My Grandparents House

  My Grandparents House was built right into the side of Flynn's Hill. Nestled in a small cove-type setting at the base of the hill. As I mentioned before, my grandfather wrote that he built this house in 1920, which was also the year that his father Stephen Sr died. My Grandfather had not married my grandmother at this point, but his mother Mary Ann was still living. His nephew, William would of been 10 years old, and had come to live with him and his parents 3 years prior.  I wonder where their old house was located?  Looking at this photo you can see how the house is settled back into the hill, in so much as, the hill, is the back wall of the house, actually part of the root cellar. And there, as I wrote in my last post, the upper right-hand window is "the girls room".

    You can see, in this photo, how the house comes right to the hill.  The small door that is open is the root cellar. I would say, my Grandfather built the stone wall, along the side for support. There was a door inside the hallway that lead to the root cellar as well.  When the house was built, it had no running water nor indoor plumbing and used a wood burning stove for heat. It was not until the 1950's or 60's that they had indoor plumbing, Uncle Ray told me, Uncle George helped Grand Dad install the plumbing . Aunt Agnes states as far as she can remember they always had electricity, although she says many houses in the area used kerosene oil lamps, when she was growing up.  

 In this photo, to the right is my Grandmother, Ellen, playing the accordian, she is sitting with Aunt Hilda (Uncle George's wife) photo was taken  in the 1970's. Aunt Hilda was often always there helping my grandparents.