Old Houses

Here's a couple cool old features from inside the old gal.

Steve, your house is a combination of several styles. The part with the steep gables is classic Gothic Revival. Your house got quite a make over during the 1840's. The back upstairs dormer window was added during the end of the 1870's early 1880's. That part is a simplified early example of Queen Anne. It was common for houses to be lived in for decades by the same family and as the family grew more numerous and prosperous. They would just add to the original house. I would love to see your house. They have an endless fascination for me. I love them.

That's some nice digs my friend. Can I have the press?? huh,huh,huh?

http://glenalpin.org/

Check out this place. I was caretaker here for 4 years. 85-88. At the time it was 16 acres. The eccentric millionaire that owned it was rumored to be mob. He always denied it to me. It was the home location of Peter Kemble, one of the governors of NJ before the revolution I think. His colonial saltbox got moved up the road, I think this place is mid 1800's.
There were spectacular gardens in back, now next to Jockey Hollow National Park. All overgrown.


When the owner bought it, he intended to rehab it. It got to be too much so he built a brick mansion up the hill. It used to be called Mt. Kemble. It was later called Glen Alpin. An Iranian prince owned it with his American princess around the 40's I think. At one time it was called The Princess Estate. I still have an auction book from when the place was sold.
I left on bad terms and almost ran the owner over on my way out However, during my stay there I made love to four different girlfriends (Not at the same time.) It could have been more but I'm shy. Including the owner's daughter who was a prodigy doctor at the age of 23. I missed my one chance when I had her in my car. The owner was always hiring young girls to work around the place.
What a character he was. I think he inherited his dad's money, who was rumored to be a racketeer. He was always trying to market some scheme to prove he could make it on his own. He was already successful at real estate. There were 55 gallon drums of cheap perfume outside the garage he never marketed. He had cases of tanning gick called Bronze-a-Foam, it turned your skin orange

There was a rotten old inground pool he decided to drain one summer. I got a trash pump and the cops came because the water was going across Tempe Wicke Road. I took a snapping turtle out of that pool that was the size of a desk.


He asked me to cover Peter Kemble's faded marble flat grave marker once, I refused. He was trying to sell the place at the time. They had an intercoastal waterway-front house in Delray Fl. They would winter there and I had the place to myself. They were coming home one spring and I decided to kill all the woodchucks with smoke bombs. I had clouds of poison gas drifting across the front lawns like WWI. I had tossed a smoke bomb into the base of a 200 yr. old locust tree the night before they were due back. Well, the woodchuck got away, and the bomb ignited the hollow trunk of the tree. I had left and returned and saw flames at the base of the tree. I doused it with the garden hose and thought it was out. I awoke in the middle of the night in my small caretaker's apt. There were flames shooting out the top of the tree 50' in the air. I called the New Vernon Volunteer Fire Dept. They were pissed. They came out and doused the tree, and left. They would not let me take a chainsaw to the tree. The next morning the tree was ablaze again! They came out and this time put up the truck ladder and ran a *censored* down the trunk from the top! (That's the name for a nozzle that shoots high pressure water backwards and pulls itself along- mostly for chimney fires!)
They left, and the boss came rolling in in his Lincoln with his family. He was not amused. I cut the tree down the next day.
Many other stories from that place.
If you peruse the website, you will see that a bunch of ultra-rich housewives from the area got together and decided to restore the place. With their super wealthy husband's money I might add. I was a fly on the wall with all that, this was many years later when I worked in the same area for a family that was involved, met a couple of the snobby ladies on the project board more than once.
It's still not finished, project stalled despite state money ! Deluxe money pit!

