadow box together because my son's bought me a "Mothers Day" bouquet and I wanted to preserve some of the flowers and the card my eldest son wrote. My boys are 13 years apart so it was done when my oldest was 16. So a photo of me, & a photo of my Grandparents, and it has been hanging in our bathroom for many years now. It holds dear memories to me of that house long ago too.
(I've had a request of a picture of this house, so when I can get over there I will post one)