Help me find out the old girl's past..
November 10, 2011 6:27 AM Subscribe
Help me start to research the history of our old home in Atlanta...
We live in a lovely old, tudor home (bungalow style), built 1928 in the midtown area of Atlanta. It's been renovated, but thoughtfully. During our first week here, my husband was pulling cable in the basement and a contract for rental of the basement by a boxer called "The Panama Kid" fell out of the rafters. Signed 1930 and stashed there ever since. So awesome!! I have researched him a bit, haven't come up with much but I want to learn more about the house and it's history. I've read through similar questions and learned a bit but I want to know where to begin. What are the best places to research an old house?
Also, are there any blogs that you can recommend about houses of this era? I'd love to learn about ways to care for, accent and preserve the neat parts of our home. The cedar closets, coal chute and solid doors, etc... Thanks in advance....
We live in a lovely old, tudor home (bungalow style), built 1928 in the midtown area of Atlanta. It's been renovated, but thoughtfully. During our first week here, my husband was pulling cable in the basement and a contract for rental of the basement by a boxer called "The Panama Kid" fell out of the rafters. Signed 1930 and stashed there ever since. So awesome!! I have researched him a bit, haven't come up with much but I want to learn more about the house and it's history. I've read through similar questions and learned a bit but I want to know where to begin. What are the best places to research an old house?
Also, are there any blogs that you can recommend about houses of this era? I'd love to learn about ways to care for, accent and preserve the neat parts of our home. The cedar closets, coal chute and solid doors, etc... Thanks in advance....
Maybe you'll be lucky and it will be one of the homes on AtlantaTimeMachine.com.
The operator of that site mentions city directories at the library, which I assume have listings of owners of homes.
The Georgia State University library also has an extensive photo collection.
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:56 AM on November 10, 2011
The operator of that site mentions city directories at the library, which I assume have listings of owners of homes.
The Georgia State University library also has an extensive photo collection.
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:56 AM on November 10, 2011
The first thing you're going to want to do is get in touch with your county Recorder's Office. They'll have a physical record of every transaction involving the property since those records started being kept. You might start with the assessor's office website, as a lot of municipal governments are putting their GIS data online these days, but those are hit-or-miss in terms of the quality of the interface, the quality of the data, and the range of dates available. You'll almost certainly get better information by actually going downtown and rooting through the old records.
posted by valkyryn at 7:06 AM on November 10, 2011
posted by valkyryn at 7:06 AM on November 10, 2011
You might try talking to the Atlanta Historical Society
posted by thelonius at 7:47 AM on November 10, 2011
posted by thelonius at 7:47 AM on November 10, 2011
Your city and/or state library likely has a bunch of research tools to point you in the right direction (here's the San Francisco version). Best of all, most of them are free!
I started with city directories when I researched my house after first calling the water department, who were able to tell me the name of the owner when the water was first turned on (the "tap date"). Your water company should be able to do this for you, too -- and it's free, too.
The assessor's office and recorder's office visits were also free, but I had to show proof that I lived in the house, and paid maybe $3 per photocopy of the records in my house's file.
And if you want to research the Panama Kid, I bet there are a ton of boxing sites out there who could help you. I was trying to find a 1930s midget lady dance troupe (not connected to my house, alas) and had great luck with some circus and carny websites, whose members helped me identify people in the photos I had.
posted by vickyverky at 8:00 AM on November 10, 2011
I started with city directories when I researched my house after first calling the water department, who were able to tell me the name of the owner when the water was first turned on (the "tap date"). Your water company should be able to do this for you, too -- and it's free, too.
The assessor's office and recorder's office visits were also free, but I had to show proof that I lived in the house, and paid maybe $3 per photocopy of the records in my house's file.
And if you want to research the Panama Kid, I bet there are a ton of boxing sites out there who could help you. I was trying to find a 1930s midget lady dance troupe (not connected to my house, alas) and had great luck with some circus and carny websites, whose members helped me identify people in the photos I had.
posted by vickyverky at 8:00 AM on November 10, 2011
Mm, I like this stuff. I too have a 1920s house, and have traced back the owners back to its construction.
City directories work but for large cities are by name, not address. So you need the names of previous owners. You can get these most easily from the Recorder, as valkyryn says. Pull permits at the building department to find out what's changed.
Tax assessors sometimes have old house photos.
The residents in 1930 can be found in the 1930 census. (1940 comes online mid-next-year.) Records are online or on microfilm. Your local library probably subscribes to Ancestry, where you can look up residents by block in the 1930 census.
A good start for preservation is figuring out what's old and what's not. You may be surprised. A few tricks I've accumulated:
(1) Old sinks and fixtures usually have dates stamped on the bottom. You may have to crawl around a bit.
(2) Light fixtures frequently have UL numbers, which you can use in the UL lookup website.
(3) A lot of things have brand names on them.
(4) When I pulled up the old tile, I found mortar that had been filled in with debris. The debris included a business card from the original decorator!
posted by zvs at 8:32 AM on November 10, 2011
City directories work but for large cities are by name, not address. So you need the names of previous owners. You can get these most easily from the Recorder, as valkyryn says. Pull permits at the building department to find out what's changed.
Tax assessors sometimes have old house photos.
The residents in 1930 can be found in the 1930 census. (1940 comes online mid-next-year.) Records are online or on microfilm. Your local library probably subscribes to Ancestry, where you can look up residents by block in the 1930 census.
A good start for preservation is figuring out what's old and what's not. You may be surprised. A few tricks I've accumulated:
(1) Old sinks and fixtures usually have dates stamped on the bottom. You may have to crawl around a bit.
(2) Light fixtures frequently have UL numbers, which you can use in the UL lookup website.
(3) A lot of things have brand names on them.
(4) When I pulled up the old tile, I found mortar that had been filled in with debris. The debris included a business card from the original decorator!
posted by zvs at 8:32 AM on November 10, 2011
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Your new house, and its surprises, sound wonderful!
posted by suki at 6:50 AM on November 10, 2011