52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Home 119 Virginia St

Week 4: Home. Describe the house in which you grew up. Was it big or small? What made it unique? Is it still there today?

This challenge runs from Saturday, January 22, 2011 through Friday, January 28, 2011.

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) has yet another successful series on her hands: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History (http://www.geneabloggers.com/52-weeks-personal-genealogy-history/)


Above is a picture of my home while I was growing up.  The handwritten address and date were written by my dad.  I think this was the first step in the purchase of the house.  We moved into the 4 bedroom house around Christmas of 1948.  When we first moved in,  there were red velvet draperies hanging in the archways between the hall and the living room and the living room and dining room.  I thought it was huge.  There were 4 children.  As the new babies came along (5 more in all) the house evolved.  A downstairs den was converted into a 1st floor bedroom for mom and dad.  The front porch was screened and became a outside playpen.  There was a window in the living that could be used as a monitor.  


There couldn't have been a better place to raise 9 children.  The house was one block from church, school, the library and park, and the train station (Mom didn't drive then).  There was even a college fairly close.  After Dad's death in 1959, Mom stayed in the house until she moved to Florida in 1971.


Sadly the house was demolished several years ago to make room for condos.  Did I mention it was a block from the train station?