When I first started this blog, (over 13 years ago!) we had just purchased a small fixer upper house that I planned to renovate and use as a rental property. The little house was a red brick house and charming as could be, so I started to call it ‘the little brick cottage’. The name stuck.
That renovation process is what started the Little Brick Cottage Series here on the blog.
Where it All Started
This was the little brick cottage the day we bought it.
With no heat inside, it somehow felt colder inside the building than out in the snowy front yard.
Although the property was in such a neglected state, with the mechanics in terrible condition, and poorly updated, ill-fitting mid century additions, the house still held onto much of the original character.
When we bought the property, we knew it was old, but no one seemed to know much about it, including just how old it really was.
History Researched
Once the renovation started, as time allowed, I would research the property here and there, and was amazed at what I found out.
There was a catastrophic tornado in 1899 in our town. It is widely known that most of the west side of town was leveled barring a small neighborhood of stately homes. The entire east side of town was completely wiped out. Or so I thought. This little brick cottage is on the east side of town, so even though I knew it was old, I assumed it was built after the 1899 tornado.
Through some digging I found some intriguing history of the little brick cottage!
What a Fighter
I was astonished to find out this property was one of only a couple on the entire east side of town that actually was spared from 1899 tornado! The house only lost the front porch to the storm. We actually found the leftover scars on the façade of the house from that violent front porch annihilation.
This infamous tornado was so horrific, with so much loss of life and property! There has been a couple books written on it describing the rare weather event. THIS one: A Modern Herculaneum. Story of the New Richmond Tornado, with many first hand testimonials from survivors, is absolutely gripping. It’s through their own words as they recall the day it happened, you can nearly envision what they experienced.
The people that owned the little brick cottage in 1899 were featured in that book, and talked about how they barely were spared, and how the porch wasn’t! When she talked about just barely getting to the basement before the murderous funnel removed the entire neighborhood, I now knew the brick walls of the basement she was referencing. Those basement walls are still plumb and sturdy, over 100 year later.
Reading the book and realizing how so many people perished in that 1899 tornado and nearly the entire town was completely flattened, it truly was miraculous they and the house survived. The photos in the book giving witness of the destruction of the town are haunting to say the least.
But that’s not the only tragic event that attempted to destroy this house…
House Fire
Sometime later, at least 10 year or more after that tornado, there was a house fire. It was due to that fire the house lost the 2nd floor. Quite possibly that is when the back room was lost too. Still, even after that tragic event the main part of the house persevered!
I was elated when I stumbled upon an old photo from 1909 showing the little brick cottage when it was still a 2 story, with a carriage house in the back yard.
Before fire took down the 2nd floor of the little brick cottage, it wasn’t so little!
Not only was there a 2nd floor, there was a large attached back room and a carriage house on the property.
The 2nd story, that back room and the carriage house were long gone, maybe a century, before we bought it. During the renovation, evidence of a fire was apparent. We found both charred wood on some of the beams in the attic and it also had a finished wood floor.
Save it, Quick
Knowing about how this little brick cottage fought for survival through the centuries made me all the more want to restore it. It had gotten to a nearly dilapidated state and I felt if someone didn’t rescue it quick, it was going to be lost.
Here are the posts in the order I wrote about the Little Brick Cottage Series as we worked on the renovation:
Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you reading along.
Interested in more reading? HERE is the Blog Landing with the most recent posts.
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