How weird would gas lighting of been?

Awesome Finds.

Things got off track with the house starting a couple months ago.

I'm looking to get a special tax credit for investing money into a historically designated house. In order to get this credit you must abide by specific architectural standards. I got a lead on an architect who not only knew all the standards, but sat on the committee that passed them. I thought this was perfect.

So in July I got this guy Brian Hurtienne, who does a lot of local work, to walk through the house with me. He did and I asked him if he wanted the job. He said yes, but asked me if we could wait until mid-August to start. No problem, I still had other things to deal with.

Apparently he really didn't want the job because he did the professional thing and just stopped returning my phone calls for 4 weeks. Nice work Brian.

Anyhow it worked out in some respects because I found another architect who is much more in tune with my design ideas anyhow and willing to try some radical things. Beyond that he is very open to my suggestions. Some architects consider thier designs their children and do not want to comprimise them. My new guy is open to exploring all the options.

In addition to that awesome find, my architect was able to hook me up with some architectural details that I personally would consider priceless.....but more on that later.

Speaking of design, any color combination suggestions???

She's a brick......house

No not really, but someone in the past apparently thought it could pass for one. Only one side of my house has these panels remaining on it. Only a couple hundred square feet at that.

My question is why? They are ugly, they absorb water like a sponge, and by it's architecture it's obviously not a brick structure. I bet James slater put them on.

But at some point it appears to have been a trend. Potentially the 50's or 60's? I'm still researching this. Sadly, many of the Corktown houses still sport these faux brick facades in entirety. Luckily it seems one comes down every couple months, the nails being pulled, filled in and the houses are returning to their natural wood siding finishes.

They come off relatively easy with a flatbar. The nails pull through the water-soaked material and you can get them off generally in full pieces. Also i'd been warned that they panels potentially have asbestos in them. So wear a respirator, better safe then sorry.

Look at my next door neighbors house, am I really supposed to believe that only the sides of this house are brick?? 'Tis a shame that such a beauty must wear such an ugly coat.

What Once Was

This is a map of my street from 1899. It's from a collection known as the "Sanborn Maps" from an insurance company by the same name. Little did they know at the time that their scrupulous documentation of structures and streets would be honored assets by historians, urban planners and genealogists.

As you can see every inch of the street has houses on it. Today out of these 28 structures, only 4 remain. #106, #110, #130, and my house #132. I can't even fathom looking out from my front porch to see all of those magnificent Victorian homes in their prime in the late 1800's. But I guess I will have to be thankful that mine was saved.

Ironically not only saved, but my house is now protected by the National Park Service.