Saturday, November 26, 2016

Each House Has A Story

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I wish you could see our basement. Well, no I really don’t. 

But someone else lived in our house, many someones actually, before we did (Jonathan moved in 30 years ago, and I moved in 20 years ago, but our home was built in 1894.)  

The changing owners came and went –and some of them didn’t take all their possessions from the basement. A while ago,  under a pile of other stuff, we found a box of old newspapers.

Turned out, they were from World War I , and were filled with articles about trench warfare  and  photos of camels in Africa. The newspapers are incredible, and I am thinking of sending them to Charles and Caroline Todd. It made me realize that though we love our home, others loved it before us. Others with their own experiences and fears and joys. 


Our dear Susan Van Kirk  has a special house, too.


Ben Franklin: “Marry in haste, repent at leisure.”

                       by Susan Van Kirk

We all have a watershed year in our lives when everything changes forever. Mine was 1968. Within ten weeks I graduated from college, married, began a high school teaching job, and moved into the first floor of a 4,410-square-foot Victorian house that had been converted into apartments in the small town of Monmouth, Illinois. At the time I was a superficial twenty-something and totally oblivious to the history that mansion must have witnessed.

Here I stop to mention that we caught seven mice in the bedroom the first autumn (one of which jumped out of the bed covers I turned down); the upstairs tenant left her bath water on, overflowing into our kitchen; and we saw cockroaches—yes, cockroaches—in that kitchen. I didn’t even know what those ugly things were!

But, I digress. Time and distance add layers of gauze around memories like those.

Well, maybe not the cockroaches.

Years later, this late 19th century house was still visiting my imagination, but now I had a more mature appreciation for its past. I decided to research the McCullough House, using its rooms for the setting of my mystery, Marry in Haste. I wanted to write a novel set in two time periods: 1893 and 2012. The house would connect the stories of two marriages with, of course, a murder or two.

Researching, I discovered that in 1893, Sarah McBroom, a widow, sold the corner lot to a contractor who built the Victorian for W.W. McCullough. McCullough owned a lumberyard, brickyard, and a pottery. He also had shares in a railroad and a local electric trolley line.

He later sold the house to town newcomer John C. Allen, a former Nebraska secretary of state. Allen built a huge dry goods store on the public square, became quite prominent, and was voted into the U.S. House of Representatives. After Allen, other townspeople lived in McCullough House until the 1940s, when a lawyer bought it, converting it into apartments.

The house had mahogany woodwork throughout and leaded glass windows in the foyer with an impressive front staircase that rose to a third-floor ballroom. A servant’s staircase was on the opposite side of the house—not nearly so grand—and city directories listed a number of Irish servants. Although the house was converted to electricity around 1905, the original gas lighting fixtures peered out of the walls.

Our first-floor apartment had three pairs of mahogany pocket doors and a huge living room that used to be two parlors—a public parlor and a private family parlor. I remember my husband and I were up in the wee hours on a summer night in 1969, painting those never-ending walls and watching Armstrong’s walk on the moon.

A study off the living room contained an outside door, but by 1968, that door had disappeared, and the study had become our bedroom and bathroom. The main staircase was above this room. Most mornings around three, one of the upstairs tenants beat a staccato rhythm that jarred us awake as he careened down the stairs to work. His speed and volume indicated tardiness. A kitchen, large walk-in pantry, and dining room completed the downstairs. To give you some idea of the size of the house, the front to the back was the length of a bowling alley.

Now, I look back on that house fondly, and I have made it the 1893 home of Judge Charles Lockwood in Marry in Haste. The powerful Judge Lockwood is on his second marriage, and his new bride is uncovering dangerous secrets. A diary hidden in the house and found in the present day reveals clues to those secrets and parallels a murder in present-day Endurance.

This is the wonder of writing fiction. This lovely 19th century mansion, minus the mice and cockroaches, has been restored to its former splendor just in time to accommodate murder.

Do you have a favorite book that revolves around a particular location?

HANK: What a great question! Can’t go wrong with Maycombe County. Or the Mushroom Planet.  What do you all think?


