This house was unique with it’s combination of good and bad materials… located just feet from a railroad track and decaying rapidly… the railroad company and the land owner decided the house had to go.
What made the house unique was that the house was framed as poorly as it could have been with minimally sized lumber that was spaced as far apart as what would hold the house up, and no more… you know… like most homes built today.
But, the house was filled with elaborate trim that I was allowed to extract before the house came down.
I wondered if it might not have been one of those “mail order homes” of the past, where the future homeowner would buy the plans and woodwork of the home from a catalog and then the homeowner would by the framing lumber from a local sawmill… there was that much of a contrast between the quality of the framing and finish materials.
Originally posted 2015-02-12 13:13:31.