1918ColonialRevival wrote:Seeing your post on the other thread about sink stains got me to thinking - did you look underneath for the cast date of your sink? The reason I ask is I suspect the house might be slightly older than 1935, as this look was definitely "dated" (I hate that term!) by then. When looking at your album, I thought the house looked more late '20s with its lingering Craftsman-inspired elements and emerging Art Deco influence in the door hardware. The neighborhood next to ours has a lot of bungalows and smaller Dutch Colonials that were mostly built in 1927-28. Of the ones that retain their originality, the interior trim, cabinets, staircase, and hardware are nearly identical to yours.
If 1935 is indeed the correct date, it's definitely one of the last of its kind that was constructed.
Inside the kitchen cabinets were left filthy, so I hadn't looked yet. But now you had me curious! So I did the "point and pray" shooting method and this is what I found...
So apparently it really is one of the last of its kind! October 18, 1935. (I don't know why, but I like the fact that the day part is upside down. I wonder if there was a reason for that.)
The Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company was an American manufacturer of bathroom fixtures. It was formed in 1899 by the merger of the Ahrens and Ott Manufacturing Company, the Standard Manufacturing Company, the Dawes and Myler Manufacturing Company, and 6 other plants which were consolidated to form the Standard Manufacturing Company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, with Theodor Ahrens (Jr.) as its first president. He held this position, and others, until 1934.[1][2]
In 1929 the company merged with the American Radiator Company to form the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation.
Caption from the picture of their Louisville building: "The firm's brass finishing building in Louisville, Kentucky."
wiki Gardner is north of Worcester, the closest city, and is the county it's included with shares the same name. It's highest production time really hit in the early 20th Century. From
wiki:
Named in honor of Col. Thomas Gardner,[3] the community was first settled in 1764 and officially incorporated as a town in 1785 after receiving land grants from the surrounding towns of Ashburnham, Westminster, Templeton and Winchendon.[4]:2 Dating from about 1805, it became a center for lumber and furniture industries. Gardner is known as the "Chair City" and "The Furniture Capital of New England", due to its long history in furniture production. By 1910 it had 20 chair factories which produced 4 million chairs per year. It was also noted for silversmithing. The Gardner State Colony for the Insane pioneered the use of cottage residences. Gardner was incorporated as a city in 1923.
Gardner is the birthplace of Heywood-Wakefield furniture, dating from 1826 when the five Heywood brothers began to fashion furniture in a barn near their father's farm. Brothers Walter, Levi, Seth, Benjamin and William began that year making wooden chairs. In the early years, Walter fashioned chairs by hand, also using a foot lathe. He was soon joined by his brothers Levi and Benjamin, part-time, while running a nearby country store. A new store was built across the street from the original store. In 1831 Levi moved to Boston where he established an outlet store to sell the chairs, while Benjamin and William remained in Gardner to manufacture the chairs. A fire destroyed the Heywoods' chair shop in 1834. In 1835 the partnership of B. F. Heywood & Co. was formed, composed of Benjamin, Walter and William, with Moses Wood and James W. Gates. Gardner was also the home of the Conant-Ball furniture factory. Nichols & Stone Chair Company traces their origin to 1762 in Westminster, Massachusetts. The company moved to Gardner at the turn of the 20th century. As of July 2008, it was announced they would terminate production. The Nichols & Stone name, the intellectual property and the design rights were purchased by the L. & J.G. Stickley of Manlius, New York.[5]
I had forgotten the bit about the State Colony of the Insane, and now I wonder if 42 might have been part of wherever that was. Some day I'll try to look into that further.
Speaking of deco, I haven't had time to check all the doors yet, but I just realized the downstairs bath has a similar, but not same doorknob hardware on one side, and the side bits seem to match that, unlike the other side, which is more typical to the house. I have not yet had time to research the former residents, but many in town were craftsfolk. So there is a large chance that they built what they loved, not what was considered trendy for the time. The two sets of bath sconces are also deco, as is the overhead in the kitchen. The bedroom lights, though, vary widely. I'll snap those another day. The parlor and library are new cheapie replacements. The dining only has a single bulb fixture at present (older). I just realized I can't recall what the overheads are in the baths.
Anyhoo...the hardware difference I found (parlor/dining; outer downstairs bath; inner downstairs bath: