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Aw, Rick - you always capture my heart...
ReplyDeleteWhat i find interesting about these very modest house plans for sale is the elevations themselves - they show the primary floor walled in "stone."
Although - that's not stone - 10 to 1 gets you that those are decorative concrete blocks that were a major building rage of the 1890's through the 1930's and became popular in many places in the US where brick or stone was either unavailable or outside of a family's price point. They would form concrete blocks to decrease the risk of a fire burning the house (or garage) down.
You could get a concrete block form stamp (that produced rusticated concrete blocks such as these featured) out of the Sears catalog; not cheap for the day (about $40 or so), and then the family (particularly on farms) would spend the winter stamping out these blocks and storing them so they could build a building during the warmer months. Concrete block buildings were very popular for houses, garages, smaller commercial buildings (think small storefronts, etc. in small towns) and other buildings where fires could be an high-risk issue.
Sadly, concrete block houses and garages from the Victorian era are very difficult to find these days - most were torn down and are few and far in between these days. I looked for a Victorian concrete block home when I was house shopping, but sadly - only found two - and both were completely unacceptable for my needs. I ended up with a big old wooden thing that I can't let the termite warranty run out on, or it would become an all you could eat buffet down here.
Here's a great post, video and pics of the product:
https://www.oldhouseguy.com/decorative-concrete-block/
Great post, Rick! Keep up the Good Work!