205 Wentworth Ave., a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.
My Grandparent's House
Isn't this a beautiful house? While trying to group all the
photos I have of my grandparent's English Tudor style home, I found these two
photos stuck together is a separate envelope. After looking at them, I think
they may be the professional photos taken for the real estate agent to show to
potential clients and the earliest photos of the house in my possession.
I began to research the name on the back of the photo and
from a series of articles in the Rhode
Island Roots magazines I have determined that Henry E. Stanley was a
professional photographer located on Westminster
St. in Providence.
(RI Roots, December 2011, p. 223). Armed with this information and the date of
1920 for his studio, I turned to the 1920 census and found the family
immediately living at the address of this house! I was quite surprised since I
thought it might just be the name of the
photographer.
After hours of comparing city directory and census records
for my grandfather and this photographer,
I have determined that Henry was living at another address in 1938. My
grandparents are living in this house in the RI City Directory for Cranston in 1939. This
leads me to believe that they moved here from a house up the street sometime in
1937 or early 1938. I know they lived here in September of 1938 because that's
when the Great Hurricane happened and my mother was in downtown Providence driving home with her friend and told me she
knew something was up because everyone was leaving Providence. My grandparents were already home
when she arrived and my uncle put the car in the garage for her.
How could I find out when this house was built? It suddenly
came to me that I could use the Cranston,
RI Assessor's Web page to see if
the date of this house was known. Yes! 1918. A lot of information about the
house was given including who owns it today and a good photo of the house. I
was very excited.
Judging from the growth of the trees and the vine on the
side of the house, I think this photo was taken quite some time after Mr.
Stanley built it, so my conclusion was quite accurate. The ownership history
doesn't go back that far but the earliest name seems like a name I remember
when my grandmother sold it and moved to an apartment.
This is the first house my grandparents owned. When my great
grandfather died in 1937, my grandfather must have inherited half of his estate
and had enough money to buy this house. I always wondered how they could afford
such a house in The Great Depression.
When I can't sleep, I close my eyes and walk through this
house. It always calms me down and remembering my grandparents, I drift off.
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