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(Photographs courtesy of Tammy Yaguchi.)
My wife and I live in an antique
Colonial farmhouse in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, New York.
(For local-interest links relating to the area, go
here.) No one knows exactly how old it is, but we know it was here
in 1760 because its presence then is well-documented. Maintaining it is
a perpetual headache. Even the most minor repairs or renovations --
things that might take a few hours or days in a newer house -- are
multi-month projects in an antique house (probably because I do most of
them myself and tend to be a perfectionist). I love it anyway.
Living in an old house gives one a
tangible connection with the reality of past lives and vanished worlds:
generations of Americans have been born, lived, worked, and died here.
The history of our house is a tiny part of the history of America. That
makes living here exciting and romantic.
If you have an old house,
inn, or other landmark property, and you've always wanted to see it
memorialized in an original work of art, check out
Lynch Hill Studio.
Working from photos, they will hand-paint a lovely watercolor of your
place. If you want, they can even turn it into notepaper, cards, and
other stationery: a perfect gift for the old-house lover in your life!
(The very nice artist who runs the place is an old friend of mine, so
please tell her "hello" from me when you call.)
My house's major claim to
historical significance is that Major John André (the British officer
who was Benedict Arnold's control agent) stopped to water his horse a
few yards down the road, shortly before he was captured by the Continental
Army. On a more personal note, here's a picture of
Zipporah Purdy, who was born in our house on December 26, 1792. She
later married one of the neighbors, Noah Washburn, and died in 1881 at
the ripe old age of 89. (One of her descendants, Wendy Myers of
Springfield, Missouri, sent me Zipporah's picture.) Noah Washburn's old
house is also still standing and in use as a residence, a couple of
miles from our house.
If you're interested (really, really interested), then you
can read more about the history of our house, its architecture, and
old-house construction techniques
here (warning: it's long).
If you love old houses or do-it-yourself projects, you might
be interested in the following links:
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