The Historic District

Thanks everyone.

Who would have this reverse directory? The city?

Here is a 1937 aerial of where the house use to be. Even in 1937 there were not a lot neighbors, mostly ag...yet it was quite close to town (the black circle is the house).

I have used that site in doing other historic places research. Unfortunately for me they only go back to 1971 in my area and by time I zoom in you can't make out anything. But in the lobby of a building downtown they have an aerial of 1938, and there I was with my bifocal readers AND a magnifying glass making out my house, barn and the orange groves behind it, now a Catholic Church.

I was going to say at first that your house did have the more 30's 40's look as far as architecture goes, but certain details point to an earlier time. By the way the county says my house was built in 1941, but actually a lot older as I said. The historian's 1914 house is on record as 1947. This is because that is when these farm areas were incorporated into the town.

So! Trust nothing. It is all a result of paper pushing as mentioned in other responses. I am now going to have to go micro film diving at the clerk of court records division with a new name to look up..

I'd search for the old directories in libraries, if you're lucky even online. I'd first try a google search for your location and historical address book or directory to see if anything comes up and if only titles you can then search for in a library catalogue.

We used two things to date our house, which is also not on the Sandborn maps. First, the library had address books starting in 1904. Second, we went to the water board and they had the date that the water was turned on and every owner of the house since that time. From these two places, we are comfortable with the date of 1908.
Good luck!

For dating my house we only have town records. From titles I can see when the lot was purchased, and around 1865 there is a mortgage taken on the place by the guy who built it. This puts the date perhaps a few years before. Rumor has it that the Grand List (property tax records) still exist in the town office basement somewhere. I am hoping that one day assuming they are there, that they might reveal the exact year when the house was built.

Another source can be the gossip columns in local newspapers. If you know the names of the first owner / builder. Unfortunately for me I cant find an existing civil war paper that list such stuff for my town.

The library in the city where the Old House was located had the reverse directories. Both the Old House and Bungalow Project each had a neighbor that lived there the better part of their lives, so they were both helpful in some history of each house. The neighbor at the Old House has sadly passed away, he was a unique person and a great neighbor. The one at the Bungalow project is great-she keeps an eye on the place and watches it daily to see the changes (and sends cookies!). That said, sometimes even people that didn't live right next door might know about a house. I also joined a facebook group for the town the Bungalow Project is in, it's a "memories of/growing up in" group, you might see if one exists for your home's location (s). I see a lot of posts of great old photos of the town on it-so far nothing of mine, but still, fun history.

eclecticcottage wrote:The library in the city where the Old House was located had the reverse directories. Both the Old House and Bungalow Project each had a neighbor that lived there the better part of their lives, so they were both helpful in some history of each house. The neighbor at the Old House has sadly passed away, he was a unique person and a great neighbor. The one at the Bungalow project is great-she keeps an eye on the place and watches it daily to see the changes (and sends cookies!). That said, sometimes even people that didn't live right next door might know about a house. I also joined a facebook group for the town the Bungalow Project is in, it's a "memories of/growing up in" group, you might see if one exists for your home's location (s). I see a lot of posts of great old photos of the town on it-so far nothing of mine, but still, fun history.

Thanks! We do have a "memories of..." group and I joined and asked if anyone remembered the house/when it was moved. Everyone remembered it! But the dates they remembered were all over the place and no one seemed to know who lived there or much else about it (it is a college town, and the last owner did tell me that at one point it was a rental property). In general though, it is a very interesting group.