Need help researching house build date

[KristenS]

Thanks to everyone who's helping me. I really appreciate the ideas!

Just to recap what's up:

I am 95% sure the house was built between May 1907 and February 1909
I am 100% sure of the developer/realty company for my two-block development
I am 50% sure the developer built our house
I cannot seem to find confirmation!

Sanborn maps.
Yesterday I found a directory of the maps for my town. There are only 2.

1906 was available online: my house doesn't exist, which I already knew. (I have the 1906 survey that was done for the development, and they didn't extend the water mains for the development until May 1907 at the earliest.)
1938 is only available in print: so I'd have to ask at the library. But it really won't help me with the architect/builder or a firm build date.

City directories.
The local library only has directories starting with 1925. So, no help there. Not sure if a larger county library would have more. But I have a complete list of everyone who lived in the house already. And I know when the first owner moved in.

Water and/or Electricity.
I had no idea that they might have info on builders. I'll definitely give that a try!

Keep the brilliant ideas coming!!

[melissakd]

Well, darn. My DH knocked vertically along the bit of wall---maybe 18" wide---where the chimney actually stuck out into the room.

Uselessly, I just found this photo of a heating stove pipe in situ. If your house had had this, there would be an obvious hole, or plugged-up hole, in the floor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thorwulf/2657242321/

I know we're off this topic now, but I forgot to say, if your attic room was heated by a stove, there wouldn't be a hole in the floor. This might make sense if the house had central heating, and the attic room was finished later, or they decided to use it as a bedroom later.

MKD

[melissakd]

Thought of another source of general old-house information. This probably won't be any help, but:

*Your State* Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Should be in your public library. House-to-house survey, neighborhood by neighborhood. Taken sometime since 1970s; mine has been updated once since then and the update is known for short as the Interim Report. (Took me a long time to be able to remember that one.) The entry for my house goes like this:

XXX West ------ Street
Cross-gable
1865/1900
C

The "C" stands for Contributing; the houses are rated Outstanding, Notable, Contributing or Non-Contributing to the general historic atmosphere. Cross-gable is the style, based on the shape since mine is not a "high" or "academic" style. [I got "mutt" by adding up the shingles, the classical/Colonial porch and the PO's random window trimmings.]

I have no idea where they got the dates for my house, but they turned out to be very accurate.

[KristenS]

*Your State* Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Should be in your public library.

From my preliminary Googling, it looks like Indiana is the only state that did the Historic Sites and Structures Inventory.

You're lucky enough to be in a place where people actually care if a building is old. I'm just outside NYC... where we knock down historic buildings so we can put up luxury condos with ground floor office space. Hooray!

[melissakd]

From my preliminary Googling, it looks like Indiana is the only state that did the Historic Sites and Structures Inventory.

You're lucky enough to be in a place where people actually care if a building is old. I'm just outside NYC... where we knock down historic buildings so we can put up luxury condos with ground floor office space. Hooray!

I promise you other states did this...I'm sure of it. Quite likely dumb old Indiana made up a different name from everyone else; we're like that...Well, um, I better go look, because you never know when my brain is just making something up to pacify me.

Yeah, my DH is a Staten Island native and he just KNOWS that when his mom dies, her 1930s/40s house is gonna get razed and replaced by 5 McMansions.

MKD

EDIT--Okay, I'm back, and somewhat chastened. I had gathered that every state was supposed to do this, but what seems to have happened was that each state/county/town had its own idea of what "taking an inventory of historic sites" meant, and plenty of them haven't gotten around to it yet.

I am now in awe that my county did this, since having an idea, then taking 40 years to think about whether or not we should do it, is one of our outstanding bad habits.

[KristenS]

At least your town has an idea! There are three or four historic "districts" in my town. I'm not in one of them. I'm hoping that my research on the development will be enough to get the town to recognize us. But I'm not holding my breath.

People here don't seem to care. One neighbor proudly told me "I've got the oldest houses on the block. Built in 1929." When I said mine was from around 1907, he just shrugged and said "yeah, I don't really know. Maybe it was 1900."

We're working on finding the neighbors who care!

[westvillager]

Michigan did an "Urban Area Conservation Project" in 1976. I am only familiar with what they did in Detroit, but I believe it applies to other Michigan cities as well. They went through almost all the older areas of Detroit and took photos of each building. Each building has a 5x7 index card (there are literally 15,000+ cards) with information that gives the address, the significance of the building, the architect (if known), some general notes, & a small photo. Over the years, information about the architects, builders, construction cost, etc. has been added to the cards as new information is discovered.

Of course, the card for my house had no information at all, and the build date was wrong (made finding the building permit fun). However, I was eventually able to find the original building permit on microfilm, and I excitedly scrawled down the architect's name, builder's name, and construction cost onto a sheet of paper.

In Michigan the cities that did the surveys are the ones who store & maintain the original cards. They also made copies of each of the cards and deposited them at the state library. However, very few people know about the survey, and you pretty much have to know who to ask, what to ask for, and where to go to obtain access to the survey cards. When I first asked about the survey, the Historic Commission had no idea what I was talking about! I'm sure that many other states had similar survey projects that occurred in the 70s & early 80s.

[KristenS]

Thanks westvillager! I'm going to have to figure out if NJ did anything. I now, for the first time in my life, wish I lived in either Indiana or Michigan. Where people care about more than the Jets and property taxes!!!

[KristenS]

Two more strikeouts.

Tried at the Water Dept. I told them I was researching my house build--the date and architect-- and did they think their records might put me on to anything useful. They looked at me like I had two heads. One woman even said, somewhat disdainfully, "Why would you want to know that?"

They referred me back to the Tax Assessor where I'd already checked before. The woman there wasn't able to help. She just gave me a blank stare and another "Why do you want to know?"

My kingdom for ONE PERSON in this town with useful information!

[melissakd]

Oh, honestly. I really do find that a lot of people have no imagination, and it's a huge leap of intellect for them to comprehend that it is humanly possible to be any other way than they are.

Did you already ascertain whether your public library has old tax records, etc., perhaps on microfilm? You don't have a preservation charity in your area, do you? Humph. It must be out there somewhere. Maybe on the state level: state museum, library, statewide preservation charity, division of the state Department of Natural Resources [Indiana DNR is in charge of historic buildings and stuff, by the same logic that put the U.S. National Park Service in charge of that stuff]?

Have you a local chapter of the D.A.R.? They ought to know what local history records there are.

MKD