Marry in Haste
It is 2012 in the small town of Endurance, and wealthy banker, Conrad Folger, is murdered and his wife, Emily, arrested. Emily Folger was one of Grace Kimball’s students in the past, and Grace knows Emily could never murder anyone. So, Grace joins Detective TJ Sweeney to investigate the murder, and they uncover a dark secret.
In 1893, Olivia Havelock, age seventeen, moves to Endurance to seek a husband. She finds one in Charles Lockwood, powerful and wealthy judge, but her diary reveals a terrifying story.
Two wives—two murders a century apart—and a shocking secret connects them. Marry in Haste is a story of the resilience of women, both in the past and the present.


48 comments:

  1. Oh, Susan, “Marry in Haste” sounds like quite an adventure . . . I’m looking forward to reading it.

    A favorite book revolving around a particular location? I just finished reading Chris Grabenstein’s “Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library” with my granddaughter. The location is a library, and it’s a great book.
    If the particular location is a town, as in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” then I have MANY favorites, like Julia's wonderful books set in Millers Kill . . . .

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  2. Hi, Joan, I'll have to check out the Grabenstein book since I have eight grandchildren of my own. And you can't beat a library as a location--my favorite home away from home. I often think about Manderley--from "Rebecca"--when I let my mind wander through locations.

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  4. Oh thank you, Susan, for this addition to my TBR list.

    I love the notion of an old house and its history inspiring a book. Two of my favorites written around this theme are CHILD GARDEN and QUIET NEIGHBORS by Catriona MacPherson. The latter is an old book shop theme and the former about a house that she actually lived in.

    I have an oldish house too, built in 1923. A few years ago, when we tore off the rook to the rafters, we found a bundle of papers tucked up into the eaves of the attic. They included newspapers of the time the house was built plus a couple of magazines and a catalogue. This inspired us to wrap up our own time capsule, a Sunday edition of the NYT, and we put both packages back for someone to find in a hundred years when the next tear off is needed.

    This year we tore out our kitchen to the studs, discovered that our new one would be the fourth iteration. It was wonderful to see how many places the sink had been located (4) and find the drain for the old ice box. And all the old wallpaper! My favorite was a section of the ceiling that was a red provincial print. I remembered my mother putting a similar paper on the kitchen ceiling back in the 50s when this was quite the style.

    Old houses are full of stories and secrets and dreams. Those of us who live in one are privileged to discover them, and those of you who write have a wealth of material in those walls, waiting to be let out to air.

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  5. Sounds like a wonderful story Susan! Ann, I love the idea of you putting your own time capsule back in the wall.

    the question makes me think of Hallie's NEVER TELL A LIE. She's shown me the house where she set that book, right around the block from her real house...

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  6. Hi, Ann,

    You are so right about old houses and the treasures they hide. I grew up in the 1950s, and when I moved into my current house, the kitchen was still from the early 50s when the house was built. I have corrected that since I figure living through that period once was enough. How fortunate you are that you find these lovely historical clues about the people who lived there before you.

    The house in my life and book was razed in 1990, sadly. It takes so much money to maintain these old houses. I believe one of my characters said, "It's like driving a Brinks truck into a huge, dark hole." But the history of houses like yours and the one in my book is priceless, and I had so much fun researching the owners of the Victorian I lived in for five years. How wonderful that you are leaving a time capsule for the future!

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  7. Lucy, Hallie and I share the idea that we write mysteries that have some aspects of the real world in them--a setting, a house, a historical event like the Lana Turner murder story. This house allowed me to connect the two stories a century apart, so it was instrumental in the plot twists too.

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  8. Most of my career has been spent in college teaching/cultural resources management--until about 25 years ago, it was all about archaeology--identifying, preserving, or excavating important prehistoric and historic sites. Then historic preservation began to include architectural history, too--oh the stories our works tell about us-- from the traces of an early coal mine to the grandest avenue of mansions in an urban setting. Someone once stumbled upon a log cabin in the woods, long-forgotten in a state forest. Or combining the two--documenting a great house and using archaeology to guide the restoration of its outbuildings and gardens--

    I love when fiction weaves the past through the present, because it is all around us, if you just loo! Can't wait to add your book to my pile, Susan!

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  9. Just look! Although a loo is quite another story--both architecturally and archaeologically!! ;-)

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  10. Thank you, FChurch,

    I agree with you about history, the past, the present, and the clues. I love to read about those aspects of life, and you are so fortunate in your job. I've always thought archaeology combines so many different disciplines, and people whose jobs even touch on that are so lucky.

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  11. This sounds like a fascinating book, which will definitely be added to my TBR pile.

