Monday, March 31, 2008

More Treasures from the Box

Now that I've come out of hibernation after a nasty winter, I decided to go through some more of the pictures that the original owners of the house left behind. I had actually been putting it off for a while due to the frustration of not knowing much about the people in the photos. Sure, I could take some educated guesses as to some of their identities, but most eluded me. Dating the photos was problematic as well. If I knew more about turn-of-the-20th-century clothing, it might be easier. Fortunately one single picture became the piece of the puzzle I had been looking for.

I had a hunch that in this group of women workers outside the Columbus Pharmacal Co. was Estella Ankrom, daughter of the house's original owner (and eventual owner herself), but the picture is too small (2x3) to see much detail. Until, of course, I scanned it. It was an epiphany. There was someone I recognized from several other pictures. There was Estella (third from the right, bottom row).
So now that I've found Estella, I thought I would share some more photos of her.

I have no clue who the 2 young gentlemen are, but Estella seems pretty pleased with herself.
Another photo from the same day. Presumably the 2nd young man took this photo and the other young lady the previous one.Here she is posing next to a sundial on the Oval at The Ohio State University. This is probably before the Ankroms bought the house.
Estella hanging out by the pool with friends. Its possible that this is the pool at Olentangy Park, for many years one of the largest pools in the United States.There's not enough information in the picture to tell where it was taken, but it could be the park again. The location of this picture is a bit easier to identify since its the front of the house. I would guess that the picture dates from the late 20s or early 30s. It's the only picture I have of the four members of the family together.An interesting bit of trivia: my wife and I first viewed the house on March 15th last year. That was 20 years to the day that Estella's obituary ran in the local paper. And we took possession of the house only 2 days before her 119th birthday.

3 comments:

Charley said...

Hey Tom, just wanted you to know that I am following your Blog with great interest. Your house is one of a very few that is still unaltered from its original state. I am a Residential Designer in Texas and Aladdin Homes is one of my favorite subjects to research. Keep up the great postings and photos. I'll be looking for them!

Charley said...

Hey Tom, How about a few pictures of the back of your house. I've always been curious to know what the back of the Marsden looks like since the catalogs never showed that angle. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

We have a Marsden in Alexandria VA. There are 3 others on our street. I'll share pics of our place. We bought it 3 years ago with big plans to remodel the kitchen in a 1920s style, add a master bathroom to the upstairs rear bedroom (expand the dormer) and make our garage a guest house. Hoping to also remove the ugly aluminum siding that someone put on several years ago and expose/restore the original shake that is on the house hiding underneath the siding. I love the exterior colors of your Marsden! Keep this blog going!
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/31-Rosecrest-Ave-Alexandria-VA-22301/12028702_zpid/