Historic House Blog

In 2005, in West Cape May, NJ, a developer demolished the historic Moffitt House, a circa 1770, pre-Revolution Colonial — despite outrage and preservationists’ active plans to save the house by moving it.  A report by Jack Fichter of the Cape May County Herald notes that the demolition of the former B&B proceeded with “most [...]

We usually stick to historic houses here on HHB, but I had to make an exception to write about something disturbing that’s happening today about an hour from where I live.  In Tiffin, Ohio, a county courthouse that was built in 1884 (and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places) is being [...]

Can a crazy neighbor, bored building inspectors, and a complacent city government halt a homeowner’s dedicated preservation efforts— and result in criminal noncompliance charges?  Apparently so, according to the owner of an old house in Lakewood, OH, a suburb of Cleveland.  In a recent posting on her blog, “1914 Foursquare,” the owner, “Nina,” shares the [...]

I had not realized just how much of a market had developed for historic log cabins.  Old log houses.  Antique log buildings.  Pioneer log homes.  Whatever you want to call them. I’ve been fascinated with pioneers’ cabins since I was a kid.  When I was in 4th grade, my dad rented an old farmhouse near [...]

Another colonial-era property seems to be “doomed” despite willing buyers who would restore the property, according to an article in the Observer-Tribune.  The “Madelyn Post House,” named for a woman who lived in the house for 101 years, was built in 1740 and is located on Main Street in Brookside, New Jersey — about 40 [...]

Many-a-time on our road trips between Connecticut and Ohio, we would exit I-80 to stop for gas near a small city named Sharon, just after crossing the border from Ohio into Pennsylvania.   Yet we never really drove into town, feeling we didn’t have time to casually “explore” on such a long trip.  But had I [...]

Come get ‘em!  Two more old houses that will be demolished soon if no one buys them for $1 and moves them from their current site: The first property is located in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago.  Architect & blogger Lee Bey says the property (left) is owned by the Illinois College of Optometry, and [...]

Due to budget cuts, Nicholls State University recently bailed on plans to develop this old plantation house into its culinary center.  Returned to the donating group, the historic Rienzi Plantation in Thibodaux, Louisiana is now being offered for sale.   The Rienzi House is located directly across Bayou Lafourche from the town of Thibodaux and is listed [...]

We’ve written before about “preserving” historic homes through subdivision (for a look at some of these cases, see our article “‘Preserving’ Historic Estates Through Subdivision?”).  Usually, this process involves cutting up a large tract of land (usually a historic farmstead) for the purpose of building a new subdivision, with development approval hinging on a caveat that the developer [...]

At the height of the goldrush, in the year 1849, Daniel Ward left St. Joseph County in northern Indiana in pursuit of gold in California.  Two years later, Ward returned with a “small fortune.”  By the end of the Civil War, in 1865, he had erected a grand Itaianate mansion in Granger for his family, [...]