Althouse: Meade's favorite house in Ouray, Colorado.

August 9, 2009

Meade's favorite house in Ouray, Colorado.

ADDED: Chip embellishes:

36 comments:

traditionalguy said...: I guess that Meade's favorite house pre-dates any handicap access rules. It even looks like it would be dangerous in icey winters. That is one of the last originals, for sure.; 8/9/09, 11:59 AM
Janis Gore said...: Looks to me like Meade is a southerner by heart if not by birth. That's our style.; 8/9/09, 12:12 PM
ricpic said...: When the rain beat down on the shack's tin roof
Those rare rainy nights in the high desert town,
It bare covered the cries of the miner's wife
As he beat her, his sorrows for to drown.; 8/9/09, 12:44 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: It looks very much like a mid-1920s kit house, either from Sears or Monkey-Ward. Definitely 'Craftsman' style of that era ... note the fly-out supports on the gable end and the flared porch posts. The metal porch roof is quite recent.; 8/9/09, 12:58 PM
Anonymous said...: That sure looks like the house where my family took refuge in in the summer of '56. Driving rain made it impossible to get out of the valley, every motel room was full, and of our family of 7, my infant brother was violently ill, my mother and I (15) were in pain, and my dad and 3 sibs were just plain fed up! The homeowners graciously took us in, called a doctor and sheltered us until the weather
cleared and we were healthy again.

I don't love Ouray, but those were really fine people.; 8/9/09, 1:02 PM
Cardboard FLOTUS said...: Looks like ground zero for the Hantavirus.; 8/9/09, 1:04 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Favorite house because???; 8/9/09, 1:05 PM
ricpic said...: I couldn't think of the word for that type of house and Bart Hall supplied it: craftsman. I'll bet if they gussied it up it would fetch top dollah.; 8/9/09, 1:11 PM
Rick Lee said...: As Bart said... classic post-Victorian Craftsman style... but cheapo Craftsman. There's a zillion of those around here.; 8/9/09, 1:13 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Even purdier decorated. It is after all in the hills.; 8/9/09, 2:21 PM
Cedarford said...: Bart beat me to it. It's a Sears kit house.

A few of those, like the one Nixon's poor lemon farmer dad built, are national historical homes. Millions others still stand.

Many are clustered together in decayed Army base, mining, mill and factory towns - A tribute to the private or public powers that be doing central planning (as John Mills advocated), and back when America was still competitive and made things for the world besides poison paper derivatives and weaponry.

We visited such a town a few years back - a Vermont quarry and stonecarving town built 1910-1925.
Houses planned along with stores, a prefab Catholic Church, K-12 school, company-built hydro-electric dam and power station, free medical clinic...all kit-built. All within walking distance. Brought up by the same railroad and barges that took the stone.
Even dairy farms were built to supply the place.
It was all about 7/8ths abandoned when we went through.
Now China makes cheaper cut granite markers..India has nice granite, too.; 8/9/09, 2:38 PM
ricpic said...: I've always wanted to put pink flamingos in my front yard but sadly lack the guts.; 8/9/09, 3:14 PM
dick said...: The thing is that those were cheapo homes when they were new but they contained excellent materials and make very nice homes if fixed up. Very good deals for the empty nesters or the just getting started in having nice homes that are very manageable. I love the style (bungalow). They are located all over the Midwest.; 8/9/09, 3:29 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: We live in a 1922 Monkey-Ward house, which was sold in the Wardway catalogue as the 'Winsted' model. The repository for such things is at the University of Wyoming.

The 'Winsted' is an 1100 sq ft house which sold for about $2,800, or about $36,000 in today's money. The buyer still had to arrange for a basement and actually putting the thing together, which would have at least doubled the price.

Most notable is the room in which I presently sit, my office, 8' x 11' and just off the kitchen -- labelled "Maid's Room."

The assumption was that anyone capable of affording an 1100 sq ft house was obviously well enough off to have a live-in maid. What whingers we've become.; 8/9/09, 4:23 PM
Meade said...: Chipbilly!

Now it's really right.; 8/9/09, 4:44 PM
JAL said...: Hey Chipper! Did you steal those flamingoes from the patio next to my pool? Nice.

And I grew up in a Sears kit house. Not an Arts & Crafts period one (though West Asheville, had A&M traversed over there, is FULL of those) but a 1 1/2 story 2 BR 1 B Cape Cod with a dining room connected to the kitchen and LR built pre WWII outside NYC. Parents added on a room the size of the main floor plan over a period of 10 years in the fifties.

People nowadays wonder how we managed with such tiny bedooms and floor space. Ha.; 8/9/09, 4:59 PM
Big Mike said...: @Chip, that's sorta cruel.; 8/9/09, 5:07 PM
The Dude said...: Much improved, thanks, Chip.; 8/9/09, 5:13 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: Chipster -- you forgot 'Our Lady of the Bathtub.'; 8/9/09, 5:16 PM
kalmia said...: I love the little room in the attic. I used to sleep in a little room like that with my ex-husband and two children when we visited my in-laws in Parksville, BC. I always had incredible, crazy dreams up there.; 8/9/09, 5:42 PM
Mary Christine said...: Chip failed to add the old lady being eaten by the bear. ick.; 8/9/09, 5:43 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: The time that some people spend polishing their photography skills, might be better spent working on sports prowess.

Sports heals.

Sports for everybody !

www.maxinesplace.blogspot.com; 8/9/09, 6:13 PM
Rialby said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/09, 6:16 PM
Janis Gore said...: Yes, Chip, that's our style, too.

I'll take a picture for you of the Duck Lady's house, if I can have permission.

It's a study in porch and yard ornamentation.; 8/9/09, 7:22 PM
Peter Hoh said...: The house has a pretty good view out the back windows. What's the view from the porch look like?; 8/9/09, 8:04 PM
Rialby said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/09, 8:23 PM
Rialby said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/09, 8:25 PM
Rialby said...: Let me try this one last time. I dropped the little yellow guy on the Google Map and this one was the first house that appeared. Too weird.

Little green house; 8/9/09, 8:28 PM
Rialby said...: Not working, I give up.; 8/9/09, 8:28 PM
Big Mike said...: @Rialby, nice try though.; 8/9/09, 9:19 PM
section9 said...: Where teh f**k is the Baby Jesus in your Christmas decorations?!!!!!

And where is the Statue of Gay Titus?; 8/9/09, 9:36 PM
Janis Gore said...: Santa on the left is adoring the Christ child.; 8/9/09, 10:02 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Rialby, close enough so that I could find it with a few clicks. Good job.; 8/9/09, 10:23 PM
Penny said...: No lawn jockey, Chip?; 8/9/09, 10:33 PM
Brad V said...: It looks like an iteration of a New Orleans shotgun house...wildly out of place.; 8/10/09, 5:49 AM
Largo said...: """
When the rain beat down on the shack's tin roof
Those rare rainy nights in the high desert town,
It bare covered the cries of the miner's wife
As he beat her, his sorrows for to drown.
"""

ricpic:

My Google-fu was not sufficient to source this. Did you compose it?

Outstanding.; 9/4/09, 5:11 AM