    I grew up in a great, old (1700s) house in Barnstable, MA. It also had the front and back staircases, and you had to walk through some of the upstairs bedrooms to get to others. Now a lot of the old houses on the Cape with designs like these are being torn down to build ugly (in my opinion, anyway) mega-mansions, which really bothers me. I understand that the designs aren't always convenient for modern living, but still, I think so much of our past is being lost that way.

    When I think about settings for books, I first think about the house in Jane Langton's The Diamond in the Window. I met the author once, and she said all her books started with a location, where she was able to imagine the characters and events taking place. The house in that book, and the city of Concord, MA itself, play a huge role in the plot and theme.

    I also think about Laura Ingalls Wilder's books; of course for the time period, but also for the unique places that each of the books was set in. As a child, I really wanted to live in the dugout house in On the Banks of Plum Creek. Now, not so much, but I do still enjoy reading about it!

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  12. Susan, love the story of your house. when people ask me where my books are set, I always say it's all about the house. A fabulous Victorian (I think of it as the house that got away) that my husband and I bid on years ago is the setting for my first standalone, NEVER TELL A LIE. And a big pink house where I stayed in a B&B in Beaufort SC is one of the settings of my new book YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR.

    And Oh, Hank, Please do NOT tell my husband about your basement.

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  13. Oh, and, the story about the wallpaper is so lovely! There are still suitcases in our basement that I don't know who belong too! And I am hesitant to open them for some strange reason…

    Someone back in the 50s put siding on our house, and several years ago a wind storm blew some of it off. Underneath were beautiful carved shingles, absolutely gorgeous. So I decided we would rip the siding off the entire house.
    However. You cannot believe how much the contractor said that would cost… You cannot believe it! So we repaired the siding, and now it looks fine. I know it has a secret underneath.

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  14. Oh Hallie, Jerry would be perfect in our basement! He's exactly the person to bring!… Let me think about that. :-)

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  15. MaryC -- oh my goodness, the diamond in the window house! Have we talked about this? That is my favorite book of all time, and I can absolutely picture that house. Do you know if it was a real one? I have seen it so often in my imagination, it might as well be real.

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  16. Thanks for stopping in, Mary. I always love that feeling of getting lost in the setting of a novel. It seems so familiar when you pick up the next book in the series!

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  17. Thanks, Hallie. It was quite an interesting house, and it became even more so when I researched its past. These Midwestern towns with public buildings from the 1800s, as well as houses, struggle to keep them maintained. So pehaps this one will be remembered at least. Sorry you lost your bid--I suppose that will be forever remembered as "the one that got away."

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  18. Oh, Susan, I'm itching to see the house in the flesh. So sad, but not surprising, that it's been torn down.

    Peeling away the layers of previous owners is the best reward for renovation. When I moved into my house in Miami I tore the 1951 air conditioners out of the wall and discovered the space around them had been stuffed with Miami Herald newspapers, all from Memorial Day weekend 1951. Some were stuck together with cement, but those that I could pry apart were 100% readable. Hank, I bet your newspapers were equally well preserved. They used such high-quality paper in those days.

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  19. Those old newspapers are a real find. When I began researching for various aspects of my mysteries, I discovered how much bigger and longer they were than present day newspapers, and the ads were just a marvel to behold. Even our little hometown newspaper had many pages on world and national news. I could sit and look at them for hours. They are like time capsules. How lucky for you, Kait and Hank!

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  20. I'm an 1820 house owner - a 3,000 square foot Greek Revival plus barn plus two outbuildings, and believe me, I understand about the never-ending cost to maintain an old house. It's worth it though, if only for the original materials and craftsmanship that could never be replicated today.

    "Novels where the house is one of the main characters" made me think of your books, Hallie, especially NEVER TELL A LIE and THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN. There's the house on Indian/Soldier's Island in AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Of course the ultimate house-as-character is Hill House, in Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE.

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  21. You have carried me back to my freshman year of college in Monmouth, IL, though I never saw that house. I'll look forward to some memories in this book.
    Also, in my years in Minneapolis, I lived in an older duplex. The downstairs landlady had been born in the house and bought it from her parents' estate. Then I moved to a 1920's era efficiency off Loring Park, with amenities like a little door from the kitchen cabinets to the hall for the delivery of ice and hardware for Murphy bed and built-in ironing board . . . and yes, cockroaches.

