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.

A Boxful of History

Having studied archaeology in college, I obviously have a great deal of interest in the past. So it should come as no surprise that I was very excited when I found out that the original owners of our house left behind a box full of old photographs. I've spent many hours studying the pictures, trying to figure out who was who and when was what. With the help of Shirley Hyatt, a local historian, and Scott Hawley, a relative of the family in the photographs, I've managed to piece together a bit of the history of the house and some of its early occupants.

From what I've been able to piece together, the house was built in 1916-17 by Charles Cornell. Before this Cornell, a machinist, lived in North Columbus, the neighborhood just south of Clintonville. Unfortunately, for a reason I have yet to uncover, Cornell was forced to sell the house in 1918. The buyer was Solomon Ankrom, a blacksmith who also lived in North Columubus. The Ankrom family had moved to Columbus from Vinton County in the southern part of the state sometime after 1910.

Solomon passed away in 1935 and Lydia in 1948. Son Lindsay had moved to a house on the opposite side of Walhalla ravine after getting married in 1927. But daughter Estella remained in the house for nearly 70 years until her death in 1987 at the age of 98. And so thanks to Estella for leaving behind a fascinating treasure chest of her family's history.

Before moving into the house in 1918, the Ankroms lived in a large duplex on High Street. The duplex is still there, now rented by OSU students. This picture shows Solomon and Lydia on the left with their neighbors/landlords.

Here is a picture of Solomon standing on the west side of the house. Notice the screens in the kitchen windows.

This is son Lindsay in front of the grocery store where he worked after moving to Columbus. It was located downtown.

Lindsay, Lydia, possibly Estella, and Sonny the cat. The concrete barrier behind them is still there, acting as a guard rail above the ravine. Probably taken in the early 40's.

Here's a couple of interesting pictures of Lindsay and his wife Grace in what appears to be a camping area.

This is just a sample of the pictures, but I'll share the others with you some time later.

Holiday Surprise

The Winter issue of American Bungalow came out last week and our house appears in the Family Album section of the magazine. It can also be seen on the American Bungalow website here. I submitted it back in early summer, so I've been waiting for it to appear. Glad to say that it holds its own against the other houses in the Album. And very cool to open up such a great magazine and see a picture of your own home.

Finally, Some New Pictures!

I apologize for the long wait, as I know many of you have been checking for new posts, but its been a case of one-thing-after-another (usually not house-related, fortunately). At the moment I find myself at home sick and with some time to share a few new pictures.

A view of the fireplace end of the living room. For this seating area we decided to do something keeping with the period the house was built and settled on wicker.

Here's a photo of the dining room with the table and chairs.


And another shot looking the other direction. Ignore the out-of-place Victorian bench under the window. Its for the cats. :)


One of the last changes we made was to remove the shag carpet runner on the stairs and replace it with something more appropriate.


This is our bedroom. Honestly, I'm mainly showing off my wife's quilts. They're completely handmade. The one on the bed took around 7 years to finish.


This is one of our two cats. Her name is Spider. She's showing how much she appreciates those 7 years of work. BTW, sometime down the road I'll be doing a post about the house's original feline resident, Sonny.

Petunia Surprise

The last couple of weeks have been rather busy, so I haven't had time to post anything to the blog, but I just had to share this stand of petunias that suddenly sprang up in the otherwise sad excuse of a patio. Hopefully, next week I'll have some time to share what I've discovered about the history of the land our house sits on and then report on the upcoming open house. Until then, enjoy the petunias!