When my folks married and we became the Brady Bunch (3 kids + 3 kids) we moved to an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G old home. It had a porte cohere, a gazebo, sunroom, music room, front AND back stairs, a TV room, a secret room, a tunnel, a laundry shoot, butlers pantry, a working butlers button under the dining room table and 3 attics... like I said, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Can you begin to imagine being 11 years old and moving from a simple ranch home to the wonders of huge!
The house had 6 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms and was built in 1903. The couple selling the house were elderly and moving to a retirement community. As you can imagine that house had years accumulation of 'stuff' to throw away, take to the Junior League Thrift Store, sell or give away. The couple was quite creative, finding a way to leave things behind and welcome 6 kids all at once. In the attic off my sister Lisa's room they left 6 steamer trunks, each labeled with one of our names. In each trunk was 'treasure' chosen specifically for each of us. The most popular item was an old recording of "Color My Face with Sunshine", found in Nan's trunk. We sang it in fun for years to come... Nan and her friend Lori were great entertainers!
Old houses equal old heating and we had those clanking kind of radiators in each room, positioned under a window I guessed it all worked well as I don't recall ever being cold.
I have three distinct memories that make me smile from this floor.
- My older brother Andrew (my personal name for him Drew) was a shortwave radio enthusiast. I wish I had a photo of him wearing his 'cap' listening to transmissions from around the country.
My brother was the example of organization, studious and striving.
https://theheatons.weebly.com/musing-from-our-woods/memory-funny-story
(April 26, 2015 post) - There was a laundry chute on this floor, a new experience for me. One would just drop their clothes into the chute and they would land in the basement by the washer. As I was never asked to do laundry, I have no idea beyond the drop how clothes got washed!
And there was the time we tried to shove Ron down the shoot... - If you look at the house photo, you will see two reverse dormers on the middle level. The 6 of us would each carve a pumpkin and 3 would be lit and on display for the week before Halloween. One year we received a postcard from the Great Pumpkin: Your roof offering is wonderful! Signed, The Great Pumpkin What kid wouldn't be thrilled with that coming in the mail?
The first floor had its own amazing features.
- There was a tiny bathroom hidden under the stairs; Ron was able to excuse himself from the table to go empty his pocket of the dreaded peas served at dinner.
- There was a butler's pantry where we all gathered one day while our friend George called into a radio talk show clairvoyant and spun the incredible tale of scratch marks on the back of the cupboard door while we stood back stifling our laughter. We heard George's voice flow from our transistor radio.
- And finally the vision of the wallpaper that was in the dining room when the house was bought. Skunk Cabbage! Just the name sets an oppressive mental smell to a meal. Really? Skunk cabbage gets its name from the unpleasant odor it emits. The wallpaper was replaced immediately.
But the piece d'resistance of this house was the secret room that Nan literally fell into the day we moved. I'm sure the entire family has 'their' version of this room, but this is mine memory. The kids were in charge of moving clothes from the Highland Street house to the new Damon Road house. We went closet by closet. Finally getting to the cedar closet on the third floor, I suspect we were getting tired. Nan reached for an armful of hanging clothes and they unbalanced her. She fell forward and the wall opened up revealing a secret room. It was literally the size of Andrew's room below, but well hidden from the outside (no-one suspected 'missing space' as the roof line was complicated). The room was empty except for one straight back chair sitting in the middle. What?
My parents called the former owners and they were shocked we had just found the room, figuring that with 6 kids it would have been found our first week living in the house. Alas, not found for 2+ years! Do you see the three windows in the house photo at the very top? That was the 3rd floor bathroom. To the left of that was the secret room. Why was it there? I remember being told it was part of the Underground Railroad, but historically that couldn't be if the house was built in 1903. I guess we'll never know.
I sure would love a tour of that old house today? Maybe if I get back to Holden someday, I will stop and ask.
Postscript:
Lisa's memories in brief-
The classics, like putting Ron down the laundry chute, building the tree house with "General Andrew", the hidden panel in the cedar closet, the butler's buzzer under the carpet in the dining room, the gate in the rear fence to the Rice school yard. ( I wonder if it's still there?) I remember watching tv in the little tiny den, the cute little powder room under the stairs, Nan's fabulous sunroom, the Great Pumpkin! Mostly it was about learning to be brothers and sisters to people we hardly knew, and forging a bond that held us together through good times and bad. There was a lot of love in that house and it has certainly stood the test of time. How lucky we were to have found one another, to be a family always.