oldphotos

By today's standards the house was huge, both in terms of square footage and ceilings height. The property was really a compound. It contained the house, a smoke house, a small chicken hatchery, two large chicken houses and a garage. Across the road was another garage, the large barn and a spring house. Behind the house was a root cellar and beside the house was a well. Most everything is gone now. The well, the root cellar, the across the road garage, the barn and the spring house are still there but in poor shape and probably will not last too much longer.

No bathroom in the house - outside toilet. The house was two story in the front. There were two huge bedrooms on the second floor and an equally large bedroom on the first floor. The entrance door was large and ornate with glass on the top half. In the center of the door was a mechanical door bell that consisted of an ornate lever surrounded with carvings . Pull the lever down and the bell rang. We used to drive my Mom crazy with that bell.

Immediately inside this door to the right front was an entrance hallway and a stair case to the second floor bedrooms. Immediately to the right was the first floor bedroom. This bedroom had a mantle, a fireplace and a closet. I think this was the only closet in the entire house but the rooms were large enough to contain chiffoniers or chifforobes with space left over. At the end of the entrance hallway to the left was the living room. It also contained a mantel and fire place. Off the living room was a huge dinning room with sixteen foot high ceilings. Above the ceiling was a belfry that contained a large dinner bell and a pull chain that extended below the ceiling. That bell could be heard all over the valley and ringing it usually resulted in a neighbor telephone call inquiring if everything was okay.

The phones in those days were party lines and one call informed all. The kitchen was equally as large with a huge wood stove and a pantry. There was also a wrap a round back porch with a washroom. The house had piping for gas light illumination. By the time we moved there the house had been electrified and they were no longer in use but the fixtures were present. The gas required was produced by using manure. In the yard away from the house was a round vat like structure partially buried in the ground. Manure from the barn ect was placed in this vat and a air tight lid was placed over the vat. The decomposition of the manure produced methane gas the same as our modern day land fills produce methane. The gas was piped into the house and the result was gas lights.

There were large oak trees (mostly all gone now) in the large front yard with a stone oriental fence with wrought iron gates. In the rear of the house was a place for a vegetable garden and an apple, peach and pear orchard. When this house was build it was state of the art and beautiful. The photograph bears this out. It was not insulated however and as such was cold and difficult to heat. It unfortunately was built on square stone supports that were not cemented together and they had the tendency to come apart.

I was raised there. My Dad, Massey Redd owned the farm and it was always referred to as the "Freeman Place". We lived there until my Dad bought the store on the Ridge. We then moved to the house behind the store. The Freeman Place burnt many years ago.