Favorite Houses: 526 Exchange. PART 2.
This is my second post on 526 Exchange. My previous post is here.
The house originally sat of the north side of a double lot. In the 1920s, Scott Mouse, who later owned the Cross House, purchased 526, moved the house to the south side of the lot, and built a gas station on the north lot.
526 Exchange was originally number 528 before being moved to the adjacent lot.
526 Exchange today, with the former gas station to the left.
Grim.
But the scene was once positively bucolic! Click on all images to enlarge. Image courtesy Lindy Mouse Whetzel. Note the single gas station building. Note also the delicious Tourist Home sign. I presume this meant that 526 was a motel? Of additional interest are the two large windows on the first floor of the house…
…which, as detailed in my previous post on 526, once held stained-glass transom windows. Long gone. Sigh. Image courtesy Lindy Mouse Whetzel.
Texaco later purchased the gas station. A second building was added (left) which later became a food market (or was built as such). Note the looming roof above the market; this is the carriage house to 526 (long gone). Sigh. Image courtesy Lindy Mouse Whetzel.
Note the sockets with light bulbs on the gable boards. Cool. Image courtesy Lindy Mouse Whetzel.
Note how the market is smack against the carriage house. Image courtesy Lindy Mouse Whetzel.
Image courtesy Lindy Mouse Whetzel.
Most of the above images were graciously given to me by Lindy Mouse Whetzel, the granddaughter of Scott Mouse, Sr. She also pointed out a fabulous & fascinating detail on the market building, one which I would never have otherwise noticed:
Scott set his initials in stone. See the S? Top, middle.
And the M?
I can’t get enough of this kind of stuff!
And I want to wave a magic wand and return the scene to its former bucolic (and very interesting) look.
Thank you, Lindy!!!!!!!
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All very fascinating! Thanks to Lindy and Ross for sharing it with us. I LOVE nostalgic time-travel, like the Deep Map concept of A PrairyErth.
We found one of the original windows for the building, it was covered over with paneling!!
I wanna come see! I wanna come see!!!!!!!!!
Anytime!!
And Gems like this are why you are my very favorite blogger on the entire planet!!!! I will come met you one day and just sit and chat about your old Cross House and these other wonderful beauties in your town. My boyfriend will love it too! He does home remodeling and we are just waiting to find our own diamond in the ruff here in Oklahoma to pour our heart into.
That is such a cool gas station. The house of course is incredible.
Man, I have spent the last week reading this blog like a novel. Old houses are my favorite things, I love them so, and it is so great to read a blog by someone who not only feels the same way but who is an expert on them and from whom I learn so much. I adore the Cross House, and I love that you also have this section documenting other lovely gems! This blog is my Happy Place.
This is really interesting stuff, but mostly because my family currently owns the house!
As of right now, we still have a lot of work to do in order to get the house in ship-shape. When we purchased it, the first thing we noticed was the paint. Even as of now, it’s very faded and it’s starting to chip. And there are lots of weeds overtaking the house towards the back deck. Still, I’m very grateful to live in it, and had no idea of how long it’s been around!