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...