Dann757 wrote:http://glenalpin.org/

Check out this place. I was caretaker here for 4 years. 85-88. At the time it was 16 acres. The eccentric millionaire that owned it was rumored to be mob. He always denied it to me. It was the home of Peter Kemble, one of the governors of NJ before the revolution I think. When the owner bought it, he intended to rehab it. It got to be too much so he built a brick mansion up the hill. It used to be called Mt. Kemble. It was later called Glen Alpin. An Iranian prince owned it with his American princess around the 40's I think. At one time it was called The Princess Estate. I still have an auction book from when the place was sold.
I left on bad terms and almost ran the owner over on my way out However, during my stay there I made love to three different girlfriends (Not at the same time.) It could have been more but I'm shy. Including the owner's daughter who was a prodigy doctor at the age of 23. I missed my one chance when I had her in my car. The owner was always hiring young girls to work around the place.
What a character he was. I think he inherited his dad's money, who was rumored to be a racketeer. He was always trying to market some scheme to prove he could make it on his own. He was already successful at real estate. There were 55 gallon drums of cheap perfume outside the garage he never marketed. He had cases of tanning gick called Bronze-a-Foam, it turned your skin orange


He asked me to cover Peter Kemble's faded marble flat grave marker once, I refused. He was trying to sell the placve at the time. They had an intercoastal waterway-front house in Delray Fl. They would winter there and I had the place to myself. They were coming home one spring and I decided to kill all the woodchucks with smoke bombs. I had clouds of poison gas drifting across the front lawns like WWI. I had tossed a smoke bomb into the base of a 200 yr. old locust tree the night before they were due back. Well, the woodchuck got away, and the bomb ignited the hollow trunk of the tree. I had left and returned and saw flames at the base of the tree. I doused it with the garden hose and thought it was out. I awoke in the middle of the night in my small caretaker's apt. There were flames shooting out the top of the tree 50' in the air. I called the New Vernon Volunteer Fire Dept. They were *censored*. They came out and doused the tree, and left. They would not let me take a chainsaw to the tree. The next morning the tree was ablaze again! They came out and this time put up the truck ladder and ran a *censored* down the trunk from the top! (That's the name for a nozzle that shoots high pressure water backwards and pulls itself along- mostly for chimney fires!)
They left, and the boss came rolling in in his Lincoln with his family. He was not amused. I cut the tree down the next day.
Many other stories from that place.
If you peruse the website, you will see that a bunch of ultra-rich housewives from the area got together and decided to restore the place. With their super wealthy husband's money I might add. I was a fly on the wall with all that, met a couple of the snobby ladies more than once.
It's still not finished, deluxe money pit!

This is a text book example of high style Gothic Revial. This house was most likely built in the 1840's. Gothic Revival was a part of the Romantic Movement which affected art and home styles. This style was popularized by the famous designer; Andrew Jackson Downing. It was quite popular up until the mid 1850's. Other prominent styles at this time was Greek Revival, very popular in the South (Gone With The Wind style houses) and Italianate.

wsherrick wrote:This is a text book example of high style Gothic Revial.

Good knowledge man! Notice the red trim accents, I don't know if that's authentic, I was the guy that first painted it that color in '89! The mortar on the whole place was limestone mortar and so deteriorated. When the conservancy was going nuts on the place around '07, they rebuilt the chimneys. $$$$$$$$$
I used to scamper all over the original roof trying to stop leaks. It was flat scalloped terra-cotta tiles. Not sure if the new roof is clay tiles but I heard they dropped $80,000.00 on it
I also took all the asbestos off of the basement steam pipes one fine day, and put it in garbage bags for the street

Dann757 wrote:

wsherrick wrote:This is a text book example of high style Gothic Revial.

Good knowledge man! Notice the red trim accents, I don't know if that's authentic, I was the guy that first painted it that color in '89! The mortar on the whole place was limestone mortar and so deteriorated. When the conservancy was going nuts on the place around '07, they rebuilt the chimneys. $$$$$$$$$
I used to scamper all over the original roof trying to stop leaks. It was flat scalloped terra-cotta tiles. Not sure if the new roof is clay tiles but I heard they dropped $80,000.00 on it
I also took all the asbestos off of the basement steam pipes one fine day, and put it in garbage bags for the street

You might not believe this but the rust colored trim is the only part that is any where close to authentic on this house. The paint scheme is all wrong. If the base color is white. That is totally wrong. Plus you never make the window mullians and sashes the same color as the wall, base color. Gothic Revival houses were meant to be painted in WARM Earth tones with accents such as olive green, rust reds and dark mustard colors. Sometimes a dark teal color was used as well, but never dull mud looking grays and off whites. Never.

