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Sorry!

Lorree

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:50710}}

I think your house was built before 1930, more likely the 1890's.
The front door to the side, the main body of the house one room wide, walk out bay windows up and down, the height of the house off the ground as well as the room height (judging from the transom over the front door and the length of the windows), the pyramid roof, and the wrapped returns on the gable in the attic over the bay window all say 1890's.
You do have Colonial Revival influences - the porch columns and the gable returns, maybe some nice corner boards and dentils on a frieze board under the aluminum siding.
I can describe my reasons more fully if you want.
See if your public library has "A field guide to American Houses", by Lee and Virginia McAlester. It has lots of pictures. Lester Walker also has a good book on vernacular architecture, (I can't remember its name,) with very nice drawings.

One house I owned had had a fire ( which killed the owner) because of its aluminum siding. When a dropped cigarette from the sleeping owner caused a small fire inside, it couldn't burn out through the walls because the aluminum kept the fire contained. By the time the firemen got there, he was dead of smoke inhalation.
Please consider removing your aluminum siding sooner rather than later.
As a reward you may discover a gem inside.

I was sort of thinking Colonial Revival. You think it's that old? That might make sense; I think the title search attorney said something about it originally being on a 7-acre lot.

As far as the siding goes, I'd love to get rid of it *right now* but since I'll need help, I need to convince my "helper." (Somehow I don't think forward controls for his Sportster will be enough of a bribe. Although, the forward controls and carte blanche on painting the Ultra Classic might get me started. LOL)

I'll be taking a trip to the library in another week or so once I finish my current stack of mysteries.

Would it help to narrow things down with some information on the interior layout? I can't post pics right now 'cause I'm at work and the pics are on my home computer.

Lorree

I don't know what different styles are called but your house looks very similar to ours (other than ours has been added on to back in 1905) and our house was built in 1895 so your house very well could be from the 1890s.

Our bay window was to the side of our house-- over the years someone removed it and replaced it with a 36x 48 window. The foundation of the window was made into a flowerbed. I wish I had the knowledge and experience (and funds) to put it back in!

So our house is a throwback -- I always knew I was living in a time warp. LOL

According to the tax records (a friend does real estate and pulled them up online), it was indeed built in 1930. Maybe the architect was from an earlier time?? LOL

Lorree

the tax records will tell you when the land was subdivided, not when the house itself was built.

I lived in a house that was moved. We knew more or less where it had been moved from. (A big park was created in the 30's and our house and several others were in the way.) We could trace the deed of our land back to the point at which it was cut out from a much larger parcel, but we never found any legal notation about the house.
Your lot seems to be on a corner.It could have been a larger lot - the 7 acres you spoke of - that was subdivided in 1930.
Your house is late Victorian with Colonial Revival influences. I expect your bay window faces pretty much south and that iasheff's bay does too. That's why it's on the side of the house, to catch the winter sun.
Interior photos of the door and window casings, the stair way, would help date it, if the house hasn't been seriously remodeled. House framing also changes between 1890 and 1930, but that may be harder for you to document.

I'm going to say Victorian, based upon that bay window and the transom above your front door.

If you have trim inside where the side casing extends up a few inches above the window head, probably with a medallion or other ornament on each side, that would be another clue that it's Victorian.

If you have access to your home's abstract you should be able to pin down the construction date. In my area abstracts are tied to land, not homes, but they do indicate when structures were added to the property.

I go along with 1890's 1900 ish.

Here is a link that might be useful: Victorian decorating site

Ok, even though I like the thought that my house is pre-1900, I've done some searching online and can't find anything that disputes the 1930 build date. The property description in the tax record has "year built: 1930" and gives the lot size as 7.92 acres.

I'd agree that it's Victorian with maybe some Colonial Revival influences. Here's some more information in case anyone wants to try to help me narrow this down: I have two transomed (sp?) doors: the front door and the door into my garden room (most likely the original back exit door). The bay window faces almost due east. The interior trim is definitely Victorian and has the corner blocks instead of mitred corners. I have narrow oak (?) hardwood floors downstairs and what I'm pretty sure is heart pine upstairs. The attic is also floored (wood). There's crown molding in almost every room. (Unfortunately, the floors are the *only* wood in the house that's not painted. The Silent Paint Remover should arrive tomorrow.) The ceiling height on the main floor is at least 9' and may be 9.5' (haven't had to measure yet).

