If they are unknown to you, who do you imagine the first residents of your home were? Who do you imagine will come after you?
Created: 10/19/23
Replies: 19
Join Date: 10/15/10
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Join Date: 10/09/14
Posts: 66
Our family were the first, and so far only, residents in this house, since we are the original owners from 1984 when our neighborhood was built. But our neighborhood was conceived in the late 1800’s as a plat in what was then a small town in the outer suburbs of Washington D.C. The neighborhood had been a farm, with an old barn still standing at the top of the hill, where trees and undergrowth had grown up on the old fields. Trails through the woods were popular with riders who rented horses from a stable a few blocks away. We were fortunate to have an elderly neighbor in a much older house behind ours who told us some of the history of our area.
Join Date: 04/14/21
Posts: 2
My husband and I moved into a student apartment in Charlottesville, VA in the late 1950's. It had one bedroom and a living/dining area. We bought a large dining room table, painted it black and my husband took it over as his study space. When our first child arrived we moved to a larger apartment but we knew the people who moved into our first apartment who were two male students. Our first house we sold to a lovely family who enjoyed the neighborhood and large yard we we did. 50 years later the house is still there painted with the same outside colors I picked out..
Join Date: 09/08/12
Posts: 81
Growing up in Boston, knowing a bit about my genealogy and colonial history, I presume Native American Indians were first on the land where I grew up. Sadly, they were displaced by the English settlers.
Who is to come? I would guess persons other than native-born Americans or the generations that will follow. Hopefully, they will settle peacefully.
Join Date: 01/10/21
Posts: 20
I live not far from Plymouth Rock where the Mayflower pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. Roger Williams was banished from the settlement in 1635 and settled in Rhode Island where I have lived my entire life. I imagine the first inhabitants of my home may have been pre Revolutionary War families. Given my house's location and the structure, I would guess that it will be the home of small family who perhaps will add on since it sits on a large amount of land.
Join Date: 12/04/20
Posts: 151
Since I now live in a fairly new home in a Senior community, I know that there were no actual current-day "home" residents here before us. If I go back further, then I suspect that since it is in WA state and along the Puget Sound, that Indian tribes would have been prior land residents, and I would like to know more about them.
Join Date: 09/03/19
Posts: 217
We were, I believe the third family in our home. The neighborhood was built in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s. It was a farm and had horses. Our mailman of many years lived nearby and told us all about the history. Originally there were to be bridled paths around the lake and a stable kept after the development. However, new homeowners along the lake objected to that plan and it was scrubbed. One of the few remaining original owners lives around the corner from me. I’ve know her and her husband for the 30 years we have lived here. They also told us a lot about the neighborhood. The first owners of our home worked for a large company in a nearby city. Since we are now empty nesters our house really is bigger than we need, with 4 large bedrooms upstairs, at least for people - my book collection is another story! Pretty much every room has bookshelves, even the landing and I still need more!🤣 I assume we will sell someday, to a young couple with children or who are planning a family. It’s a lovely neighborhood for kids to grow up in.
Join Date: 10/16/10
Posts: 1160
What an interesting question! I never really gave it much thought. When we moved to Portland nearly 30 years ago, we rented a townhouse. Shortly after we moved in they converted the units to actual condos rather than rentals, and rather than move again we bought ours. So it had been a rental for 25 years before we bought it, and I assume many different people lived here over the years.
Interestingly, we had a member of the community commit suicide in his garage several years ago, and I've often wondered if the current owner was aware of that. So I've thought about the question in the context of other units, but not my own!
Join Date: 10/09/23
Posts: 4
My parents moved into our farm house in the 30's and lived there until the 80's. I didn't know who preceded them but supposedly a man had hung himself in the upstairs bedroom years ago. Although our parents confirmed this happened, they refused to discuss it. My brother, 10 years older than me however, ran with it and terrified me endlessly with all sorts of ghost stories and pranks. I'm not a believer in ghosts, however I never slept in the upstairs until I was an adult. The night before my wedding I was "haunted" with floating lights with no known source. Last night I ever slept there! After my parents moved to town, the farm site was demolished.
