If the walls could talk...

This sign is up over my foyer door as you walk into my house.

I do wonder if the walls of this house could speak for just one day, what stories they would tell.

It was built between 1898 -1899 and the first family who lived in the house was abt 1900 - it was a couple and her mother who lived here. Within a year the mother had died of pneumonia and from the newspapers' obituaries, she was laid out in the house. I know over the years it was a boarding house and also the upstairs was an apartment - you can see where they put up a wall so that the tenants went straight up stairs from the back door- they didn't have first floor "privileges". We found an old door in the basement that had children's names (I assume) carved into it.

When I stripped layer upon layer of wallpaper in the kitchen I found a typed note card with "rules of the house". In the dining room I found a name and a date written in pencil on the plaster. When I was doing some research at the library genealogy room, I found out the local wallpaper hanger would write his name as well as the date on the walls he was papering. If there was something news worthy that day he wrote that as well.

I started thinking abt what houses could "say" after seeing a play in the '80's called "The Dining Room". The play is set in a dining room in a upper middle class home over decades. It brings up situations that a typical family deals with everyday in that time period.

So if your walls could talk, what would they say abt the past?...... What would they say abt you and your family?...... It is something to ponder...I'd love to hear your home's story...............