This is a tale of two houses. 911 Union. 819 Constitution. The Union Street house does not, at first glance, look like much. The whole is covered in white paint (originally the house would have been in several shades of earth tones). The front porch is missing, too, giving the facade a blank expression. And…

This is a house easily passed by. The exterior has been heavily renovated. The siding is circa-1950 and circa-1990. The original front porch is long gone. But…but…what remains is highly tantalizing, and speaks for a GORGEOUS home if the whole were restored. The house is just a block from the main street, and the restored…

Under the growth, under the jungle, under the camouflage, there is a house. I suspect it is a fabulous house. I suspect, rather than know, because the house is almost entirely hidden under a wild green cover.          

Some houses just make one stop and think: What? Such a house is 821 Market. I mean, WHAT happened to this house? WHAT did it originally look like? The house is now divided into two condo units. Clearly, it was further altered. The hex-shaped windows are not original, and nor is the brick. A door,…

Constitution, between 8th and 9th Streets, in Emporia, Kansas, would be almost unrecognizable today to anybody who lived on the street before WWII. Of the eleven houses which graced the street in 1911, only three remain today. The rest have been demolished for parking lots, and a church. What remains though is highly attractive. The…

For years now, as I have slowly driven around the leafy residential districts of Emporia, I have noted houses which must be by the same architect as they all have certain characteristic details, the most telling of which is a curvaceous piece of trim under the windows. Most houses have no such trim, curvaceous or…

On the southwest corner on Ninth Avenue and Exchange Street is a GORGEOUS foundation for a house. But, no house sits on it. Obviously, there once was a house on the foundation. And, based on the remarkable nature of the foundation, it must have been quite the house. At some point however the house was,…

While wood houses can last centuries (with a decent roof), wood porches are rarely so lucky. Porches are highly vulnerable to the elements, and in an age before pressure-treated lumber became the norm, wood porches rotted. It was not uncommon for an 1895 wood porch to be totally punky by 1915. Porches are also highly…

I am always sad to lose a house. It is rare that I think a house cannot be saved. A concurrent concern is how demolition diminishes a neighborhood. While I well appreciate that an empty house invites problems, demolition is a draconian, permanent solution to a temporary problem. Surely there must be a better way?…

Some houses get me REALLY excited. Such as 701 State. This is house easily overlook. But do not be fooled by its current appearance. This is a FABULOUS house. If the circa-1950s siding were removed, the missing bits of the porch reinstated, and original colors reintroduced, 701 State would STOP TRAFFIC.        …

Before WWII, it was common for people to walk along Main Street, and peer in the many enticing window displays. They either walked to Main Street from their house a few blocks away, or got on their horse (in the early days), or drove their car. After WWII, people no longer wanted to walk while…

For a long time I have lusted after this home. It is a block north from the Cross House, and was built, I believe, in the 1870s. What is particularly remarkable about the house is that its two intricate wood porches are largely intact. After almost 150 years? This is extraordinary. And what porches they…

At the corner of Ninth and Constitution, in Emporia, is a remarkable house: the Keebler House. One cannot drive by without craning a neck to admire. The house has a dollhouse-like appearance. It is charming to an extreme, and looks like something a giant would eat in a children’s fairy tale — a delicious cookie….

I have a terrible affliction. I want to save every old, endangered house I come across. The affliction is powerful and debilitating. When I was in high school, I was riding my bike along Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, Florida, and stopped dead in my tracks in front of a lovely 1920s bungalow. It looked…