Join Date: 05/30/11
Posts: 41
I never imagined who the first people were that lived in the house that I grew up in (in the '50's). And......subsequent houses until I was married and lived in a house that was build in the 1890's and was on the National Registrar for old homes in Indiana. I lived on Main Street (!) and a very famous person (an author!) had lived there before the house had electricity. He wrote the book Ben Hur and was also a Union General in the Civil War. There was even a barn/shed/garage for their horses. We knew the entire history of that home and the changes that had been made by the different people. At one point, the house had been changed into three apartments. The people who lived there before us changed it back to the three story Victorian house that it was supposed to be. My husband continued to try and restore the house. After we moved away in the late '90's, it again was divided into apartments!!!
Join Date: 10/20/23
Posts: 22
My little ranch was built in the 50s. I am the third owner. I didn't know the first owners, but a friend of mine suggested that they were most likely Italian, as there was a vintage Progress gas stove in the basement - her grandparents had the same, and it was there they canned tomatoes and cooked Sunday sauce, away from the summer heat. I imagine the people who come after me will be downsizing and this single floor, cosy little house would be perfect.
Join Date: 05/24/11
Posts: 207
My little Cape Cod was built in the early 30's; I only know of the person who lived here before me. I picture it as a starter home for a young couple until they had a couple of children, then moved on...with a nice backyard, and walking distance to downtown and stores.
Join Date: 03/03/12
Posts: 251
I live in a double-wide mobile home on land that our county designates as "grazing land." I believe the first residents here were members of the Esalen tribe because I have found hollowed out stones that were used for grinding acorns and every year after it rains, we find arrowheads out in the pasture. I don't know who will come after us, but whoever they are they will have to contend with my spirit walking the hillsides and meadows because I love this place.
Join Date: 04/23/23
Posts: 10
Join Date: 04/07/12
Posts: 265
We are the 2nd family in our lakeside home and it is a “compound” for our entire family. Hoping it will stay in the family. Years ago this was a vacation area for families from Chicago and other areas, with many “resorts” and rooming houses around. Also rumors of Al Capone staying in this area.
Join Date: 05/11/15
Posts: 100
My house, in rural NW Connecticut, was built in 1780, probably as an inn - it was that for quite a long time. My parents bought it around 1947 or 48; we lived in it full-time until 1961, when we moved to NYC and it became a weekend and summer house. My brother and his wife moved into it around 1976; he died in 1999 and his wife moved out in 2005, when I took it over. My younger daughter and her family moved in March 2020 - covid related, and now the 4th generation is also living there, and farming the land.
Join Date: 05/12/11
Posts: 243
Join Date: 03/29/16
Posts: 443
I have been lucky enough to met the daughter of the couple who built my home. A few years ago she sent me the original paperwork and first pictures of the home when her parents passed. So I know who came before me.
I would hope that a young couple just starting out would get my home - maybe with a young baby, or planning to start a family. It is just large enough for that and is in a great location for children.
Join Date: 11/15/23
Posts: 6
I don't own my current home so I would like to think of this question regarding my childhood home. Many, many, many years from now when my mother is gone I'd like to think one of my siblings (or myself) and their families would live in that house. They house means a great deal to my mom so I hope it can stay in my family for generations and we can raise our children and grandchildren there.
Join Date: 09/22/11
Posts: 102
The house I grew up in was in the woods of NH. It was an old farm house. I remember that there was a date in the hand hewn beams, not what the date was. Some of the beams were scorched from a fire.
Ghosts yes they were there.
Sitings; a baby where the beams were scorched, at the age of 6 standing at the top of the stairs at night I wouldn’t go down “I see a ghost”, My parents sold the house because mom was visited by a woman ghost dressed in the attire of a previous century, standing over her bed when she woke up.
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