Historic House Blog

The Spanish Custom House, the oldest property on Bayou St. John, and among the oldest houses in New Orleans, will be sold at auction on February 10. There is no reserve and this may be a great opportunity for the right buyer to purchase a truly spectacular piece of history at an equally spectacular price. The [...]

Last week, we posted about a Remodeled Historic Log Home in Edgewater, Maryland being auctioned off for $50 a ticket. Just under 24,000 tickets were sold and on Friday at 5PM in the Westfields Mall in Annapolis, homeowner Tom Walters drew the balls from the hopper that would determine the winner.  Karen McHale of Idaho Springs, Colorado, a chemical [...]

Edgar Allan Poe, that master of the macabre and inventor of the detective-fiction genre, has a birthday coming up on Monday. It’s his 200th and many organizations are celebrating the Poe bicentennial. The International Edgar Allan Poe Society is building a community centered around the Edgar Allan Poe 200 site. Boston College is sponsoring ”The Raven Returns [...]

As selling houses gets to be more and more of a challenge, owners and agents are turning to more creative means of marketing property. One strategy that crops up whenever the market turns is a house raffle. Lotteries have been successful for centuries, drawing participants in with dreams of a low investment and a huge payoff. House raffles are no different. Most [...]

When you consider the concept of historic houses, perhaps gangsters are not the type of people that pop into your head.  We generally associate “historic” properties with grand architecture, or rustic post-and-beam homes, or perhaps even an old farmhouse that has withstood the storms of a century.  Yet there can be no doubt that the simple, two-story, working-class property that [...]

Next weekend, on January 16th, 17th, and 18th, the Greater Philadelphia Historic Home Show will attract historic house entusiasts from all over the country. Sponsored by Old House Interiors’ “Early Homes” Magazine, the show will feature 70 exhibits, including experts on architectural salvage, floor & wall coverings, sills & foundations, furniture restoration, millwork & mouldings, [...]