Historic House Blog

Moving a house is always a spectacular affair that attracts a crowd. It’s the kind of thing that people come from far and wide to see. On one level, it’s hard to understand- the house moves slowly, there isn’t much action, and there are many stops and starts as power lines are maneuvered through, corners negotiated, and obstructing [...]

I stumbled upon an interesting website today — http://www.historicalbricks.com .  It is the website of Gavin Historical Bricks – “The Nation’s Largest Supplier of Antique Brick & Stone.”   This company supplies large amounts of bricks for both historic restoration projects and new constuction projects (where the builder is trying to achieve historic look & feel).   [...]

Members of the Goodale family have lived in this home for about 330 of the last 340 years. The house was originally built by Robert Goodale for his son Isaac in 1668. The Goodale house was built on the family’s 500 acre property in Salem, and was farmed by generations of Goodales until it was sold out of [...]

Just after the New Year, we wrote about how more & more REALTORs host tours of historic houses as a unique marketing tool, as a way to attract buyers of historic homes.  (Read that post here).   Next week, near Chicago, five real estate agencies are collaborating to host an impressive historic house tour in the swanky [...]

Many states are starting to digitize their historic map collections and make them available online. Old maps are invaluable for researchers of course, but they also make for great additions to any property marketing package. Having some idea of the history of the neighborhood, and of the local context of a house for sale, gives the marketing effort a [...]

One thing I was never very good at was identifying the different types of wood floors in historic houses.  Was that old, reddish plank floor pine?  Chestnut?  Cherry?  Stained oak?  Looking at pictures online can help you get a knack for identifying types of wood, a skill that is impressive to sellers as well as buyers.  It [...]

The Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is auctioning off one of its properties on February 19.  The museum has determined that it is unable to devote the funds and effort necessary to restore, or even maintain, the property, and that money realized from the sale could be put to better use in helping [...]

The two houses above do not appear to have much in common upon first glance.  After all, one house is a stately brick mansion, while the other is a light yellow, vinyl-sided Colonial.   The Italianate house on the left was built during the late 1800s (or perhaps even the beginning of the 20th century if [...]

Well, it’s 17-7, Steelers ahead at half-time after a spectacular interception and James Harrison’s amazing 100-yard return for the touchdown that put Pittsburgh ahead by 10. It was the longest play in Super Bowl history. With the historic nature of that touchdown in mind, and with a contest between Pittsburgh and Arizona still in play, [...]