19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, October 18, 1914: << no entry>>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I thought that you might enjoy some before and after pictures of houses in the August, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
Bright yellow, walls, a black roof and a bright green porch roof was the riotous color scheme of the house above.
Very slight alteration produced this summer home. All the flimsy filigree work was removed and the second-story porch with dignified white columns was added. Paint of a lovely ivory tine was chosen for the exterior walls.
As originally build this house presented an exterior about as plain and homely as one could find.
The second picture, however, shows how successfully the present owner has transformed it –and at very little expense. The roof was carried down to form the porch roof of an outdoor living-room. Colonial yellow paint and vines gave the finishing touches.
This house is not really ugly, but certainly it is unattractive.
Removing the roof, porch, and bay-window left a good foundation for the new house. The sun room at the left and the porte-cochere at the right give a breadth which tends to overcome the high stilted look it previously had. Repointing the stone work and the new roof complete the transformation.
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A Hundred Years Ago 
Loved these photos. Interesting. And those big homes are gorgeous.
The big,old houses from this era are awesome!
Great post . . . I have always loved seeing homes how homes changed over time . . . the “then and now” type photos. Thank you, I truly enjoyed your post.
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Nothing new under the sun, I guess! So many magazines today feature the same sort of house transformations!
Some things never change–though there are always new twists and turns as the styles and fads change.
It’s so amazing what people do to transform homes!! Spectacular!! Have a super weekend! Hugz Lisa and Bear
Thanks for the kind wishes. I had a very nice week-end. I hope that you also had a wonderful week-end.
I’ve always been partial to those kinds of wood-frame homes – balconies, large porches, tall windows, and usually they have large rooms.
I also really like old wood frame houses, and sometimes wish that I had one–though the maintenance would probably drive me crazy. 🙂
Wow – quite the change to those homes! Seeing black and white photos and having to read about the colors reminds us how things “used to be”.
Each month Ladies Home Journal had a few pages in color–but they apparently were expensive to produce, and pages such as this article on houses were in b&w with descriptions of the colors. When I read the descriptions, I found it difficult to picture exactly what the houses looked like–but I supposed back then people were used to mentally colorizing photos.
I can’t believe they were doing the home makeovers back in the day! Including the pricey makeovers that no normal person could afford, but could just dream about while flipping through magazines.
I think that you are exactly right–that people enjoy looking at pictures of these sorts of major make-overs,but that very few would actually do them .
“Flimsy Filligree Work!” which people pay a fortune for now in architectural remnants warehouses!! Loved this, Sheryl.
Styles change. 🙂
I love these old homes!!! They look so big from outside and were full of rooms that could be closed off with doors. I, also, had no idea that they were doing “makeovers” way back then.
I was also surprised that there were make-overs back then. I would have thought that the “before” houses were relatively new a hundred years ago–and that styles wouldn’t have changed enough to require such a major make-over.
I love this. Right up my alley — what is it about houses …?
It’s always fun to dream about remodeling. I have several fantastic remodeling ideas for my house in my head; but who knows when (and if) we’ll get around to actually doing them. 🙂
I’m betting the day will come …
It’s This Old House 1914 style!
Exactly! I like the way you described it. 🙂
Replacing “flimsy filigree work” with “dignified columns”, my word…
Can you believe it? It’s really weird how “flimsy filigree” was apparently out of style in 1914.
We still like those before and after pictures, don’t we? I am glad you decided to fill in for your grandmother today.
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it.
These are great transformations – who knew they were into this kind of renovation back then too…thanks for finding this.
It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed it. It is fun to see how much the renovations changed the way the houses looked.
I do think these were positive changes that made each house look far more attractive and inviting.
The houses do look nice in the “after” pictures.