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There is a decent clue for you. When did crystal door knobs come into vogue? One old house we had had them in a portion of the house that was added inthe mid 1940s. There were also some in a part that was remodeled in 1938. I have not seen a pre-1920s house that had them unless they were later additioans. Between the 1920s and the late 1930s I am not sure when they began to appear, but you can find out with enough research.
Were they widely in use in the 1920s?
Again it is only a clue beacuse they could have bene added as part of a later remodel.
Another thing to research is when they switched form Yellow Pine to Oak for moldings in the common man's house in your area. The timing of that change varies from area to area.
Another good clue can be windows. You almost need an expert, but whether the glass was floated or rolled can help peg the age of a house. Of course much of hte glass will have been replaced. Look for wavy glass or bubbles and that is likely original.
Sometimes the age and types of trees can help you determine the age of the house. Trees close to the house were planted after it was built. You can have someone figure out the approximate age of trees. Also in many areas certain types of trees were popular during certain periods. Ih our area for example, Black walnut was the only tree widely planted by early settlers. Maple came later. Oak even more recently. Ash and Elm were native and do not tell us much. Trees cannot tell you how new a house is usually, but they often can tell you how old it is. If you ahve a 100 year old maple or maples clearly planted in relationship to the house, you have some indication the house is 100 years old.
UNless you have definitive documentation, you can only assemble the lcues and make an educated guess. Even the title/deed is often wrong. We had a house that said 1891 on the deed, but Sandborne maps and other records clearly showed the house was not there until at least 1893 and possbly as late as 1895.
I am not sure whether i mentioned this before, but if you have a local histrical room in the library, or a historical library or even just county records. Ask to see the Sandborne maps for your area. They are dated and you can see when your house appeared on that lot. I am not sure whether they still had Sanborne maps in the 1940s. But if you find earlier ones, you can determine whether there was a house on your lot. You can compare the floorplan and see whether it appears to be your house or an earlier one.
It is fun to try to figure it out. Then you cna try to figure out what changes were made when. Sometimes if you get down to plaster, you get surprised to learn the layout of the house was very very different originally. You can often identify when big changes were made by looking at loans agaisnt the house and/or transfer of ownership (new owners frequently remodel shortly after buying a house). It can take years to figure out the history of the house, but if you like challenging puzzles, it can be really fun.
All good clues! I am not wishing this house old , Coldjensen, it's everything about the house that feels ...well older.
Thin plank floors - thinner than any post or circa war homes I have ever seen. And rock solid.
a few doorknoibs - for closet are a white porceline.
The basement has a toilet and primitive shower. I trie the old toilet trick of looking under the cover but there was no date.
Part of the basement sink - white metal says "Youngstown Kitchens" on it in a very old fashioned cursive font. Not wildly unusual since the city of Youngstown is only 20 minutes away. But it looked to be 1920
The basement bath could indicate that it was owned by a person who worked in a steel mill or other "dirty job".
upper lever sun room.
The curved lined on the stucco from porch.
Clapboard siding on the bottom, shake on top.
Utilitarian things that are ornate. Light bulb surrounds, hinges, etc.
A 1930s or 1940s house is not lesser than a 1920s house, just different. It cold be any of these, but it is a really cool house regardless of which it is.
You have lots of clues. Some are potentially conflicting. Some will tell you different things (or nothing) depending in practices in your area. The 30-40 year difference you are looking at is difficult to tell. When dealing with bigger differences in time, there are surefire things that can help you. (Cut vs. forged framing nails for instance, or brace framing ratehr than baloon framing). But from 1920s -1940s building materials are not strkingly different, with a few exceptions. Further in some areas, they continued using older materials, methods and styles long than in other areas. Some places "retro" houses were popular so you find craftsman byngalos being built in the 1940s (or even later). Then you get the added problem of not knowing when something was put in. You may have multiple wires in one insulation sheathing for example. Well that tells you that wiring was put in after 1940, but not whether it was added to an existing house or original. Sometimes people put olf things in newer houses. The kitchen in our house most people woudl be convinced it was built in the late 1920s, or maybe even earlier. It was built in 2006 our of salvaged materials and sometimes using old fashioned methods. We are not the first people to do this. I have seen 1920s uilt in cabinetry and stair cases in a 1980s house. So it all gets pretty confusing.
