ZOUNDS!!!!!!!!
The carriage house, 2017.
Recently, I did a post about how pretty much everything I knew about the 1894 carriage was wrong.
In the above image pretty much the only thing original to the structure is the turret. ALL the others windows and dormers and door are, almost certainly, later additions.
But why a turret rather than tower? (A turret is something which projects. A tower starts at ground level.) I surmised, based on some very grainy photographic evidence, that a sliding barn door was under the turret.
So, look at the above above. Visually delete all the dormers. Thus, you will see a big roof with only a turret. OK? Now, delete the first-floor windows. Add a big sliding barn door under the turret, with the track going off to the right. OK?
You should now “see” a one-story structure with a big roof punctured by a turret. Right?
Wanna see a photograph of kinda sorta what is in your mind?
Scroll way down. You are gonna be really excited.
ZOUNDS! Mike brought this to my attention. This is a house in Illinois. This is kinda sorta maybe what my carriage house looked like in 1894. Incredible find, Mike! Thank you!
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Wow, very cool indeed! That does help visualize it in context much better.
I know!
I want to live in the carriage house!
The 2017 carriage house?
Or the 1894 carriage house?
I know how you like to time-travel!
Ross, I am laid up with pneumonia right now (thanks, Influenza B), and surfing the net is about all I feel like doing. I saw this house posted in an old house page on facebook earlier, and, once I had coughed and choked a little, managed to gasp to my dog “There’s Ross’ dad-gum carriage house!”, LOL. You know I have been sort of obsessed with the turret on the carriage house, I just couldn’t imagine how Mr Squires could have just hung it up there and expected it to look right. Now that I’ve seen this other carriage house, I can rest easier 🙂 I had planned to take off this week to work on my house, but since that isn’t happening, I’m glad that I was at least able to help you a little. Silver lining, I guess. Good luck on the interior projects this month, but I am looking forward to May 1; that north wall is still my favorite, and I can’t wait to see how it looks when it has all been painted. Your house has become a special place for a lot of people…
I am THRILLED with your discovery! Again, thank you!
I would so restore/reconfigure/re-site the carriage house for you, at least provide the $$$, if I could…
Well, get your damn magic wand out!
I bet the whole structure would look GLORIOUS sans all the dormers. Have you given any thought as to maybe removing a couple to get the original look back, at least on the facade that faces the street, or are you going to keep it as is?
Lucky you! You have a carriage house! My 1892, 6500ft victorian does not and never had!
The original owner had a shoe factory in town and we believe he kept his horses there!
A house this size needs somewhere to park the horseless carriages!!
It is an issue I will tackle in the next year or two! In the meantime I will continue to marvel at your blog!
Inspirational site Ross!
I kinda like the “extra” dormers.
How cool to have a visual now! Since the carriage house is now a residence I doubt you will restore the barn door features, but this is such a good touchpoint for how it must have been.
What would be cool, albeit expensive, would be to make a large opening where the original barn door would have been, and then install a large slider-type door to pay homage to the original look…
Hi Ross – I’ve discovered your blog fairly recently and have just finished catching up. I’ve really enjoyed it, so thank you very much. I’ve tried to subscribe a couple of times, but I’m not getting notifications of new posts (and they are not in my spam folder), so I hope commenting here will make something happen. Cheers!
Yay! It worked – I’m getting notifications now. I forgot to mention that I know Bo! Okay, that’s overstating it a bit. I’ve MET Bo. I live in Portland and he gave a talk at the Architectural Heritage Center on wallpaper. It was swoonworthy 🙂
The image Mike sent allows to visualize that under the turret were probably the doors to enter with carriages, horses, etc.It was an excellent visual and allows to envision the original look of the carriage house in 1894. This all so fun!