Holy Schmiscuit, Batman!
I don't think it was clear to me before I moved here exactly how small the Happy Valley is.
It's this small -- so small that my hiring was announced in the local paper!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Horses: To Have and Have Not
I had been in the process of planning to bring my horse, who had to stay behind in Georgia until after final frost to reduce the chances of colic, to Happy Valley, when ironically he colicked and died. I now have to go back to Georgia to pack up his things, among other things. So this will be a combination commentary on horse facilities in Happy Valley and a sort of memorial commentary.
First, Happy Valley is gorgeous and land is actually supposedly more expensive, but also more available than it was in Georgia. So when I started looking around for the right barn for my boy, I was immediately able to find a few places in the are that would take him and sounded more or less appropriate to what we were doing. However, in general I've noticed that Happy Valley isn't as internet-savvy as Athens -- most businesses lack a web presence, and are kind of hard to identify by remote means. In other words, you gotta network.
But networking turned up a number of acceptable facilities, and it also turned up some hidden options, such as renting an entire barn at the base of Tussey Mountain or share boarding on the edge of state lands, which of course one has to share with hunters but are gorgeous. Anyway, not that it matters right now, but I did find better options than in Georgia. I have to think about whether I want another horse, and when I might want one, but it sounds like when I am ready, I will have good options.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Lanes, 1896 to 1948
The record on the Lane family is a complicated one, with several sales. Yet, for over 50 years the house was occupied by various members of the Lane family.
Patty and James Eldridge sold the house to William and Alta McClure in 1948.
Patty Eldridge was the sole heir of Elliott Eskridge Lane, and inherited the house at Lane's death in 1948. Elliott Lane bought the house at a public sale in 1942, when its value was thought to be about $6,500 -- Lane paid $5,000. At the time, it officially belonged to Elliott and several of his siblings, including Martha Lane/Pattie Lane Fay, Fred Lane, James B. Lane, and John H. Love. (Their parents, John Lane and Louisa Lane having presumably moved to what would eventually be Governor Hastings's mansion.)
The group had inherited the house in 1913, from J.H. Sands, when Sands died and the Pennsylvania orphans' court distributed it to the group. A notation in a historical text notes that J.H. Sands was also a relative -- his daughter was Mrs. John Lane.
The Lane family has an interesting connection to President James Buchanan, as well as some of the other movers and shakers of Pennsylvania history, such as Daniel Hastings. From Memories from Another Era: a complete collection of the articles written by Charles A. Mensch on his memories of growing up in Bellefonte, 1995:
“Living next to the Sieberts was the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Lane and their two sons, Fred and Elliott, and Mrs. Lane’s father, J.H. Sands, who had owned a bakery, later purchased by Joseph Ceader, in what was known as the Sands block on S. Allegheny Street (where the Fountain restaurant is now located). Mr. Lane was related to Harriet Lane, a niece of President James Buchanan, who served as the official hostess of the White House during her bachelor uncle’s administration. A bookcase, one of two which stood on each side of the fireplace in “Wheatland,” the President’s ancestral home and birthplace near Lancaster, was given by heirs of the Lane family to the Bellefonte Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The local chapter had it restored to its original beauty and presented it to the State and National DAR. The bookcase is now part of the completely restored shrine honoring the first and only native-born Pennsylvanian to become the nation’s chief executive.
Before the house came into the ownership of the Lanes, however, it was occupied by them. In 1896 the house was sold to J.L. Spangler and J. H. Sands by Daniel Hastings. However, the 1900 census makes it evident that the occupants of the home were the Lanes. At the time, they included:
- John N. Lane, a 48 year-old male
- Louisa S. Lane, a 40 year-old female
- Eskridge Lane, a 12 year-old male
- Fred Lane, a 15 year-old male
This situation is one of the fun things about the house -- since it is a double house, at various points it has been occupied by renters. Spangler, for example, probably never lived there, since records indicate that he lived elsewhere. More on him later.
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Casher, Barr, and McClure eras, 1948 to 2009
The most recent history of the house is a tad dull. Not only because sites like Ancestry.com and such concentrate on the further past, but because I'm choosing not to delve too deeply into people who are still alive or whose heirs are still alive.
First, let me thank them all for not modifying the house a lot. We can see the architectural history of the house pretty easily, and this is because the most egregious thing that's ever been done to it is that someone decided in the mid-60s to cover the interiors in wall board. So, who might that have been?
Most recently, I bought the house from Pat Casher, who still lives in Bellefonte. Someone during the Casher era or immediately preceding ran a travel agency from the commercial space -- the sign is still there! I only met Pat once, but he was very helpful, and told me that the house is a double house, but has also always, as far as he knows, been occupied by families. When he owned it, several relatives of his lived in the two sides.
Pat Casher bought it from Norma Barr, who was the widow of David J. Barr. I wasn't able to find any information on Norma, but David is an interesting case. He used the house's commercial space to run his physical therapy business up until his death in 1997. However, the local newspaper indicates that David was a mechanic at the Nuclide Corporation in 1964. At the same time, an attorney named J.A. Harris operated from the commercial space. Incidentally, we have a valuable historical resource in our carriage house tenant, who hasn't signed a lease since he signed one with Mrs. Barr sometime in the late 90s. He has also shared some information about how things in the house were arranged.
The Barrs bought the house From William and Alta McClure. They are absolute mysteries -- I wasn't able to find any information on their jobs or heritages.
First, let me thank them all for not modifying the house a lot. We can see the architectural history of the house pretty easily, and this is because the most egregious thing that's ever been done to it is that someone decided in the mid-60s to cover the interiors in wall board. So, who might that have been?