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  22. Some house really do speak.
    I live in one built by a man who rode with Buffalo Bill. Oh, would I have loved to hear his stories.

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  23. I live in a neighborhood that was a town annexed by the City of Tampa in 1953. My property had been an apiary. The house, built in 1992, had a sad history. It was sold 5 times in 6 years. The last owner ran it as a drug house. I bought it from the city in 1999, and am restoring it step by step. In December we tackle the bad electrical outlets in the kitchen.

    Fictionally houses? 221 Baker street, Tara, Toad Hall, the houseboat from Lucy's Key West food critic series -- I wanted to rent that one --. and so many others.

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  24. It's sounds like a beautiful house, Susan, and a terrific setting for a mystery. I have to wonder, what job was your neighbor late for at 3:00 a.m.? Grave digger?

    Before moving to Seattle, my husband and I lived in a house built in 1865 in Needham, MA. We decided to renovate the bathroom and when we opened up the wall, we found a collection of razors. We did a little research and were told that men would slip their used razors into a hole in the wall to dispose of them "safely." Subsequent homeowners had filled in the hole, but the razors remained. Has anyone else ever heard of this?

    I'm not familiar with "Diamond in the Window" and need to look that up, and Hank, you have to open those suitcases!

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  25. Oh, Susan, Marry in Haste is going on my Christmas books wish list. I am fascinated by the history of old houses and the people who lived in them. I only lived in such a house for the first two years of my life, so I have to get my hunger for old houses satisfied through reading.

    Lucy, thanks for reminding me about Hallie's Never Tell a Lie set in that house with a history. I loved that book, Hallie. Hank, what a great find of the papers featuring WWI. I think I would have to explore what other treasures your basement holds. The only thing left behind in the house we've lived in for 28 years was a Mattel jack-in-the-box that my younger granddaughter likes to creep me out with. Now, when we went through my parent's belongings and years of saved materials, there were some interesting period finds, camera accessories, grooming kits, clothes, magazines and newspapers, beaded purses, and the like.

    Fictional houses? Hmm, I love the house where Gemma and Duncan lease, but I'm not sure how old it is. Debs? Maggie Hope's inherited London house in Susan's series interests me. The houseboat in Lucy's Key West series intrigued me. I'm reading Took: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn, a book my seven-year-old granddaughter gave me to read, and it takes place in an old house with a most scary history.

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  26. Rhys says place is as much a character as the people, and your essay proves it, Susan. The way you describe this one makes me want to visit and get to know it even better.

    Our house was built in 1939, and we are the fifth owners. We have changed it a lot in 31 years, including leaving our own kind of time capsule. We had the hallway turned into a coat closet on one side and a pantry on the other. Our carpenter, a family friend, had my two then-young daughters sign and date the framing before he put the drywall in.

    Over the years I've found quirky details. The flagstones on our front walk turned out to be some kind of flat stones used in printing newspapers, complete with faded print. Too faded to read, alas. But the craziest thing I found was a sexy pair of black nylon panties, circa 1970, tucked (hastily, perhaps?) into the ceiling joists in the basement. If they could have talked!

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  27. Rhys says place is as much a character as the people, and your essay proves it, Susan. The way you describe this one makes me want to visit and get to know it even better.

    Our house was built in 1939, and we are the fifth owners. We have changed it a lot in 31 years, including leaving our own kind of time capsule. We had the hallway turned into a coat closet on one side and a pantry on the other. Our carpenter, a family friend, had my two then-young daughters sign and date the framing before he put the drywall in.

    Over the years I've found quirky details. The flagstones on our front walk turned out to be some kind of flat stones used in printing newspapers, complete with faded print. Too faded to read, alas. But the craziest thing I found was a sexy pair of black nylon panties, circa 1970, tucked (hastily, perhaps?) into the ceiling joists in the basement. If they could have talked!

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  28. OH, LOVE reading these..on the road and rushing--more to come..xo

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  29. This sounds like a book with feminine magnetism. I have become one of those house owners who left bits of my former life chapters in the house basement while I ran off to Hawaii for a few more life chapters it seems. Thanks for sharing about this book with us as it sounds like a goodread and a keeper! Happy Holidays!

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  30. Thanks, Julia. I agree with you about old houses. They are fascinating, and if you have the time to research and the money to maintain, they are quite an interesting part of a life.

