Date This House

[Jim Katen]

I post this as a challenge and as a sneaky way of seeing if my guess is reasonable.

Here's a 1-1/2 story Cape built in a very rural area.

* The framing lumber is all milled & planed smooth.

* There's no knob & tube anywhere in the house. It was originally wired in cloth-covered NM.

* The original electrical service was 30 amps.

* The original heating system was a Montag lowboy oil furnace.

* Most of the interior walls and ceilings are finished with thin plywood. The rest are firtex. There isn't a speck of plaster or sheetrock anywhere.

* It never had any fireplaces. The single-flue brick chimney serves the oil furnace.

* It's had three roof covers: the original wood shingles; one layer of three-tab asphalt shingles (light green); and the present, completely worn out, layer of shakes.

I think that I've got it pegged to within a 3 year period, but I'd love some confirmation. Anyone care to play?

I've attached three photos that should help.

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- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Scottpat]

1948

[hausdok]

1953

[randynavarro]

1949

[Brandon Whitmore]

Late '40s uhhhhhh....... 1948

[Richard Moore]

Montag has "been in the heating and cooling business in Portland since 1884", so some time after that! Seriously, I'd also guess post WWII to early 50's but nothing more specific.

Jim, do you not have any online access to county assessor records down that way?

[Bill Kibbel]

1946

[hausdok]

Wow,

I have an old 1946-1947 issue of Small Homes Annual and on page 41 there's a cape that, except for the windows, looks identical. In the sketch that I have, the windows on the front of the house are doubled up on both sides of the entrance. The floor plan shows one walking into the living room with a dining room off to one side and the kitchen at a back corner. There's a door at the back of the living room into a narrow little hall with one bath, a linen closet, and one bedroom on that level. There are two bedrooms on the second floor with the closets backed up to each other. No fireplace, just a single furnace flue type chimney.

Of course, then again about 80% of the house designs in this book are variations on the cape.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[SonOfSwamp]

I think that first light is from the late 30s.

Everything else looks like late 40s - early 50s.

Of course, this house is only 3,000 miles from my neck of the woods.

WJ

[Jim Katen]

Thanks everyone.

The assessor's office says that the house was built in '47 but I found this in the old service panel (now a junction box)

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I'm reasonably sure that the actual completion date must have been 1949-1951. I suppose that the permit could have been opened in '47 and the building completed in '49.

Both of the light fixtures look pre-war to me but I've been wrong before. On the other hand, light fixture styles, like everything else could take some time to make it to Grand Ronde.

- Jim Katen, Oregon