New Year's Day the Polar Bear Club meet and take a dip in the Maumee River. The bridge in the background is the Waterville Bridge.
Our home me and brother grew up in. So many changes and a few owners putting in personal touches. I see apple trees that are new to me. To the right is the Maumee River. The house was build in 1892...
I grew up in and around Houston, TX, but I was born in San Francisco, CA. Last September I did a bit of traveling, and San Francisco was one of my destinations. While I was there my stepdaughter texted me the address that was on my birth certificate. My parents were living with my grandparents as well as his many younger siblings. I thought if the place was still around it would be in a dilapidated condition. Boy, was I surprised that the place was in a downtown residential area. I know that when we lived there it was a three story one family home, and now it has been converted into three large apartments. Turns out that the property is now prime real estate and goes for a couple million now. Who knew, evidently not my grandparents. Because the road is so steep and so very narrow, I couldn't get the house in one shot, so I had to take two pictures, but this is it.
Since this was such a good thread, I am going to bump it up again with a follow up question. If you had the money and it were still habitable, would you consider buying the house you grew up in as your retirement home? If it hadn't burned to the ground in 1970, I think I would like to live there now. Of course, anyone who may not have seen this thread is more than welcome and encouraged to respond to the opening post, as well.
About 15 years ago my husband and I drove to house my family lived in until I was 10. Shocked and disappointed . The roads even seemed so much narrower and the neighborhood appearance was dim. Just a few days ago I looked it up and house had been torn down. But the house I remember the most was my grandma's house on top of a small mountain in Missouri. To this day I remember the entire lay out of the house, the foral wallpaper in bedrooms. The attic and the basement where I would run the stairs to attic then run to down to the basement in the summer. Sadly this house was torn down years ago and travel lodge built on the land. Awe , memories...sad but sweet.
Following this thread kind of makes me sad, reading about the houses posters grew up in. Never stayed in one place long enough to have memories of the houses. Georgia, California, South Carolina, Florida, Hawaii all before High School. Guess the thing I remember most would be this: Back before computers when I needed a security clearance for my job in the military, I contacted my dad and asked for all the addresses of the placed we lived and it was quite a list. That is the real reason we stayed in one place after I retired from the Air Force, so our youngest son could have roots and friends from 1st grade to graduation.
The house I lived in during my junior high and high school years was still standing, as of 2008 that is. When my step-mom was placed in a nursing home, a neighbor bought the property. If it was available now, would we buy it? No! Not all the memories I had living there were good at all.
Even though I loved Pittsburgh, no I would not buy the home I grew up in. Pittsburgh is too hilly and snowy in the winter, I remember chains were a requirement on out car from Nov. til ?...I forget when they could be taken off. Our house was also built into a hillside kind of and the garage was at the bottom of the driveway...shoveling uphill doesn't appeal to me...didn't when I was a child either.
No. For the ones I remember growing up in the neighborhoods were not the best one was a block away from a train track. One was backed against an alleyway and sat back on a hill but it did have a grapevine. Only one is still standing and it's okay but I would be taking a step back from where I am now. If my grandparents home was still standing I would buy that. It was like a row house with a big barn and enough land that I think we would be able to manage. Of course I was a little kid it probably wouldn't look so big to me now. I use to dream about owning that house a lot.
I would really like go back to the last house I lived in before joining up. No chance, owned by the military. But it would mean I was back on the island and had Hawaiian Hibiscus plants right outside my bedroom window to wake to every morning. Warm evening on the Lanai.
the house i use to live in when i was 9 is still standing -it was built in 1900 --i got a picture off the cp it has been remodeled some--this was in lowell mass where i was born i also saw the house on the cp where i was born