I have a gas-fired boiler and steam radiators (love them!). Most of the radiators (except for the garden room and 2nd bathroom upstairs -- pretty sure these are later additions) are the old-style heavy, ornate, cast iron. (Multiple paint layers, but you can still see the scrollwork.) They're not as ornate as some radiators I've seen, but have scrollwork on the tops and bottoms of the fins.

If I'm guessing correctly, the house originally had gas lighting -- there're little "stubs" sticking out of several walls that look like they're about the right size and I can't imagine any other reason for them being there. Just from memory, the beams/joists visible in the basement are dimensional lumber, not trees. I don't know about the framing style (balloon or not) since we haven't started re-wiring yet.

In general, the town is pre-Civil War; I'm about 15 miles from Harpers Ferry. There are plenty of 19th-century houses/buildings around and, thnough our house isn't in the oldest section of town, it's definitely an older area.

I haven't had a chance to get to the library yet to do any research into local history -- have done what I could online. Hopefully when I do I can find an old photo or something.

So any further guesses? It'll be difficult for me to get to the courthouse or look up land records 'cause I don't work in town. Any other sources? This is really an interesting puzzle (to me) 'cause my "feel" is that the house is pre-1930 but I have no evidence to support that conclusion.

Lorree

What is the foundation made of?
What type of joists make up the basement ceiling?
-Actual size
-Saw marks visable
Any wavy original glass?
Evidence of a coal furnace?
Evidence of cut nails used in the flooring?
Door knobs original? (if so you can date them)

City water or well? Look for original water piping.
Built with a garage or carrage house?
Built with a driveway? material?

Hmmm....Ok, some of these I'll have to take another look at when I get home, but some of them I can answer now (and I have no patience, so I don't want to wait LOL).

I don't *think* there's any wavy glass -- at least I haven't noticed any and I've looked out of all of the windows. Since I really like wavy glass, I'm likely to have noted its presence.

No coal furnace -- or any other kind of gravity or forced air system. There's no duct work, registers, grates, or anything that indicates they might've been there at some point. While I doubt the boiler is original, I'm pretty sure that steam has been the only heat system.

No evidence of *any* nails in the flooring (other than a couple of repaired sections). It's all tongue-in-groove with blind nailing.

Yes, I'm pretty sure most of the doorknobs and other hardware is original, if covered in paint. *sigh* Should I post pictures? There are several types/styles of knobs.

We have city water now, but there are older, unconnected pipes in the basement that both the house inspector and I thought were probably old water lines. I hadn't thought of the possibility that the house was originally on a well.

There is a garage, but I think it's probably only 20-30 years old. I don't know if it's in place of an older structure, but it's definitely not as old as the house.

Our driveway is cement, but I'm not sure whether it was put in at the same time as the house.

I had a house very similar, and it was built in the 1890s. I also have had homes where some appraiser either left the age blank, put "older" or one one occasion put in a ridiculously recent build date. They simply ask the homeowner and usually put down whatever answer they get, and oftentimes the owners don't have a clue.

I own two houses in a nearby town and they were both put on-site in the 1930s. The larger one is a typical newly built in 1930s structure. Arts and Crafts style, fireplaces, the whole nine yards. It did have .........btw some gaslights on the interior. The little one next to it is obviously of an older vintage. You can tell by the style and it's curiously set on a very modern concrete block foundation. My father remembered both of those houses because he carried papers in the hood in which they were and said the little house had been moved there. It all made sense then.

Did your house at one time have a slate roof? I am familar with Harper's Ferry. My ancestors moved from part of the State. It's an old town.

Hi,
I'm about 9 miles from HF!
The style is a queen anne cottage, no matter when it was built. The bay windows and hip roof are the indicators, and the wrap-around porch is also typical for that style. QA cottages can be detailed toward Eastlake or toward colonial revival, depending upon their relative age. The paneled porch railing is typical of our area. I'm in Charles Town, BTW.
Casey

Casey,

Y'know, "queen anne cottage" seems to fit -- just sounds right. Does it matter if the porch isn't wraparound? Speaking of the porch and the paneled railings, I'm planning on removing the bushes in front (a friend wants them) this spring to show off the porch.

Oh, and I'll be through Charles Town this evening on my way home to Martinsburg.

Lorree

We have a lot of very similar homes in my area, and all date from 1880s-1890s. They're referred to as Victorian around here.

What is the foundation made of?
What kind of piping are the original water pipes? (lead)
What material is basement floor?
What material is roof sheathing (as seen from attic)
I agree with queen anne cottage.
Floor joists? Size, any saw marks, very straight and clean?

