The home is on the site of the original Fairfield Methodist Church, which is now located a few blocks down the street. The location of this house is historically an important one... The minister of the original church was Henry Wing who was originally a journalist for the New York Tribune during the Civil War -- Wing wrote a book titled "When Lincoln Kissed Me" which describes his adventures getting a message to Washington from Ulysses S Grant when Grant was out of communication with Washington, and the then-journalist-later-Fairfield Iowa minister traveled incognito behind enemy lines to carry a message from General Grant to President Lincoln.  Here is a link to the 1913 great read, When Lincoln Kissed Me http://books.google.com/books?id=slJRetOb8SEC&dq=When%20Lincoln%20Kissed%20Me&pg=PP2#v=onepage&q=When%20Lincoln%20Kissed%20Me&f=false 

Do you want to know more about the town Fairfield Iowa?

Thank you, visitors to housemouse.net!! 

Rena Goff, the manager of this message board, is also a real estate agent in Fairfield, Iowa -- the town that was just given coverage by Oprah Winfrey because of the meditating community in the town.

Best Wishes,

Rena

N. Rena Goff

IA-Licensed Real Estate Agent

Fairfield, Iowa

Village Realty

641-919-7423

P. S. The home is listed at 162,000.

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5844366 Sun, 13 May 2012 21:52:19 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5754708 Hello, We purchased a historic home in NC last year and don't really know much about it. Would like to find out the style and if there is possibly any floor plans for it. It is a historic home and has a placard near the front door that says J.F Allred House ca 1897, but some folks have told us that it could have been built in the earlier, somewhere between 1891-1897. As you can see from the pictures it has a porch around most of the house. The front of the house is original and the back portion was added later. At least we think because we can see the remains of a pitched roof with wooden shingles in the attic. Wondering if anyone may know who the architect may have been. Thanks

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5754708 Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:58:54 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5485559
many years ago i downloaded a bunch of books, but my jump drive went dead i lost them all.

since then i have downloaded most and some additional books.

One i can't seam to find is a book that had a couple of designs with two story Halls on had ornate columns in a perspective showing the stairs and arched landing looking over the hall.

I'm not entirely sure if this book was once offered here or if I downloaded it else were.

if it is one of your books i don't see it listed.

thanks

Brent

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5485559 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 01:53:20 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5418806

Forum: CookingOldStyle ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5418806 Sun, 31 Jul 2011 06:13:08 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5354942 http://kingamerica.blogspot.com/
I was hoping to find a reference to other Hopkins houses still standing.

Thanks,
John

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5354942 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:15:22 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5173653 Personal history of this website:

When Rory & I lived in Portland Maine 13 years ago we were inspired by the houses on the West End of Portland (including some magnificent John Calvin Steven houses)
That is when we began http://www.housemouse.net

On the original website we had a walk-through of imaginary rooms of an 1865 house. (See the Wayback Machine) and, without planning to, happened to purchase an actual 1865 house. We spent about 10 years fine-tuning the actual house, and gained experience as to what that can entail (one never forgets their first remodel! Some of the remodeling photos are on this website.)

Inspired by this brick-and-mortar 1865 house, we added the domain name "thevictorianhouse.com" ...Then, on a whim while on vacation in Iowa and because of close friends there, we bought a Victorian home in Iowa. The Iowa house is next door to a incredibly gorgeous George Barber designed mansion (Donita & Mark's beautiful house).

Now, the original "thevictorianhouse.com" coastal Maine home is for sale. It is 2.7 miles to the beach, and on a popular road to the beach and golf club. It is zoned multi-use / commercial / residential, and is a relaxing place to live and work. It is across the street from a beautifully landscaped college medical center, and VA Center, and a new bank.  If you know anyone interested in having a home that they can also have a store/office/antique shop/art studio where they live, let them know about this Maine place:

Commercial/Residential home

Rt 1 corner, popular road to beach and golf club

Emerging high-growth investment location

$198900 

Call Rena 641-472-5208

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5173653 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:18:34 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5056462
Here is an example of a modern baker's rack--

http://www.roomsandthings.com/images/ashley_furniture/d393_76_1240337175_med.jpg

The design is a lower storage area covered with a countertop , then topped with a high shelving unit that is narrower to allow more room to use the countertop.