Nice place, SteveZee!
I'm not getting much done on this place, just trying to keep the water from filling up the cellar and swamping the EFM.

freetown fred wrote:That's some nice digs my friend. Can I have the press?? huh,huh,huh?

Ha,ha..No way Fred, that was my Old Nono's grape press. He was off the boat from Italy and we made wine every year. Even as a little kid I'd get some 50/50 water/wine at dinners. I can remember going to the rail yards in Springfield, Ma and picking up a truckload of boxes of grapes. He would drive us nuts because he was so picky. It was never like take that whole stack of boxes off the boxcar. It was more like, I want this one, and this one...etc that were 5 deep under or inside a stack of boxes! Good wine though, red zinfandel.

Thanks for the kind comments Wood and coal. I hear you about the water. That is aways a constant pain if you have probs with it. I'm on a hill so that helps some but the original foundation is just rocks fitted together and mortared and brick sills on top of that. It's held up amazingly for 200+ years now but if it rains hard for 3 days or more I start to get leakage but nothing that the sump pump can't keep up with. Building some new bulkhead doors this year (3/4" marine ply) wood and sealed with rubber stripping like your put under a garage door really helped allot for me. I must have used to get quite a bit through the old ones.

Dann, That's an awesome looking house! Wow. I love the conservatory on the right there. Looks like a cool greenhouse!

wsherrick wrote:You might not believe this but the rust colored trim is the only part that is any where close to authentic on this house. The paint scheme is all wrong. If the base color is white. That is totally wrong. Plus you never make the window mullians and sashes the same color as the wall, base color. Gothic Revival houses were meant to be painted in WARM Earth tones with accents such as olive green, rust reds and dark mustard colors. Sometimes a dark teal color was used as well, but never dull mud looking grays and off whites. Never.

http://glenalpin.org/ Ohh please write them and let 'em have it!

SteveZee wrote:Dann, That's an awesome looking house! Wow. I love the conservatory on the right there. Looks like a cool greenhouse!

Thanks Steve, had some pretty good times when I took care of that place.
Your story about the grape press is what makes this forum so great! A little piece of American history!


The conservatory was always leaking too, it has steel framework, amazing there's anything left of it. It has a marble floor that has lots of rust stains, probably no way to restore it. I drove into the property this summer with my ex-girlfriend- it was overgrown quite badly. I mowed that whole property for four years, with a little Sears 10hp garden tractor. All the while the owner had a Nice Ford tractor with a 5' brush hog in the old 6 car garage! The guy finally agreed to let me use it, and the clutch disc was frozen to the plate. I got it unstuck and did mow the lawn a few times with the Ford. The guy was a millionaire and he walked around with holes in his shoes!
I think the super rich housewives of Harding Twp. had visions of having grand banquets in the place. Like I said, the ultimate money pit

We have had some nice weather lately, thought I would continue my garage project details, here is some details I made and added to match the house...all out of cedar shakes, its just primed, still needs to be painted. Tedious work to get everything lined up.
But makes it look so nice. Also, made all details around the windows all out of wood to match the house.

That looks outstanding Dave, you done good.

Dave,

Excellent work! It sure does look nice. I can imagine that it's tedious though but maybe a jig setup and cutting multiples at a go make it easier?
People seemed to put allot more of their personality into their homes back then? You didn't have so much cookie cutter type of subdivisions and the like back then. Here on my old place, I just can't imagine that it's ever "done'. There is always something going on that needs refinishing, maint, or if all else fails, scraping and painting.