It Pays - Part 3

A while after we moved in, we received a large envelope in the mail from the state historical society. It contained copies of a  number of documents: the first floor plan (pictured), the original building permit, original building inspection report, and a summary list of the building permits pulled for the home over its first 50 years or so.

It also contained a note from the sender saying that he'd been asked to gather this information and send it to us.  The originator of that request was another long-time family friend and, now, neighbor.  Yet another kind and generous act that we hope to pay forward to someone else someday.

I suspect this first floor plan was a proposal, not the final blueprint as-built.  There are a number of differences from what exists today.  Most of the differences are either too major structurally or there's no evidence that the building has been modified.

The drawing doesn't show the curved walls opposite the door in the Reception Room.  The curved wall on the left side of the drawing is match by a curved wall on the right side of the room.

The largest difference is in the main staircase.  The drawing shows a double step up from the main hall, a double-sided fireplace adjoining the library, and that the stairs start on the bottom in the drawing.  The first two don't exist and the latter is the opposite of as-built.

In the Library, there's only one entrance - the one set on the bias at the lower left of the drawing.  The fireplace is on the opposite wall and the lower right corner is the doorway to the half bath under the stair landing.

In the as-built state, the doorway to the back hall and the main hall closet are a few feet further down the drawing.  This is because the doorway between the dining room and serving pantry is in a different place.

The back hall closet is on the opposite side of the hall, pushing the back stair closer to the back wall of the house.  At one point there was a door entering where the ice box is shown.  I suspect that it was actually the servant's entrance because it would have lead directly to the real kitchen in the basement.

In the 1980s, the previous owners removed the wall between the Serving Pantry and Kitchen, making one larger kitchen space and removing the working kitchen in the basement.

Lastly, the front porch doesn't match what we know was built.  And the rear porch stairs go straight off the back opposite the back door, which makes sense based on the locations of the carriage houses, rather than off the left side in the drawing.

It Pays - Part 2

The original owner's grandson, Harry, was a remarkable, kind, and generous man.  We'd only just been introduced to him, yet he went out of his way to gather information for us.  His love of history was readily apparent.  He went to the Historical Society Archive to gather what information he could find, including contacts for other sources of information about the house.

One of the stories he recounted was that though it was the house his mother grew up in, she didn't much care for the living room.  She thought it much too small for proper entertaining.  This is not a problem we've encountered thus far.

And as luck would have it (it's not really luck, it's just old Saint Paul), Harry was an old friend of the son of the 3rd owner of the house.  He had contact information and suggested several lines of inquiry around various changes that he was aware of over time.

Though he hadn't been back to Saint Paul for many years, the 3rd owners' son filled in more details:

• The front porches were removed by his parents because they were constructed of wood, had no cover, and eventually began to rot.  The resulting changes to the front were done by a Mr. Salt.
• There had been a fire in the attic causing total replacement of the top floor around 1940.
• The new carriage house was built by his parents in the 1930s using stone form a home torn down at the corner of Nina and Summit. Finally, I have a definitive statement for the source of the stone...
• Sadly, he mentions, "If you look carefully at the bar on the second floor of the garage you will note an autograph of Jascha Heifetz the violinist."  We've heard rumors and stories about this bar, but it was removed by the previous owners and there is much debate in the neighborhood over its current whereabouts...

It Pays

It pays to ask questions, especially in "Saint Small".

Comparing it to it's neighbor across the river, Saint Paul is the last city of the Old East.  Old money, old stone buildings, old relationships, ...

One day my father-in-law invited me to play golf at his club.  Afterwords, we were sitting on the patio having a beverage while waiting for the ladies to join us for dinner.  An older gentleman gingerly made his way from the pro shop to the dining room after his round of golf.  As he passed, my father-in-law and I got up to greet him (it's a small old Saint Paul club and my father-in-law knew everyone) and my father-in-law introduced me.  The gentleman was hard of hearing, so the conversation didn't last long.  But my mind was hard at work.

The ladies arrived.  Blah; blah; blah.  My mind was still at work and I couldn't turn it off.

Finally, sometime after dinner and before dessert I connected the dots and blurted out, "He's the grandson of the original owner of our house!"

We went over to chat with him and he confirmed my suspicion.  His grandfather was the original owner of the house.

Because of his hearing trouble and age, he found it easier to communicate via email (bravo to him!) and he provided us some great information including this photo before he passed away last summer.

We don't know the exact year it was taken (must be during the first or second owner's timeline - certainly pre-1930), but it helps with a lot of things.

You can see the original carriage house behind and to the left of the house.  The driveway goes across the back of the yard to the side street at the back right of the yard.  The curb/gutter that are still present there are further evidence of this original configuration.

Now I have another photo that can prove to a neighbor that the dormers are original (but the current roof-line on them is not).  Maybe now she'll believe me...

Same with the round fluted columns at the front of the porch and the square fluted columns against the house.  This should settle the fluting and capital questions.

We have no idea who the person is in the upper left window...