Nowadays, baker's racks are primarily home decor accents used to showcase china or curios, and also sometimes as wine racks.

I have been unable to find much information online regarding the initial origin of the baker's rack and various incarnations, but the cabinetry in this video caught my eye--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDd6RNXQvc&feature=player_embedded

It is the all-wooden unit located against the right wall in the 1830s kitchen. Although it is far clunkier and larger, it still follows the design elements of a baker's rack-- lower storage area, countertop space, narrower high shelving unit across the back.

Can anyone recommend any further references, photos or illustrations I could consult?

Thanks.

C

Forum: CookingOldStyle ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5056462 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:07:57 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4802109 Charwell Manor's" (at old Woodcastle location, Somerville Road, Liberty Corner, N.J.) first catalog before it moved to Mendham, N.J.; contained outstanding B&W photos of now Phareloch Castle, and I believe the photographer was local. Likely he took twice as many views as were used. It might be worthwhile to learn the fate of the negatives?

Some other names starting with Wm. H. N. Beatty's 1930's "Castle Utopia"; "Woodcastle School for Boys", possibly "Chartwell Manor"?, Castle Burlingame, and Castle Peacock,

It was featured as a "Ghost Castle", 7-25-1981, on Tim Kettle's TV show "That's Incredible"; Allan Lansburg Productions, Hollywood California, project 321-144.

Jim, Southport, North Carolina

P.S. I remember the master bathroom white, deep bathtub, had claw & ball feet.

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4802109 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:15:42 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4771311 We currently have our home for sale.  Although no documentation that this is definitely a Barber design, all signs indicate that it is.  Another house in Elkader is listed in one of the Barber design books so we feel ours is most likely a Barber also.  Anyone wanting a Barber house which includes a business in a lovely historic town in northeast Iowa, let us know.

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4771311 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:25:02 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4725164 MyOldHouseOnline.com (click on the link for the forum post). Here are some pictures and the layout: (Click on the Photobucket Link) I attached some photos - hope they uploaded right.

I'm trying to find the book these are published in. I have looked in everything I can. I'm sure something out there exists in a book I haven't seen though.


 

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4725164 Thu, 20 May 2010 01:08:42 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4707730 During the Civil War, a New York lawyer, R. B. Roosevelt was checking out options of getting a house erected on his new country plot in Flushings, New York.   He writes:

...the first thing to do toward building my intended house was to prepare the plans.  A large house--a huge pile of wood or brick--is an abomination, and it costs so outrageously (the profit of loss was never out of my mind); but there seems to be a limit in reduction of size that can not be surpassed.  I at once proceeded to lay out an admirable plan for a house twenty-four feet square, a neat, nice, cosy, comfortable little cottage; and this is an economical size, because it requires precisely two lenths of board.  I arranged for a grand hall through the centre, and a piazza round three sides; there were four rooms on each floor, and it would have been perfection had not the parlor and dining-room proved to be only about seven feet by twelve, which, after some careful measurements, was determined to be rather small.
 
However, the plan had so many recommendations that I determined to make an effort with it. In my younger days I had passed much time in Connecticut, and had there seen houses of the nicest kind, attractive inside and out, and which were said to cost only a few thousand dollars apiece. 
 
A friend of mine, residing on Long Island Sound, had imported one, which came to him cut out, sawed and marked, ready to be put up. So, having determined to try something of the same nature, I inquired the name of the maker, and sent him my plan, requesting an estimate. Instead of returning me an estimate by which I could readily calculate for a little increase of size, the stupid fellow replied that he would come to New York and show me some plans of his own. I wrote a severe letter in answer, saying that I wanted an estimate, not a plan. Since then I have not heard from the gentleman, and believe he is still studying out the beauties of my arrangement, and will, one of these days, come before the world as a great architect on the strength of my abilities.

