1919 American Four Square

I used to watch a program on HGTV called “If Walls Could Talk”. Not to be confused with the Jimmy Webb song . By the way, his Ten Easy Pieces CD is superb.

Anyhoo….the television show says it is:

This series shares lore and intrigue from homes rich in history–some good, some notorious. Many of the featured buildings have housed famous (or infamous!) characters, while others are the sites of significant historical events. Some of the selected structures are simply filled with good stories or were home to everyday folks with colorful pasts.

The episodes I like best are the ones hosted by Grant Goodeve (remember him from Eight is Enough?). Those episodes centered around people renovating/restoring their old homes and finding pieces of the past during the process. Children’s shoes in the rafters, old coins under the flooring or baseboards, old silverware buried in the yard, that sort of thing.

When we bought the four-square, I had dreams of finding just such treasures everytime we opened a drawer, or wall, or floor. The further we got into the renovation, the more I dreamt of find money in the walls…but that hasn’t happened, yet. The roofers are coming, so I still have some hope.

We’ve found little things. The original owner’s name stamped on the bottom of a drawer in our dining room built-in (probably a packing crate that was recylced as a drawer bottom). The second owners then signed their names on the same drawer. It’s a nice recorded history of the house.

We’ve found an old gear in the barn that still has a tag with the original owner’s name on it.

Nothing too exciting.

Dennis replaced the old, cloudy, scratched mirror in the upstairs bathroom tonight - and let me tell you that actually being able to see my whole face in the mirror was quite something. As he removed the mirror (3/8″ thick!), he discovered another small treasure.

A date stamp on the back of the mirror PPG Co. Aug. 1918!