As is typical, you have lots of confilicting clues. Records are your best bet. Sanborne maps, telephone directories, deeds liens and encumberences agaisnt the property.
I do not remember all the details of your home, but the oak moldings in a middle or upper middle class house would be surprising to me in a 1920s house. However perhaps in your are it was common. Also the very plain moldings and doors were a more recentl development, but that does not mean your house was not ahead of its time, or even remodeled. Replacing doors and moldings was a very common "update" in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Flooring is usually a good clue. Completely replacing flooring was not common unless the existing was worn out or had some defect. Usually, they just covered it with something "modern"
Wide plank flooring is indicia of older practices in some areas and newer in others. I have seen really old houses in Charleston with wide pine flooring, yet our 1836 flooring is relatively narrow (assuming it is original which it appears to be, but you never know).
Try records first, then turn back to the clues. However keep in mind, records are not always correct. Usually if ten different records all point to the same date, it is probably accurate. but if one records says 1902 and one says 1948 and another 1933, and yet another 1928, then you still have a mystery.
I have been trying to match up that house with a particular style, but it looks to me like it had a big dormer in the center front that was removed, and a columned front porch that was enclosed? The house appears to have been changed from its original state, but it's too hard to tell from the pictures. I rounded up a few pictures to convey the general idea.
Surely the town keeps records of its property transactions? Did you buy this house? Was there a title search? In the town's archives or in its library there should be some old plat maps that indicate when the land on which it sits was developed.
Or, I think you can determine a idea of the date from having the water line examined where it meets the city water line. I can't remember where I've heard of this, though.
'20s before the 1929 crash is what I think it is. That was a boom time for Y-Town and Warren. The oak millwork looks '20s or between 1910-1930, at least. I looked at several 1920s foursquares a couple of years ago, and that millwork and 2-panel door with a mortise lock and a Prairie backplate and a glass knob are pretty typical for the towns over the line in western PA. By the '30s and '40s, poplar and dark walnut or mahogany or cherry stain were "in."
Looking at the Crandall Park YouTube video (easy to find), some homes had the roof extended with the exposed beams or brackets, and some have the roof ending at the wall of the home. A porch or a room extending out from the side of the house was a feature on many in that video.
Judging from the pictures I'd never call the house a craftsman but an American shingle house. It's the pictures of the side elevations that convinced me. The house was probably built between 1905 and 1920, though I'd veer closer to 1915 , either east of the Mississippi or perhaps in certain parts of California/Orgon/Washington. The form and shape of the exterior of the house is easily Shingle, not Craftsman. The windows look to be original and are of the type easily found in Shingle houses (upper window with six panes above a lower window with only one pane). The house has the Dutch gambrel roofline, which you almost never see in a "craftsman" house.
It's unlikely the house was built in the 1940s in an "older" style as that would have been very unusual and the exterior building materials are older than the 1940s. The 1930s saw a substantial streamling of architectural styles and materials available due to the depression and shingle was seen as very dated and old fashioned (similar to building a 1960s split level today. Who would do it?.
But the interior looks to have been remodeled in the 1940s when the ceiling was replastered and carpet added (perhaps that's why the records indicate 1940 as the date, perhaps some kind of extension was done which required a permit). The fireplace and staircase, however, are probably original to the house. City records aren't always to be trusted especially from pre-computer database days, many the 19th century rowhouses in Baltimore are recorded as having a construction date post 1900 despite being much older.
Craftsman and Shingle have a lot of overlap but there are key differences between the two styles. Craftsman as a term was rarely heard on the East Coast, indeed it's only been in the last five or so years that I've started seeing the term "craftsman" included in real estate descriptions. I live in a Baltimore neighborhood famous for its Shingle houses (Roland Park) and it's amusing to see the craftsman term suddenly pop up.
Craftsman was a midwestern and western style, heavily influenced by the form and shape of bungalows. The Shingle houses was the East coast counterpart and bungalows are less common. Large two/three story examples are the standard although smaller cottages are also found.
Last edited by Tallybalt; 03-21-2013 at 02:19 AM..
Absolutely beautiful! I love the way the house is designed to face the lake, not the road.
I went for a drive the other day and saw some new (large) houses built on top of a hill with fantastic views of the mountains. And the front of the house did not face the mountains but the road (I guess new houses are designed to face each other despite unbelievable views?)
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