Not to be put down or deterred, however, I made other plans, some of which had the kitchen outside, some in the basement, and others on the first floor. In one there was a piazza on all sides, in another there was no piazza whatever; some had the servants in the garret, others placed them in the cellar. I was ready to erect an entirely new house, or to convert an old barn that was near the premises into two or three houses. There was nothing that my resources were not equal to, and the drawings would have furnished quite a new stock in trade for a young architect.

My friends gave me their advice. They respectively assured me that I could not live with my kitchen in a wing, and could not exist if it were any where else; that I would be robbed if the servants were in the attic, and robbed and murdered if they were on the ground floor; that no house was worth building unless it were filled in with brick, and that brick filling was a mere waste of money; that it would be hot as an oven if it was not double boarded, or if it was double boarded and not double plastered ; that every floor must be deafened, or that the noise overhead would be unendurable, and that deafening would be of no use whatever; that the roof must be of gravel, or it would leak, and if made of gravel it would break the entire building down; that oiling was the true mode of protecting the woodwork, and that nothing whatever but paint would answer ; that the natural wood was the most beautiful trimming, and that only stained or painted woodwork was decent; that the proper way was to paper the walls, and that no paper would stick on fresh walls. There was much more equally valuable advice, for which I was exceedingly grateful, and desire again publicly to thank my friends.

While ruminating over these statements and my various different projects, I was struck with the appearance of a neat little house in one of the streets of the village. It was a parallelogram, which is the most practical and economical shape for a house, and had a modest little piazza in front, and a pretty French roof above. The internal arrangement, with such modifications as my superior experience immediately dictated, was absolute perfection. The building was only twenty-four feet by thirty-six, yet there were seven comfortable rooms on the first and second floors, the parlor moderately large, the dining-room long and narrow to suit a dinner-table, and the bedrooms of admirable proportion. I determined at once, with the heroism of self-control, to abandon my own fancies, and to look and think no farther; but, having completed my modifications, gave them to a draughtsman, to be expressed in builders' signs and particularized with specifications. This event suggested the following beautiful sentiment: It often happens that, while we are roaming over the world to gratify our desires, the precise article for the purpose is at our very doors.

The drawings and specifications were soon made out in gorgeous style; there was a beautiful picture of what the house would look like, with an amount of finish and moulding that did the draughtsman great credit, showing the inside and outside, sections and ground plans, stairs and closets; and the specifications provided how every nail was to be driven, and were completed with a minuteness that would set imposition at defiance. When finished, they were submitted to several builders for estimates.

This happened at a time when, although the inflation of gold had passed its culminating point, labor and materials were at their highest. The builders, smarting under the recollection of unprofitable contracts made on a rising market, were deaf to my eloquent observations on the certainty of a rapid fall in the value of articles at a time when the war was manifestly drawing to a close. They had lost faith not only in the ninety-days' theory of our leading modem statesman, but that the rebellion would die other than a lingering death, and refused obstinately to be convinced. Some of them offered to oversee the work on a commission, by which ingenious arrangement the more they wasted the more they would make. Others charged nearly double what was the fair value, insisting upon allowing for a farther rise in prices. One man was so entirely overcome that, after keeping the plans a month, he returned them secretly, ran away, and was never heard of afterward....

This book is for sale on eBay

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4707730 Fri, 07 May 2010 20:05:18 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4680964

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4680964 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:45:31 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4599633 Forum: CookingOldStyle ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4599633 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:31:17 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4458370 I am trying to find out what people used to use before olive oil and vegetable oil for cooking. Did they have an equivalent? Or did they have sunflower oil? Or did they just not use it at all?

Forum: CookingOldStyle ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4458370 Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:12:46 GMT http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4383415 http://www.victorian-cottage-plans.com/
they have many styles of historic homes and cottages and tell you how to build them and what they cost to build in your area.
This is the most comprehensive site I have found.

Forum: Old House Plans ]]> http://merrymeeting.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4383415 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:45:34 GMT