Oh, how we love thee: The original features — big and small — in our homes. They managed to avoid the curse of the previous owner update. Or, maybe you found a time capsule whose first owner who knew they had something good, and didn’t change a thing. Yes, we neeeeeeeded to see the original “they don’t make ’em like that anymore” architectural details and features in readers’ old houses — and you gave us 483 photos, to be exact! There is some FANTASTIC stuff in here! Uploader is now closed — thanks, everyone, for playing. Time to gawk! Above: Close-up of the room divider in Andy A’s 1962 house. Oh my! See? We bet you’re gawkin’ already. 🙂
To see the slide show, click on the thumbnail, it will enlarge, then use the arrows just below to move forward or back. You can start or stop the show from any slide.
John says
Diane I love LOVE your hanging china cabinet, love it! Is this the same Diane in CO with the amazing stair case? Did you walk in the door and get sold on the house immediately upon seeing the stair case? How could you not, I am now! LOL The craftsmanship and artistry… people rip these things out, its insane! Thanks for sharing!!
Diane in CO says
Hi John,
I am Diane in CO and “the other Diane” just goes by Diane – sort of confusing. Her house looks much more mid-century (lucky her).
Thank you for the comments on the staircase. Yes, my husband loved the look but I was not sold on it. Over the years, one appreciates what one has! Thanks for not noticing the crack in the floor, hehe….. House was in less than attractive shape when we bought it 22 years ago, but the hall and stairs had not been remuddled, thankfully. However we have a 1980 kitchen screaming for attention 🙂 Soon…….
We have the original specs of the house signed by G. M. Smedegaard who built 5 homes on our block — and an exterior elevation sketch too brittle to roll out.
John says
Thats cool that you have the plans. its great that you let the stairs grow on you. =) When i first bought my house, its my first home, my mom was adamant that I not change anything. She said i needed to live in the house for a while then start painting and such. She said she has a lot of regrets over the years of things she thought would be great to remove… only to wish she had it later.
John says
WOW i just noticed the detail on your stair is Mayan-esque images, the already beautiful stair just went way up in cool factor!!
John says
Thanks everyone!! It really is a phenomenal house. It doesn’t have a view, (unless you want to count a privacy fence and another house as a view =) ), but in a way I’m glad it doesn’t. If it did I would never have been able to afford it. I don’t have the drawing unfortunately, that was from an architectural magazine that featured my architect and the house. I wish the previous owners had not painted the exposed brick and put tile on the terrazzo… while I’m wishing I wish it had the original kitchen and bathrooms! LOL but all and all, fantastic home and I feel lucky to have it.
Elaine Schuster says
Love that house!! The features it has are to die for, they define the place. Remuddling can be demuddled over time if you want to. We are working our our houses gradually, trying to renew things while keeping in character.
John says
Thanks so much! Thats the plan, which is why i love this site i want to return it to the 50s. I have contacted the architect i hope he has pictures =)
Elaine Schuster says
Is that your kitchen with the original scalloped valance over the window? If so, kitchen managed to keep some of its retro charm. 🙂
John says
It is a scalloped detail, but isnt original, unfortunately.
Drew R. says
WOW! Thanks for all of the MCM eye candy! I am jealous as the only original feature of our house is the double sided fireplace you have all seen before. The rest of the house has been ‘remuddled’ several times, but we love it. John Feaster – beautiful house. Thanks for sharing!
Lynne says
Hey John Feaster!!! Can you post some more pics of the rest of your fabulous home??
John says
Hi Lynne!
I will be happy to, though I have to find some original features…. There is very little of the house that is original beyond what I have posted. I will go around the house and look =) The kitchen and bathrooms were as Drew aptly said “remuddled”. All of the original light fixtures are gone, even the original socket plates in the floor which were probably metal are gone. I am truly jealous of folks that have original features like these. I am happy to share my home though! =) I am thinking of 2 things now….
John
John says
Hi Lynne,
I uploaded 3 more pictures, the pantry shelving unit, master bedroom private porch, and the picture window in my remuddled kitchen. The window has a transom (sp) window over it, as do all exterior doors except the sliding glass doors. It was supposed to rain the weekend and i want going to have light but apparently the weather men were way off so i can take another.
Pam if you read this I have florecent lights that light the cathedrel ceiling, how can i tell if thats original? If maybe it was updated for electricle but still original? Where they are it will be hard for me to get to them…. i dont know how they were put there to begin with. =)
Sherri says
Wow, ive never seen a milk door,(or might of and not known what it was) how cool! *Oh & love that mural too!
Jeanne says
I have one, as do most of the homes in my neighborhood built in the 50s. I grew up with one – the milkman would deliver the glass bottles of milk in the milk “chute” (as we called it). He’d pick up the empty glass bottles that we would leave in the chute. We were “green” before it was fashionable to be green. 🙂
Sherree says
They are also common in my 50’s-60’s neighborhood also:-) Ours is on the garage wall; many are seen near the kitchen or utility room.
