new guy on the block with a question

[hvychevy (WavyGlass)]

hi everyone first post here looking for some help. my wife and i may soon be inheriting a old family home and are trying to get some info on it . first i will attach a pic if some one could tell me what style the home is . also we are in the process of finding the records of the property but i thought i would start here to see if you all could tell me anything from a pic . also the home was constructed around 1890 to 1900

[hvychevy (WavyGlass)]

here is i side view of the home if it helps

[Don M]

Hello & welcome. It looks to be a good sized house; the window design makes me think Italianate although a simple form. It doesn't have the wide roof overhang with brackets one normally associates with that style. Is it a one family home? The two doors in the cellar made me think two family. Interior pictures would also be helpful in determining the style. Keep us posted on your progress with this home.

[hvychevy (WavyGlass)]

thank you don the doors on the cellar we had never thought of before . yes it is a two family house well it has 2 addresses but it has been semi converted to a single family home but we always wondered if it was built this way . The way it is now the front door goes to the up stairs and down stairs on the left side and it has a side door for the right side of the house . You can not go from one side to the other upstairs but down stairs we think a wall was removed so you can go from the right to left side in the back and get to the existing kitchen . it also has a back door in the kitchen

[hvychevy (WavyGlass)]

the total SQ feet is about 2560 i believe

[Don M]

You are probably right that a wall was removed or at least a door cut in to allow access to both sides. Can you tell where the second kitchen was? Are both sides symmetrical? The windows on the side photo appear to be.

[hvychevy (WavyGlass)]

there was a kitchen up stairs but i think that was added at a later time just judging by the way things where done maybe not i just know that most older homes would not have a kitchen upstairs but i could be wrong . both sides are sort of symmetrical but not identical. we are hoping the city records will tell us more

[CS in Low Hud]

Boy, that reminds me of typical western PA/Pittsburgh houses! The yellow brick, the precipitous hill, the double house (often built for mill workers, miners, etc). Where are you located?

Chris

[Gothichome]

Hummmm, interesting. I wonder if the home was built as an double 'L' shaped duplex one of the 'L's inverted and fitting in to the crotch of the first 'L'. this would give you the arrangement you describe and fit with the two basement doors as well as the two front doors being on two sides if the home. Only thing would be the the bedroom or part if the bedrooms would be over top of the the other address. For this to work there would need to be or had been a second staircase. Oh, and welcome to wavyglass.

[hvychevy (WavyGlass)]

well there are 2 stair cases one for one side up stairs and one for the other side up stairs . one odd thing is to get to some of the rooms you have to walk through another room this is even the case up stairs in what might be considered the bedrooms . im not sure if this is a normal trait of houses . we did find out that the house next door is on the national register for historic places and was built about 5 or so years before ours . i am kinda wondering if it could have not always been a home and was built as offices maybe im wrong just a idea. there was a large glass factory across the street . i am going to attach a old pic we have found from not to long after it was built. ours is the home on the left and you are looking at the back