Please help me date my house

[cdawg414]

Hello Everybody,

My wife and I purchased our old-ish house this past July and I have been trying to put a date on when it was built. It is located in the town of Longmont, Colorado which has a dedicated "Old Town" area that we are technically not a part of due to the fact that our house is half a block north of that boundary. Because of this our local historical society has no records or information about our home. Every local records search that I've done defaults to the 1946 designation.

The deed to our home has a date of 1946, however our next door neighbor, a terrific chap whose opinion I respect and trust, has lived in his house for over 25 years and knows for a fact that his house dates to the early 1900's, told me an interesting bit of trivia that is relevant to my interests. He said that all of the deeds to the homes in our area read "1946" (his included) because the records building burned down in the mid-forties and when they re-built and re-issued new deeds everyone got the year 1946.

Additionally, several architectural features of my home harken back to a time earlier than the 1940's. I'll tell you a little bit about some of those things and I've also created a photo album that, I hope, will help to date this house. It is my guess that it was built sometime in the 1920's, but I really don't know.

The walls are lathe & plaster, the siding on the outside of the house is wood. There is a coal chute in the basement, as well as a root cellar under the stairs. The area where the walls meet the ceiling are arched, as are the passageways between rooms upstairs.

Please let me know if there are more details that I might be able to provide to shed some light on this mystery. I would be happy to answer any questions that anyone might have. Thank you in advance for your help!


PHOTO ALBUM ONE
http://imgur.com/a/zo9Qg/embed#0

PHOTO ALBUM TWO
http://imgur.com/a/7AcsE

[Texas_Ranger]

I'd say you're spot-on with 1920s given the mix of traditional (e.g. plaster&lath) and modern (concrete foundation) construction details.

Given the markings on the lumber it might even have been a pre-built house.

[cdawg414]

Thank you for the reply.

Could you please tell me specifically what it is about the markings on the lumber that might indicate that it was a pre-built house? I know that there are Sears kit homes in our area, so it's not a stretch to think that ours is one as well. I'm going to spend some time researching this angle.

[cs]

Weyerhaeuser, the name stamped on your joists, are still in business ("more then 100 years", says their web site). You might consider emailing them the photo of the joist marks and ask if they can let you know when that particular set of markings was used. Many times company logos (or marking policies) change over the years, and I notice that the logo on their web site is different than the one on your lumber, so this could be proof of a particular build date range.

The telephone nook suggests the 1920's or 30's to me... but I don't really know when that architectural feature fell out of style.

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[cdawg414]

Telephone nook! That's what it is! Thank you, that never would have occurred to me. I'm going to find an antique phone appropriate to that era and mount it in there.

I have already contacted Weyerhauser, I'm just waiting on a reply. I also contacted the Square D Company who manufactured the breaker box, I'm also waiting on that reply. I'll keep y'all posted.

[CivilWarHome]

I'm sorry I can't help date your house but I wanted to comment on your light fixture! I found the exact same ones in a box after we moved into our house and couldn't imagine what they were from. I'm curious if we still have them laying around somewhere!

[cdawg414]

I'm curious too, let me know if you come across anything.

[oldhouseluvr]

According to the Weyerhauser website, grading of lumber began in the 1920s. "For the first time, lumber was grade marked, precisely squared, cut to exact lengths and wrapped." Assuming the No. 1 on the lumber is a grading stamp, it can't be older than the 1920s. I tried googling the entire text of the stamp but came up with no results. As the OP suggested, you might want to consider writing to Weyerharuser and asking if they can provide the time period for that stamp. I actually think the house is probably a little later, maybe the 30s. Our first house had similar if not identical bathroom fixtures and was built in the late 30s.

Dating old houses is a fun challenge. Good luck!

[cdawg414]

Thank you for your input. I agree wholeheartedly that dating old houses is fun!!

My current theory on the bathroom fixtures is that they aren't original to the home. The date stamp on the toilet is from 1941, if I'm reading it correctly. So, maybe the stuff in the bathroom got replaced at some point?

[pqtex]

Thank you for your input. I agree wholeheartedly that dating old houses is fun!!

My current theory on the bathroom fixtures is that they aren't original to the home. The date stamp on the toilet is from 1941, if I'm reading it correctly. So, maybe the stuff in the bathroom got replaced at some point?

My house was built in 1913 and is only 1 year shy of being a century old! I happen to know for a fact when my house was built because it was built by my great-grandfather and has been solely owned and occupied by my family since that time. However, county tax records list it at 51 years old. That's the cutoff date used for all houses in our county. Next year it will still be 51 and the year after that, too! I should have birthdays like that! My mother's house, built in the 30's is 51. My great-great-great grandfather's house (now a museum) was built in 1845, and is also listed as 51. My cousin's house, built before mine is listed as "only" 46. Hers is listed "younger" because I think that was the year it was moved to its current location in order to make way for a freeway.

My house was built without indoor bathrooms, so the dates on my bathroom fixtures indicate when the bathrooms were added to the house.

You might check old census records and geneaology sites for verification of dates and names. Good luck. Your house is charming inside and I enjoyed the photos.

Jill

p.s. I don't know when phone nooks first began showing up in homes, but they were still being built into houses here at least as late as the late 1950's and 60's.