Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Life of a House

Another antique store postcard. A modest bungalow, pictured in the early 1920's, with a one cent stamp and an address on the back.



I found the place with little trouble although the surroundings had changed somewhat over 90 years:



The life of a house is infinitely mutable, bad design often begets bad alterations, but the best measure of good design is how gracefully it ages:



Nearly perfect, I'd say.

By Professor Batty


8 Comments:

Blogger Darien Fisher-Duke said...

Now THAT is a lovely piece of work, Batty. Just lovely.


Blogger Darien Fisher-Duke said...

Dying to know--did you give the postcard to the current owners?


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Thank you- unlike the leaf, that blending is photoshop magic.

And I gave them a copy of it.

Anonymously.


Blogger Mary said...

This is just so great that you found the house - was the address on the postcard?

I found a ~1900 postcard at my mother's house that had a photo of a woman. She had signed it and her last name was the same as a high school friend of mine. There was a remarkable resemblance between the woman in the photo to my friend as well. He was glad to see the card, agreed that they looked alike, but did not know who she was.


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Mary~ our house bear silent witness to our lives, and connect us to others, some long dead. On one hand there is the physical presence of the house, and on the other there is the idea of a house- these craftsman bungalows seem to say "home" in a way few other housing styles do, or maybe I'm just being too romantic.


Blogger Darien Fisher-Duke said...

I agree with you about the Craftsman bungalows. And I knew you'd given them the postcard. That surely was one of those delightful, amazing surprises that makes life worthwhile--for them to receive that anonymous picture! You can do magic with photos, that's for sure.


Anonymous niranjana said...

This is so beautiful.
And just in case I've never said this before--you are a very nice (anonymous)person.


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Niranjana ~ Aw, shucks!

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