A Little History on Our House

In August 2013, we moved into this awesome 1915 Foursquare.  Until then, I had only lived in 1970s ranches, and I've always secretly wanted to own a really old house.  I instantly fell in love with all the original, UNPAINTED woodwork, the squeaky hardwood floors, the big front porch with hooks for a porch swing, the leaded glass windows, the four-story laundry chute, and the fact that I'd have a real dining room, and both front and back entryways.  The fourth bedroom didn't hurt, either.  Here is a photo from the day we closed on the house, with 2 of my kids in the attic windows:

The brick columns on the corners and adjacent to the stairs are original, but I was told the concrete columns are not.  The originals were probably wooden.  The front door is original and awesome.  The garage is obviously not original, but there is a little one-car garage out back that you can see in the left side of the picture.  I believe there is wood siding hiding under the vinyl siding, but for now I'm not hating the low-maintenance exterior.  My last house was cedar siding, and with small children it was a lot to keep up with.  All the windows appear to be original, with the exception of a kitchen window that was probably replaced some time in the 80s.  I spent several weeks this fall watching YouTube videos and learning how to rehab old windows.  I worked on one, and plan to do several more this summer, but more on that later.

Here's a little bit of history that I've dug up in the last couple years on the history of the house.

The original owners were George O. and Zella Cox.  George was the manager of grain and coal sales at the local elevator.  I located all the previous owners by doing deed research at the county clerk's office.  Next, I found George's photo in a biography book at the library:

And a picture of Zella on Ancestry.com!  I believe she is standing in front of our porch, though the owner of the photo on Ancestry couldn't tell me for sure.

Found the following photo at the Gilman Historical Society.  Taken in 1873 from the cupola of the Mann mansion a couple blocks away.  Our house would eventually be built just behind and to the right of the white farmhouse in the photo.  The farmhouse still stands across the street, though the farm is long gone.