We moved into our house twenty-five years ago this summer. We were thrilled to discover that the Don Smith family — who built the house in 1954 and lived here for about forty years — left us a treasure trove of what I consider "historic" records. You might not consider documents from the 1950s as historic, but given Americans' propensity to tear down buildings and replace them with newer models, any documents that survive tell an important story. And the house is still here as well. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)
This is the page from a magazine like Better Homes and Gardens that shows what our house looked like when it was built — because the Smiths used these plans. And we have photo documentation as well.
This advertising flyer touts the benefits of this new neighborhood, Orchard Ridge. When our house was built, Orchard Ridge was virtually a country suburb. Our street was a gravel road.
On the reverse side of the above flyer is this map showing the proposed "Beltline Boulevard Route" that would whisk you downtown in twelve minutes. This was built and today is known as the West Beltline and it will take you downtown in twelve minutes — early on a Sunday morning. The rest of the time it is packed full of traffic!
This is the landscape plan of all the trees and shrubs that the Smiths put in when they built the house. Mark and I used this to identify what was still here after we bought the house. A surprising number of things were all still growing right where they'd been planted.
Since we bought this property to create a garden, this bill from the original landscape designer is our favorite item. Look at the incredible list of material that you could get for a mere $150.00 back then. Today one can easily pay that for a specimen tree!
We've always intended to frame these items and hang them in our front entranceway. And, of course, they will stay with the house when we leave. If you have any kind of documetation like this for your house or garden, I urge you to preserve it for the future. These pieces of paper help us remember that we are just the custodians of our property, not the "owners." And I like to think that they will help the next family who lives here to understand that as well.
Tomorrow: The history of our house in photographs.
