My dad has a long standing joke about buying “banjo lures” off of QVC which meant buying a new tacklebox, which meant buying a new boat, which meant buying a new garage, which meant buying a new house. It’s like a demented version of “If you give a mouse a cookie”.
Water leaks in the bathroom are kind of like that. See, we started with an errant shower mixer, which led to a water leak which led to some tiles falling off the shower enclosure, which led to me doing research into 1920s bathrooms so we could effect repairs, which led to me researching 1920s bungalows, which led me to finding out what house plans were used, which led me to who built the house and exactly when.
Down the rabbit hole I went. I learned that our home was built in 1925, not 1921 as was previously assumed. Thanks to the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps on file at University of Florida, we found that our house didn’t exist in 1922, although the street existed.
I’d previously checked the Property Appraiser and Tax Assesor’s records, but there’s no details about previous owners since the house is so old. Speaking of previous owners, we’re the third owners of the home since it was built!
In my research, I came across the coolest resource ever, Antique Home Style. From there, I learned that our house is actually a Craftsman-style Bungalow. This is a great starting point for bathroom renovation! You know what’s even better? Pictures of the home when it was first built. What’s the best way to get pictures of the home when it was first built? Find the original owners! And what’s the best way to do that? If you’re an amateur geneologist, you go to Ancestry.
Using my membership at Ancestry and cross referencing the information I already had, I knew that my best chance of finding the original owners was the US Census from 1930. Our area was annexed into the city limits in 1921 or so and since our town is small today, I knew the records 80 or 90 years ago would be not large, it was a simple task to browse through 200 pages of handwritten census records. About 30 minutes into my deep dive (told you it’s a small town!), I found not only who built the house and when, but also some cool stories about the people who lived here thanks to the geneology project of the son who was born and grew up in our house!
I learned that the family were farmers from Alabama who came here to farm celery after cotton had been not so great. I learned that our house was home to seven members of the Chapman Family (and one bathroom!): William P, Sr. (dad), Annie (mom), and kids: Helen, Mabel, Olive, Virginia and William P, Jr. All 5 of the kids went to the same high school my kids attended.
The family were members of the Methodist church (and I’m willing to bet that the pictures came from the church directory because that’s how they rolled back then) that my nana attended while she was alive. In fact, it’s highly likely that my nana knew at least one of the Chapman daughters since they were of an age and at least one lived in Sanford until her death. Sadly, all of the Chapman kids have passed away, so I’m pursuing contact with their relatives to try and track down photos of the family home via other avenues. The Chapmans sold the home in the 1950s to the Owens Family. We purchased the home in 2000 from the Owens family heirs.
I will be spending some time at our local city museum looking over records to find out more, but I was able to get quite a lot of information just from my geneology resources. If I’m able to get more information, I’ll share it in a “part two”.
Did I actually find what I wanted for the bathroom? Not yet. That’s next.