Gzec,

I'm still going from memory...you have no idea what yesterday evening was like. *sigh*

The foundation is built around some pretty big rocks -- not all of it is actually "foundation." As far as the material for the 'human-derived' house support, I still have to check on the foundation and joist questions.

The basement floor is dirt (covered with really nasty carpet on part of it -- whoever thought *that* was a good idea??!!). I think the original water pipes are lead -- they're grey anyway. I suppose they might be steel? I didn't look at them closely -- just enough to figure out that they're no longer connected to anything and were probably water pipes. Can I use a paint test kit to tell if they're lead?

The roof sheathing is wood -- planks if I remember correctly. However, the attic roof is insulated, and sheathed on the inside with melamine; the only place I can see the roof sheathing is one spot where there was some water damage. If the prevalence of old "water marks" is any indication, the roof was in pretty bad shape before it was reshingled. So I don't know if I'm looking at the original sheathing -- tho' I suppose the plank wouldn't be replacement.

The porch roof is standing seam and it's in 30"-long sections -- the house inspector thought this was probably an original roof. If the porch roof is original, I'm guessing the original house roof was also standing seam.

Lorree

If you think the house originally had gas lighting wouldn't confirm that the house was built much earlier than the 1930s?

Powermuffin, I don't know if it would be confirmation or not. I'm only guessing that the wall-stubby thingies are gas outlets, mainly 'cause I can't figure out what else they could be -- so I don't have anything definitive to say that the house had gas lighting. Also, I'm not sure what was common in the area. I *do* know that gas-fired anything is rather rare in this coal-mining state. (Gas isn't so rare as to be unusual, but it's far less common than in MI where I grew up.)

Lorree

some notes -
Queen Anne is generally used to describe Victorian houses built after 1885 which are asymmetrical, and have lots of decoration on the surfaces. Victoria, after all, lived a very long time! The kind of detail evolves from Eastlake to Colonial Revival, what is sometimes called "Eclectic', to Arts and Crafts. I had a house, c. 1915-20, I decided was best described as 'Edwardian' - not quite Colonial Revival, not really Victorian, not compatible with Arts and Crafts. Victorian is done, done, by the end of WWI.
Your foundation may be cut stone on the inside and outside and rubble in the middle. It was made to be looked at, so removing your shrubs is fine.
Your water pipes I expect are cast iron - good stuff. The pipes coming into the house might be lead. Not steel.
Gas light plugs are about 4" across, circular, about 1" deep, with a nipple in the middle where the gas pipe came out of the wall. By the late 1920's only rural areas still had no electricity, although individuals often still preferred gas. Gas can be made from coal and gasoline - that's how it was made before towns had gas companies and gas lines. Gas machines were in use by 1865.
Check whether your roof was insulated properly and vents. You could have a lot of rot between your shingles and the melamine.
Door and window casings, door knobs are rarely changed unless people remodel a whole room - like redoing a kitchen - so they are a good way to date a house, along with the framing, and staircases. Once a style is passe, it doesn't come back until it is reinvented. (To see what I mean compare modern 'Colonial casing' with the original.) Casings can be dated within 10 years.

Well, last Friday I finally had the time to make a trip to the County Clerk's office to trace the deed. Before heading into the far reaches of the basement, I made sure the clerks knew to send a search party if necessary....

I started with the original property description as referenced in my deed, which documented a 1910 sale, and worked backwards from there. It didn't take long to get back into the 1800s.

While I couldn't determine an exact build year, the earliest deed (1872) recorded the sale of half the original lot. I'm assuming the lot split was so that someone could build a house on the unused half. The next sale was in 1887 and, from this deed forward, the language includes something about maintaining the property -- leading to the conclusion that there was something to be maintained.

So I'm very happy to say that you guys were right. Definitely pre-1930 (as everything about the house had indicated). Since I can't find an exact construction year from the deed, I guess I can split the difference between the 1872 original lot sale and the 1887 sale that includes the maintenance clause: built ca. 1880.

I think the hardest part of the search was deciphering the handwriting in the two oldest records. Even though the deed books have been "restored," the text is still faded.

Thanks to everyone who insisted the tax records were wrong. You piqued my curiosity enough that I needed to investigate to reconcile the conflicting information. And since older is better as far as I'm concerned, ca. 1880 is *much* better than 1930.

Lorree