52 Ancestors Week 12: An Address With a Story

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12:

The theme for Week 12 is “An Address With a Story.” So many stories are tied to a place. (For me, it would be my Grandma’s house.) What is a place that has special meaning for your family?

Over the river and through the woods....

    Over the years I've written about several addresses in my family and they've all had plenty of stories to tell. My grandma Ollie's house and her sisters' house in Haverhill were probably mentioned a few hundred times in the blog by now! Speaking of grandma's house, that house in the banner this week was her house for a very long time. It was left to my grandfather Marco after his father Vincenzo passed away in 1970.  Ollie's sisters lived in the house my great-grandparents Giuseppe and Clementina lived in on Bartlett Street. Those houses in Haverhill definitely have stories behind them and I remember them the most since I actually went to those houses!

    That isn't to say I don't have stories about the houses on my maternal side. It's just tough to write long stories about them since my mother moved around a lot thanks to her being an Air Force brat. This week we're going to talk about a house that won't be appearing in any census record until the 1980 US Census is released to the public in 2052. I am of course talking about the house I grew up in!

Green side up, boys! Green side up!

    My father and grandfather Marco broke ground on the property that would one day become my house in 1976. At the time of its construction they were living in nearby Derry, New Hampshire while the house was being built in Salem, New Hampshire.

    My father always told me that they picked the location because it was very rural. I suppose it made sense for him to pick a rural part of Salem since he grew up in Haverhill and as anyone who grew up in a city knows it can be quite noisy living in a city no matter the size. My mom agreed with the decision since she also spent her formative years in a city called Newburyport.

    I like to think that they built the house in Salem because it was close to my father's family in Haverhill and yet far enough away from the noise of the city. For a long time the neighborhood was very quiet. Our house was one of the first houses that was built on the street and over time we got to meet some neighbors. The house was also very close to my father's dental practice which started a few years before they built the house.  There were also great schools nearby and several of my parents' friends and family lived in the area.

AHH! This house is naked!

    With all that in mind, construction began in 1976 and the house was more or less finished that same year. There were still odds and ends that needed to be finished, of course. At least it was habitable by the end of the year. It's a good thing too. New England winters can be brutal!

    Still, I can't help but wonder about some of the initial design flaws in the house. While it's true that we made improvements over the years, I still have to wonder why the way into the attic was a hatch in the closet of my parents' master bedroom. Or why the stairs in the basement were always a little bit smaller than the average human foot.

    Those questions plagued me every time I walked up and down the stairs or helped my mother get Christmas decorations out of the attic. I think that would be one of the first questions I'd ask Marco. Forget about asking about life in San Pietro a Maida for one second. Let's talk about the crazy design flaws! I shouldn't be too hard on the design and everything. After all, the house is one of a few things my grandfather built. He helped to build additions on my father's office and built the house I grew up in. Not a bad legacy at all in my opinion!

 

Testing out Jim's first sweet ride.

  Marco sadly passed away in 1983 and we have a ton of pictures of him inside the house during various stages of its development. These pictures were all taken around Christmas time and other events and I like to think he was pleased with its development. Everything has more or less stayed the same since the day it was constructed.

   The only things that changed of course were the furniture, rugs, tiles and a few other odds and ends. We never built on any additions. We did change the paint on the outside a few times and installed electric garage door openers.

    From the pictures I can tell that he clearly loved the house. He put a lot of himself into its construction and definitely built it to last. Despite all its flaws and everything it's still a place my family and I called home. Still, I find myself wondering how he'd have reacted to a few incidents that took place after his death. I have a feeling he'd have been less than thrilled about the time my brother and I put holes in the wall of our bedroom. What can I say? It was the '80s and we watched a lot of wrestling!

  Those holes were of course patched up in no time and that incident wasn't as bad as the fire in the chimney. Ever since that day we've decided never to use the fireplace again. It's probably just as well. I was never a fan of fireplaces! We never really had any major disasters and that's a good thing. Let's hope it stays that way! Knocking on wood very hard here!

One of the first Christmas Eve parties

     At least Marco would have been pleased to see that we continued his Christmas Eve traditions in the house he and my father built. He may have missed out on a lot of them. Maybe he was there in spirit? You never know! My dad always maintained that he thought he smelt his father in the basement whenever he was working on something. Maybe his spirit does linger in the house. I'm not about to call the Ghost Hunters and ask them for help!

   The fact that the house is still standing after half of a century really says something about the work he put into it. Granted, repairs were made over the years. New paint was added to the exterior. New furniture came and went. That's honestly to be expected when you have a house that's been around as long as it has. As for the people? Well, Jim and I grew up and his kids call our house "New Hampshire Grandma and Grandpa's house". Some day I think my brother will tell them that it's only half of the story!

    In the end, my house is a lot like many other houses on our street aside from its Mediterranean exterior. There's a lot of history here and more than that it's been my home for all that time too. Its origins may have been pretty modest. However, the stories withing the walls have lasted a lifetime!

See ya next time!

Home sweet home!