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Topic: Pretty cool thing happened today... (Read 1952 times) previous topic - next topic

Pretty cool thing happened today...

As I've been fixing up this old house it's gotten quite a bit of interest from the community. Everyone here knows everyone, and the whole community is either related to the old folks that owned the place or had been in it for some other reason. Every time I go to the store or gas station somebody I don't know tells me that they love what I've been doing to "The old Burns place".

This morning a 90-year-old man that I had never seen before showed up at my door with a photograph of my house that he took...

...in 1932. Apparently he worked at the farm just up the hill and across the road and decided, for some reason, to take a pic. Keeping in mind this was 1932 taking a pic wasn't just a matter of grabbing the digital camera, pointing, and shooting - it took a bit of commitment. Imagine the commitment to hang onto it for 75 years, too!

He also gave a bit of the history of the place. Apparently the large barn is the building that was dismantled and the lumber used to build my garage, but more interesting is the building between my house and the garage (no trace of this building exists now). This building housed the post office on the main floor and the jail in the basp00get.

Also interesting is the pond across the road. That pond is no longer there - it fills up with water when the brook floods, but is generally dry. Back then they dammed the brook in the fall to flood that area so as to make ice, then drained it in the summer. This pic was taken in late fall - note the lack of leaves in the trees.

You can also see the train track passing behind the house - those tracks have been gone for about 25 years (I can remember when they were there, as the same set passed near the cottage).

Pic #1 shows the full pic the guy gave me, pic #2 shows it cropped for my house
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Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #1
jail? that would be pretty kinky... lol
nah, but that's awesome.
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Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #2
Man thats interesting as hell!

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #3
Cool. Your house has quite a bit of history in the area. You should rebuild the jail;)
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #4
Ha thats what I was thinking.. rebuild the building...  and the jail!
One 88

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #5
+1 on the jail Carm!!!

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #6
That's pretty cool. Wonder if there any other pics of your property anywhere, like an old newspaper, or even in the towns library. Because of the pond area, there may be old historic poster in some book or something. Just a thought.

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #7
take a pic from the same vantage point to compare.
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Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #8
Quote from: baxo;159834
Man thats interesting as hell!


yeah that is cool!.

Quote from: bhazard
take a pic from the same vantage point to compare.


I agree, lets see how the background has changed.

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #9
Quote from: bhazard;159903
take a pic from the same vantage point to compare.


You'd have to ask the owner of the property of course, and hopefully they haven't let the field on the hill grow in. I think you should try and get the two pictures and get them framed together (one frame, two openings in the mat). Keep it out of sunlight and you've got yourself a great piece for posterity.

I love this kind of thing. Anthropology of any kind, but local history is something to get into. Last summer, after blueberry season was over, I went down to New Ross with my parents to search my father's family history. You've probably heard of Ross farms, Carmen. The whole town is littered with Reeves and the town's archives are actually kept in the basp00get of the main reception/gift shop at the living history farm. It was really cool searching through all those old clippings. We found out our family line started here when John Reeves (and wife) arrived in Chedabucto (which is now Halifax) in 1749. From where or why, I couldn't tell you, but we think considering the point in history when he arrived that he may have come here from New England either as a loyalist or a soldier/officer. (New Ross was a popular spot for soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars as it was founded as Sherbrooke by Captain William Ross 60 odd years after my family arrived).

Get digging. It's a lot more interesting than it sounds when it's about you or your people. ;)

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #10
That is really cool. Surely there are no traces on the surface of the post office and jail but how about digging maybe you'll find it's foundation. That's if you want to tear up your property. :giggle:

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #11
Quote from: thunderjet302;159844
Cool. Your house has quite a bit of history in the area. You should rebuild the jail;)

Yup, bout fell out my chair when I read that... Doubt you'll go that far, but to have the picture is really nice... A current shot and framing them together would be really neat...


Quote from: 5.0willgo;159929
That is really cool. Surely there are no traces on the surface of the post office and jail but how about digging maybe you'll find it's foundation. That's if you want to tear up your property. :giggle:

Keep an eye out for skeletons...

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #12
I was thinking the same thing about taking another pic from the same vantage point, but it'd have to wait until fall to look right (and to be able to see anything - 75 years of tree growth has changed the landscape quite a bit)

...As for rebuilding the jail it'd be a pretty cool idea, but it would also require tearing down the garage. The one that I just spend $1200 and two weeks on siding it. The one that for as long as I can remember and after years of working on cars outside in the driveway I finally have a place to work on cars in. Ain't gonna happen :hick:


OldRaven: I do indeed know of Ross Farm. I went there on a field trip in grade six. I don't remember much of it except one particular incident in which the whole class was taken on a hay ride and I was selected to sit next to the driver. It was pretty cool, except that one of the horses decided to evacuate its bowel during the ride, and I was about four feet from the horse's arse. I didn't get any on me (in case you were thinking along those lines) but I did get to see what a horse's mud valve looks like when he's... um... making mud. Up came the tail, it started puckering, then the floodgates opened. The puckering was the most memorable moment, one of those things that if you see in person you can never forget, no matter how hard you try. You can well imagine how a wagon load of sixth graders reacted to seeing this. Four teachers, a prinl, a custodian and a wagon driver could not get us under control again. The horse, meanwhile, did not miss a step.
2015 Mustang GT Premium - 5.0, 6-speed, Guard Green - too much awesome for one car

1988 5.0 Thunderbird :birdsmily: SOLD SEPT 11 2010: TC front clip/hood ♣ Body & paint completed Oct 2007 ♣ 3.55 TC rear end and front brakes ♣ TC interior ♣ CHE rear control arms (adjustable lowers) ♣ 2001 Bullitt springs ♣ Energy suspension poly busings ♣ Kenne Brown subframe connectors ♣ CWE engine mounts ♣ Thundercat sequential turn signals ♣ Explorer overhead console (temp/compass display) ♣ 2.25" off-road dual exhaust ♣ T-5 transmission swap completed Jan 2009 ♣

Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #13
The only time I'll get that close to a horses arse is when I visit the inlaws. ;)

Maybe someday you can build a wicked garage that looks exactly like the old building, but garage doors at the back. Give me a call and I'll sketch something up for you one day. (I've been dying for a client who wants a nice working garage). From the road no one has to know that it's a garage at all.

Here's a picture from the visit. There are even a lot of Reeves who work the farm.


Pretty cool thing happened today...

Reply #14
Quote from: Thunder Chicken;159941
I do indeed know of Ross Farm. I went there on a field trip in grade six.

lol and THIS is what you remember from it some 17 years later (give or take a few)?
Quote
The puckering was the most memorable moment
Must have been traumatic![/COLOR]
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