Saturday, November 29, 2008

End of an Era

We went back to NC for Thanksgiving to share it with my husband's family. Upon our arrival we saw the remains of our old house which had been burned down as part of a fireman training program.

It was kinda sad to see the shell of the foundation as the only sign of a house that had stood for nearly 80 years. Bill and I had considered buying the old homestead instead of renting it from his family and completely renovating it, but we had known that the cost would not be worth it. The foundation was in poor shape and getting worse. We instead opted to move to Spartanburg and into a house that didn't need such exhaustive work to bring it up to the 20th century, much less the 21st.

There's a lot of history in that old house. It housed the first telephone in the town of Rosman, as Bill's Grandfather was a game warden and the phone was quite useful for his work. It helped raised three generations of kids, my father in law, my husband and my children, all of whom spent a large part of their childhood in that home.

My Sister and law and her husband who did take over the property will likely build on the old site as they are needing more space for their growing family. It was something we too had considered, before moving here. I look forward to how things turn out.

2 comments:

Michael King said...

Wait, they burned down that house? Hell, if I would have known that, I would have had the historical society jump in and prevent it =)

S, Galloway said...

Sadly the house's foundation was in too poor a condition for restoration. That was one of the reasons we hesitated restoring it, and the bad wiring, and the fact that it leaked like a colander when it rained, and the drafty windows. The historical society may have taken a look, but I guess it wasn't deemed that historical to take over.