Elaine Schuster says
There is a milk chute on the back of our 1964 colonial. It opens on the back of the attached garage. When we bought the house it was sealed up for security, and we have left it that way. In the fifties, my brother would squirm through the milk chute to get into the house when he was supposed to be having a nap at the neighbor lady’s while our parents were at work.
gsciencechick says
Our family home had one, too, but the house was built in the 20’s. Regional differences, perhaps?
Diane in CO says
We have sealed up our milk chute from the outside with mortared brick. We left the door, but when you open the door all you see is a brick barrier 🙂
Once. a former housekeeper locked herself out accidentally and was able to squeeze herself back into the house through that milk chute! That did it for me – we sealed it immediately. But in my back hall, and from out on the patio, I love the look of the original 1930’s milk doors remaining as a “feature.”
Jay says
Dang! I have got to get the hang of this photography thing! Oh well, maybe next year. I love these photo galleries.
Jody says
John Feaster, that house is amazing!
Robin, NV says
I love my house but it is s bit lacking in cool architectural features. I do have a privacy wall in the front yard that makes a nice little courtyard.
Diane in CO says
John Feaster – how fabulous you have the architect’s rendering of your home. Great house.
nina462 says
I’ve got my original blueprints as well, from 1965. What a find when I bought my house.
John says
I have contacted the archect for my house… i hope to get blue prints. My architect studied with Frank Lloyd Wright. I hope i get to meet him, to meet some one who studied with Wright would be so cool!! To me anyway =)
DIane in CO says
To a lot of folks probably!
John says
I received a response! Not only will I get to meet the architect of my home, but he is going to come to my house! I am pretty excited! All of his work and photographs are at the University of Florida archives. I called them this morning and they are going to see what they have on my house. I might be getting floor plans! I don’t know if I would be more excited if I was 10 going to Disney!! LOL =)
pam kueber says
Fabulous!!!!
Doug Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
Wow John, that’s awesome! Perhaps you will need to start a house blog to chronicle some of this! 😉
John says
That’s a good idea, of course I don’t know how to go about doing that. I spoke to the library this afternoon and they have the news paper article from 1956 about my house on microfiche I guess I need to check the Florida archives to see what all they have. They may have even more than UF has, since all of their photos and such from the 50s were sent to the archives.
Doug Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
John –
Without getting too far into the technical detail (I do computer consulting and web development for a living), getting a basic blog up and going is really easy because there are lots of free tools online.
If you have poked around at any of the other house blogs (Pam and Kate keep a blogroll at the bottom left corner with a list of lots of other blogs), most of them use either WordPress or Blogspot. Both are free – all you do is go to their respective sites (wordpress.com or blogspot.com – there are others but these are most popular), sign in for a free account, pick your blog name\address and you can start going. They have themes and templates available to alter the layout and design so you don’t have to know how to do web programming to make it your own. I use my house blog to chronicle all the history as well – the house plans my grandfather drew, construction pictures, old ads featuring the house, etc, etc.
If you’re feeling ambitious give it a try, we’d all love to see the info you dig up about your house!
John says
Thanks for the tip. I have made calls to UF and the FL state archives, they are looking through what they have and will get back with me. I think I will start on it once I have collected enough materials to make a worthwhile blog…. Then go from there through renovation/restoration. I am also constructing a letter to the children of the original owner, (I’m only the 3rd), in the hopes that they will have some old pictures. They may ignore me but its worth a try.
John says
As I get more documentation on my house I learn more and more how cool the house once was… and how mad I am that all of its original coolness was ripped out. GE Wonder Kitchen, GE cabinets, GE wall mount refrigerator, GE appliance center, Nutone mixer/blender built in to the counter, built in record player hifi, intercom, All this, just in the kitchen!! To throw salt in my wound, the built in barbeque that they tore out apparently also had a fireplace and the WHOLE THING was covered in CUBAN TILE! It really makes me sick!
Interesting side note, one of the ideas thrown around that never came to fruition was a separate maid’s toilet in the “service patio”…. I immediately thought of “The Help”
Some of these things I do want back in the house, not sure about the wonder kitchen part of me really does, part of me doesn’t. I want a big double oven 6 to 8 burner ’53 roper stove so bad! I cant have both…. Well I mean I could but it would be impractical.
Sandy says
Same here — blueprints from 1964, complete with the changes penciled in showing that the first owners were responsible for the things that make our tri-level extremely unusual, at least for our area. We do not have an exit from the lower floor with stairs up to the yard, and our main floor kitchen has an exit right onto the back yard. (The door destroys the functionality of the kitchen, but it was a Godsend for our old arthritic dogs and one of the main reasons we bought the house.)
Guy H. says
This is a wonderful topic! One of the best part of my home is the built in planter and built in shelves throughout the house. So thankful to all the previous owners that they didn’t tear them out.