In 1998, when I met this wonderful house, all I knew was that it was in a beautiful area and it fit perfectly the description of the house I would love to live in, right down to the double set of staircases.
What I had not included in the dream house description was that it would be on the National Register of Historic Places. That was a wonderful bonus that was revealed as the final papers were being signed. I didn’t even know that ordinary people like me could own a National Register site.
Turns out that other potential buyers had walked away from the house when they learned it was on the register. They thought there would be too many rules to living here (more about this in a future post).
The day I walked in the house for the first time, it felt like a hundred souls rushed forward to hug me. Everyone has their own explanation for that, I simply accepted that this was to be the place I would live and that I would fight for its survival.
The longer I have lived here, the more I have learned that fighting for this home’s survival is never ending, from defending it from the developers who wanted it so they could bulldoze the house and use this prime piece of real estate for commercial purposes to those who think that smashing beer mugs on the sidewalk is entertainment.
This site is dedicated to the battles as well as to the wonderful stories that happen from living in the arms of history, to the sharing of the important history this amazing home has been a part of, to the preservation of one of the last National Register of Historic Places sites that is still in private hands, with just a touch of the stories that could be the result of spirits who may have remained.
Little did I realize how much this one move in life would lead to, the wonderful people who would walk through the doors, the amount of history hidden throughout the property and house, and how this property, which has always been known to house strong, independent souls would help me find mine.
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