Most recently, I bought the house from Pat Casher, who still lives in Bellefonte. Someone during the Casher era or immediately preceding ran a travel agency from the commercial space -- the sign is still there! I only met Pat once, but he was very helpful, and told me that the house is a double house, but has also always, as far as he knows, been occupied by families. When he owned it, several relatives of his lived in the two sides.
Pat Casher bought it from Norma Barr, who was the widow of David J. Barr. I wasn't able to find any information on Norma, but David is an interesting case. He used the house's commercial space to run his physical therapy business up until his death in 1997. However, the local newspaper indicates that David was a mechanic at the Nuclide Corporation in 1964. At the same time, an attorney named J.A. Harris operated from the commercial space. Incidentally, we have a valuable historical resource in our carriage house tenant, who hasn't signed a lease since he signed one with Mrs. Barr sometime in the late 90s. He has also shared some information about how things in the house were arranged.
The Barrs bought the house From William and Alta McClure. They are absolute mysteries -- I wasn't able to find any information on their jobs or heritages.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
How To Research Your House
I am planning to blog out my new house's history in this space shortly, but I am still locating information about some residents. So I thought, while I am letting that information percolate, I would share the nuts and bolts of how one researches a historic (or any) house.
First, there are some pretty good resources out there. Use them!
But if you really want to know when your house was built, who lived in it, etc., you basically need to do the following:
1. Go to the local records room and research the deed. If you're in Athens, GA, you'll have to ignore the snooty professional parapros and law school students. But do that -- you have just as legitimate a need for those records as they do, and pulling them will give you a structure and some facts that will be very hard to get otherwise. Note: you may learn some very odd things in this process, since older deeds tend to include descriptives that would now be unusual or even illegal.
2. Search for local Sanborn maps. This will show you things like what your house's footprint looked like and what it was constructed of at various points in its life. It answers questions like "is this siding original?" or "was my craftsman house really built in 1960?"
3. City directories, which are usually in the nearest rare books library or heritage room, are AWESOME. Especially if you own a house that you suspect may have been rented at some point. City directories tend to contain information like who lives in a house, how old they are, and what they do for a living. In short, trace the individuals by any means necessary. Useful resources include census records, cemetery listings, old newspapers, city plans -- any historic records that might show your house or show how things that might affect your house (like the siting of the road it sits on) would have occurred.
4. Oh, you can also ballpark the date of construction or modification by taking a stab at the style, and there are some great resources for this, too, but this type of research can be awfully confusing depending on how much your house has been modified, how free spirited the architect was, or how avant garde the local design community was. I suggest you do it because it's fun, but two houses of similar style can be radically different in age depending on factors like the above. Or you could, like me, own a house that's basically a hodge-podgy mystery.
5. Also, you can try to date the house from its construction. Nails, in particular, are clearly characteristic of certain eras.
Here's a handy-dandy checklist!
First, there are some pretty good resources out there. Use them!
But if you really want to know when your house was built, who lived in it, etc., you basically need to do the following:
1. Go to the local records room and research the deed. If you're in Athens, GA, you'll have to ignore the snooty professional parapros and law school students. But do that -- you have just as legitimate a need for those records as they do, and pulling them will give you a structure and some facts that will be very hard to get otherwise. Note: you may learn some very odd things in this process, since older deeds tend to include descriptives that would now be unusual or even illegal.
2. Search for local Sanborn maps. This will show you things like what your house's footprint looked like and what it was constructed of at various points in its life. It answers questions like "is this siding original?" or "was my craftsman house really built in 1960?"
3. City directories, which are usually in the nearest rare books library or heritage room, are AWESOME. Especially if you own a house that you suspect may have been rented at some point. City directories tend to contain information like who lives in a house, how old they are, and what they do for a living. In short, trace the individuals by any means necessary. Useful resources include census records, cemetery listings, old newspapers, city plans -- any historic records that might show your house or show how things that might affect your house (like the siting of the road it sits on) would have occurred.
4. Oh, you can also ballpark the date of construction or modification by taking a stab at the style, and there are some great resources for this, too, but this type of research can be awfully confusing depending on how much your house has been modified, how free spirited the architect was, or how avant garde the local design community was. I suggest you do it because it's fun, but two houses of similar style can be radically different in age depending on factors like the above. Or you could, like me, own a house that's basically a hodge-podgy mystery.
5. Also, you can try to date the house from its construction. Nails, in particular, are clearly characteristic of certain eras.
Here's a handy-dandy checklist!
House History, Ground Rules
I'm about to post the house's history. However, I wanted to lay out the rules so you kind readers can follow.
1. I will go from the present as far into the past as I can go.
2. I will tag all of these posts with "house history," so I can isolate the actual history.
3. I will set out any issues in their own posts, so I can isolate those, as well.
4. I will post, each post representing a new ownership period, every 3 days or so, until I run out of owners to post about.
1. I will go from the present as far into the past as I can go.
2. I will tag all of these posts with "house history," so I can isolate the actual history.
3. I will set out any issues in their own posts, so I can isolate those, as well.
4. I will post, each post representing a new ownership period, every 3 days or so, until I run out of owners to post about.
Wish us luck!
We're having about 50 guests this weekend, a good number of whom are helping with the house. Can my father in law and a troupe of rogue comedians coexist? Only the shadow knows if the bathroom will be completed!
I'm also hosting a St. Patty's Day thing at the Red Horse Tavern in Pleasant Gap. Come down if you have a few hours Saturday afternoon!
I'm also hosting a St. Patty's Day thing at the Red Horse Tavern in Pleasant Gap. Come down if you have a few hours Saturday afternoon!
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