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  31. storytellermary, Ah, what a small world. This house was several blocks west of the campus. Many other Victorians were on the campus side of town on East Broadway. Sounds like you have had quite an experience with houses.

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  32. jrlindermuth, Isn't that always the way...by the time we are ready to hear thoe stories, the storytellers aren't there.

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  33. Coralee, I agree with you on those houses! Isn't it interesting what a setting can make you feel?

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  34. Ingrid,

    The guy upstairs worked for the railroad, and we live in an area where the railroads pass each other in the middle of the country. Lots of history with railroads here.

    I had never heard that story about razors. That is really interesting.

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  35. Hi, Kathy,

    I agree with you about old houses. It took me a couple of weeks to research the history of this house, starting when the property was divided in 1857. I often wonder if Sarah McBroom was a widow because her husband died in the Civil War.
    You've chosen some very interesting fictional settings!

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  36. Oh, Karen, that is a hilarious story. The 1970s were a rather wild time.

    When we cleaned out our parent's basement after my mother died and my father moved into a smaller place, we found their love letters from WWII when my father was overseas. It was a wonderful find because they had a secret code so that he could let her know where he was without the censors finding out. They're both gone now, and I cherish these letters. If my brother and I hadn't done the cleaning, they might have been lost forever.

    Old houses. Most interesting stories!

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  37. And thanks to Hank Phillippi Ryan for hosting me on the Jungle Red Writers site today. It's been a great day, and I've heard some interesting stories. That is always good for a writer's brain.

    Thanks to everyone who stopped in to comment.

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  38. Ingrid and Susan,

    As a child I lived in an apartment that had a slot in the medicine cabinet for razor blades! I grew up thinking that all bathroom medicine cabinets had them. I always wondered what would happen when the space filled up with razor blades, I don't ever remember asking my parents about that, oddly! The building was new when we moved into it in the early 1950s when I was two years old. Maybe it was a 50s "thing"?
    Deb Romano

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  39. Oh, SUsan, the love letters! That is..so touching and wonderful.

    And I've seen those razor slots, too! And wondered, too...

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  40. And we know our house was owned by the man who was the editor of the local newspaper--what a coincidence, right? Maybe that's why he saved the newspapers---if that's who saved them.

    Ingrid, when you come to town this January--Ingrid and i are appearing together at a local Barnes & Noble for INgrid's new book!--I will give you a cppy of Diamond in the WIndow. I always have a few extras, just in case.

    KAthy, that jack in the box is too creepy. That's why I'm not opening all the boxes. Quite yet. xoo

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  41. Susan, thank you! What a completely fascinating blog--and your book sounds terrific. Best of luck--and you are always welcome here!

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  42. Hank - I didn't realize you were also a fan of A Diamond in the Window. Cool beans! Yes, the house is based on a real house in Concord, I think on Walden Street. One of these days I'm going to go there to walk around and find it!

    I had completely forgotten about those razor blade slots until you and Susan mentioned them. I was never sure how they worked, either!

    Was thinking about one other house that was used as a deliciously creepy setting -- the one Agatha Christie wrote about in Sleeping Murder. I just loved how the protagonist kept discovering that everything was where she thought it would be. And the wallpaper she wanted to paper the room with was found underneath when they stripped off the present layer to re-paper. I don't know if it was based on a real house or not, but I always thought it was so well done!

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  43. I believe we have definitely decided that old houses are fascinating! It is always interesting to use your imagination to people that house ahead of your arrival. This is one of the great things authors get to do!

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  44. MaryC-so great! Let's go together.

    Susan--xxoxoo

    See you all tomorrow for a debate!

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  45. Susan, Marry in Haste sounds like just my kind of book and it's going right on my list. I was fascinated by similar Victorian houses like that in my home town- my family's was completely characterless - and now live in a neighborhood where they were all built around 1900. And I did write a book about one of them,Brooklyn Bones, the first in my Brooklyn series. I suspect some of this interest comes from reading English authors who wrote about old houses through tie- Rumer Godden's China Court (no words to say how good it is!) and several by Norah Lofts about various real and very old homes. She imagined the stories through the many centuries. Happy to say when I re-read them, they held up pretty well.

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  46. Triss--so great to see you! Rumer Godden? Looking that up right now..thank you!

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