As promised, here are photos of some of the homes that were on the historic home tour that we completed on Sunday. They made my heart sing!
The house in the following two pictures has been in the same
family for many years. The gentleman that owns it is restoring it
beautifully. He's added on a gorgeous garage behind the portico.
His younger brother was born in this house, and they were both
at the house with many stories to tell.
But the best part is that they still have much of the furniture
owned by previous generations of their family,
along with a cherry baby carriage with a parasol on it that was used
by family over 100 years ago!
The following home has many of the original lighting fixtures (now electrified)
from the days when they used gas. Part of it t has beautiful copper roofing
which you can see on the dormer in the photo. It is now owned by a younger couple,
but the man who grew up in this house (now 92) was sitting on the porch.
His mom lived in this house for 70 years until she passed away in the
1980's. The current owners were able to get a lot of information about
the house from him, and they have displayed several old photos, including one
of the elderly man sitting on the porch steps when he was a boy!
The second picture below is part of the garden that surrounds the
whole front yard within the perimeters of the fence. (The house that
you see behind the garden is the neighbor's.)
The home below was huge, as it originally belonged to one of
the wealthy families in town. It had a huge curved panelled staircase
to end all staircases. The current owners are also restoring this, and doing
a beautiful job.
The home below is owned by the gal sitting on the front porch.
She is restoring it all mostly by herself and doing it with a
Victorian look, using dark wallpapers and retaining the dark moldings.
The second photo shows her beautiful garden. The guide told us
that the old boxwood bushes were there, but she trimmed them into
the formations that they are now.
Below is the old train depot, no longer used for its original purpose.
It was slated for demolition some years ago, so the Women's Club
bought it for $1.00 from the railroad company, under the condition
that they move it off the property. They paid $10,000.00 to move it
a short distance away, restored it, and use it for meetings and other
functions. Adorable!
The house below was not on the tour, but beautiful.
It's always been my dream to live in an old house like this, and I think that even Mr. Perch's wheels were turning when we finished this tour, especially when we found out how inexpensive some of these houses are to buy, and not too expensive to restore if you're willing to do the work yourself. We keep saying we're too old to do it, but we both also say that we would just do a little at a time, making it more of a hobby. H-m-m-m-m....
