sullivan house
They tore down the Sullivan house this week. I once wrote about meeting the Sullivans at a neighborhood picnic. They were one of the first to build a house in this neighborhood almost 70 years ago. They were newlyweds at the time and it was their first house. As it turned out they were to be the only ones to ever live in it. I heard through the grapevine that they had gone to live with relatives.
Demolition appears to be the fate of most of the old houses in the neighborhood now. They are in the words of a real estate agent, “functionally obsolete.” The economics of our time has made it possible for people to live in far grander houses. There are a few adventurous soles who decide on a remodelling project that preserves some or all of an old house but most of the houses are being bought up by developers now. They raze everything, even most of the trees. Why the trees? Developers have a hard time visualizing a piece of land if it has trees on it, according to an article I read recently.
Someday we will sell too and our house will be torn down. It’s sad really. I think of all the work we spent on remodelling - the hours spent choosing the right kitchen counter tiles and cutting them to fit; the miter joints on the trim that I adjusted for the fact that the walls were not exactly at right angles - all the tiny details; it seems sad that once I leave no one will care about those things and the bulldozer will just shovel it all into a dumpster.
I guess they really are just things after all. We are not supposed to become attached to things.
July 25th, 2005 @ 10:49 pm
This is a very moving post in more ways than the obvious. (I pride myself on reading between the lines).
I am in empathy with you on old houses. They take the personality of their families, show scars and places worn weary from years of loving use, like the soft patina glow on old hardwood floors; little pencil lines on door jambs mark the growing up of children, and sometimes well hidden in a bedroom closet is a fading grafitti scribble attesting to an adolescent love.
I am not totally sure why I treasure the old over anything new, but give me a really old house with several lifetimes of memories anyday over the gleamingly new white austin stone houses with their professionally manicured lawns and their signature state-of-the-art patio fountain. No character, no history, and just a cold-faced facade to the world.
July 26th, 2005 @ 2:29 pm
Oh Pattie took the words right out of my mouth!! I think that we should make it a law that a portion of the old house needs to be preserved. Added on to, but preserved. My life long dream was to find an old turn of the 19th century farm house with 2 stories, and a full attic and basement, and an established yard and garden.
I Love to move into an old house and just sit there and listen to the stories it can tell.
The pencil marks on the door jamb, (Pattie I thought My family was the only one tacky enough to do the=at!!) THe writing on the inside of a closet door. (My son used the sides of a dresser drawer too)
The telphone numbers scribbled on the wall of the kitchen right by the basement door where the phone was kept.
Yeah Bill Rent your parents house, that will preserve it for sure!!
July 26th, 2005 @ 9:08 pm
It’s so hard not to become attached to those things though, isn’t it? Our hearts and soul go into creating a home and all the memories that follow.
When I think about us having to move one day, I know it’ll be the trees that I’ll miss the most. It’s hard to leave things behind like that, knowing they won’t be as well cared-for.
July 26th, 2005 @ 10:35 pm
There was an article I read somewhere - maybe the NY Times - about Wm Faulkners’ house in Mississippi. He wrote the plot outline of one of his novels on the wall of his office.
July 28th, 2005 @ 1:59 pm
After moving back to Midland from years in Dallas I eventually bought a home in the old neighborhood that I grew up in, only blocks from my folks who still live in the house where I was raised. Thankfully none of the old homes have been completely torn down and, in fact, many have been significantly remodeled. Many of the same families inhabit the neighborhood, including a great number of my folks friends who I’ve known for 45 years. It is great continuity.
By the way, several friends and I used to own 320 acres in Palo Pinto Co. Our land was located 7 miles north of Gordon with Honey Creek as our north boundary. It was a beautiful place and a great country get away from the big city. We aptly named it the “Lazy Ass Ranch”.
July 28th, 2005 @ 7:29 pm
My old house has been both a joy and a royal pain. We moved in without knowing if we could get the coal furnace to work. But all the work has been worth it. I see all the new mcmansions going up everywhere, luxury homes that may be wonderful to live in, I really don’t know, but I see that they are all built with cheap materials, and am happy with our stucco over stone house that is slowly becoming the house we envisioned when we moved in nine years ago. Thanks for coming to my blog, Bill.
July 30th, 2005 @ 9:42 am
Houses are much less transient then most things. They help define place. The joy of visiting different countries and places is partly enjoying those differences. If we qre not careful it will all become homogenised. Old houses have character and life. They tell a story. Their story is important. Keep it alive.