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A home that loves this city
03/11/2014 9:58 AM by John M
Apartment Therapy peeks inside a well-lived-in 850 square feet apartment in the area:
Inspiration: Much of our home inspiration comes from an appreciation for early American history and the simplicity of the lifestyle. We are inspired by being surrounded by pieces “with stories” — so many elements of our home have been a part of others’ homes before coming to us, and we get to become part of that story. Pieces that once belonged to family and friends are particularly special to us, some keeping us connected to people we’ve lost.
Favorite Element: 100+ year old floors — original to the house, built in the 1890s!
TAGGED: Apartment Therapy
I love your post and your photo!
Gotta love those old floors. Probably someone had a kerosen heater and set that little patch of floor on fire. It happened often.
My house has black floorboards in front of every fireplace where the wood was soaked with spilled kerosen. While I was working on the house one summer day, a stranger came in and said they had lived here some years ago, so I asked them about some things I was curious about. The black floor being one and they explained about heating with kerosen and spilling and some other stuff. ….Like, the reason my bathtub had the enamel worn off up to the overfill. Bath tub gin was made in it during prohibition!
I also live in an 1890s-built apartment in Church Hill with original floors – wish my floors looked as good as yours! 🙂
And, Jean – that is awesome about the bathtub!
That is a super-cool apartment!
We have the original 1812 floors in ours and people are always commenting on them but unfortunately many people would rather resurface, replace, or cover them over than keep their imperfect character from many generations of use and enjoyment.
There are solid boards that run the entire length of our foyer and very thick. This would be next to impossible to replicate today without using recycled lumber. Some boards we can see where the old wall footers were when the house was divided up as a boarding house at one time the put back to the original configuration.
We also have a black hole in the floor in front of our living room fireplace and marks in front of the others.
I just bought a 950 square foot condo in an1850 church on Church Hill in Richmond and love it. I downsized from a 2500 square foot 1890 house a block away. I’m looking for creative ways to maximize my space. Like this couple I love living in the middle of history and I especially like the smaller space.