Followup post: The Old Half House

Crop of a photo provided by @nigeldraper on Twitter

I kept digging for information after Saturday's post about The Old Half House postcard, which featured a dwelling in St Leonards-on-Sea, Borough of Hastings, County of East Sussex, England.

Thanks to Twitter amplification from @AnnieBrassey, @bexhillmuseum and others, the image of the postcard traveled far and wide. Then Twitter's @GentTracy directed me to a relevant post on 1066 Online, which is named after the year of the Battle of Hastings and is a forum for news and history about St Leonards-on-Sea and Hastings. The post features another view of the Old Half House, calling it Half Way House. The photo is from the Geoff Wolfe collection and is said to be circa 1910. The comments provided some major leads:

Cliff Mewett in August 2018: "I think this house stood at the bottom of Wishing Tree Road at the junction with Crowhurst Road, hence the signpost."

Lynda in July 2019: "I pass this house everyday whilst walking my dogs. It’s very intriguing as most of it is hidden from view. I once chatted to the lovely lady that now lives there. She was clearing and weeding the road approaching the house. Very public spirited!"

WHOA! So the house is still around in 2019. That's a bit of an upset, right?

Twitter provided a little more information. A second confirmation came from @SandraJDaniels, who wrote: "It appears it's still exists, now surrounded by housing development from over the years." And then @nigeldraper provided the satellite image of Old Half House that appears at the top of this post. It's clearly there, embedded within its own little timeslip of a tiny forest at the corner of those two aforementioned roads. And it is indeed surrounded by modern homes.

For the next steps, it would be great to get some more information about the history of the house. And also to see some ground-level photographs of how it looks now.

I agree with @gotpenmustwrite, who tweets: "I’m already planning a dark, gothic mystery based there in Angela Carter style."

I also had another idea pop into my head: I bet a could easily send a letter to the "the lovely lady that now lives there."

Stay tuned.

Artsy photographs from atop the Empire State Building

Taken during a family trip July 27, 2019.

Saturday's postcard: The Old Half House

I'm not sure if the The Old Half House still exists, but here's what I know about it.

1. The sign on the left states: "H. Riggs Half Way House, R. Fry & Cos., High Class Mineral Waters"

2. The sign to the right of the gate states: "TEAS"

3. The house was located on Wishing Tree Road in St Leonards-on-Sea, Borough of Hastings, County of East Sussex, England.

4. St Leonards-on-Sea, under the direction of Decimus Burton, came to build such locations as The Cottage, Maze Hill House, The Mount (13 houses), and The Lawn in the mid 19th century, but I find no reference regarding the construction, existence or fame of Old Half House.

5. You can see additional views of Old Half House here and here on Flickr. That first one, especially, shows the wonderful oddness of the land and structure. It must have an amazing story!

This postcard appears to have been mailed in August 1910 from Hastings. It went to Bow, London.

Per my deciphering skills, the note states:

Dear Lily,
We are enjoying ourselves very much. Are having fine weather except for occasional showers. Grandma sends best love & hopes you will all be able to come to Southend with us. Hoping you will enjoy your holiday.
From your loving friend Gladys

Note: This was the 800th Papergreat post with the "Postcards" label.

Another round of pruning family photos, Part 5

Final installment!

1. The cursive writing on the back states Dorothy Spring on the top line and Buck on the second line. This raises a number of possibilities:

• A person named Dorothy Spring Buck
• A person named Dorothy Spring and a second person named Buck
• A person named Dorothy Buck, shown in the Spring

The third one is admittedly farfetched, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

I do believe it's about 80-90% likely that the woman on the right is my great-grandmother, Greta Miriam Chandler Adams (1894-1988).

2. The woman is Emily Elliott Simmons (1856-1928), who is from a side branch of the family tree. Given her age here, we can guess this photo is from the late 1910s or the 1920s. The identity of the child is not clear. But the photo caption notes that he/she is 5 months old.

3. Caption on back: "Here I am in my fishing rig under the banana trees in the back yard. Return it if you don't want it."

I know nothing else about this photo. Nor do I know who to return it to.

4. This one just says "Auntie Simmons" on the back, which is not terribly helpful in a family tree full of people named Simmons. The 2½-inch-wide photo card is from A. Gawthrop & Co. of Wilmington, Delaware (John Curtis, operator).

5. And, finally, this CYKO real photo postcard, which dates to between 1904 and 1929, features Estelle Chandler Wilmot (1866-1956). She was one of Greta's aunts. Having been the primary individual in charge of cleaning out the house on Oak Crest Lane, I can tell you I never saw that hat.

Book cover: "The Book of the Damned"

The book that launched Fortean studies...

• Title: The Book of the Damned
• Author: Charles Fort (1874-1932)
• Original publication year: 1919, by Boni & Liveright, making this year the 100th anniversary of the book's publication
• Publisher: Ace Books (an Ace Star book)
• Publication date of this edition: 1967, per the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, which gives that year for Ace's H-24 edition. Ace also published K-156, which had essentially the same cover, in 1962.
• Cover price: 60 cents
• Pages: 287
• Format: Paperback
• Cover blurbs:
  
  • "One of the greatest books ever written." — Tiffany Thayer
  • The original and greatest compilation of 1,001 attested phenomena that science cannot answer and deliberately ignores. Taylor Caldwell says that no other book has "so filled me with wonder, speculation and excitement."
• Preface writer: Donald A. Wollheim
• Introduction writer: Tiffany Thayer
• First lines: "A procession of the damned.
  By the damned, I mean the excluded.
  We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded."
• Last two words: "...supernatural influences."
• Random sentence from middle #1: "But at least temporarily we shall have an impression of a historic fiasco, such as, in our acceptance, could only occur in a quasi-existence."
• Random sentence from middle #2: "Sooner or later we shall have to take up an expression that fragments of steel have fallen from the sky."

• Goodreads rating: 3.65 stars (out of 5.0)
• Goodreads positive review excerpt: In 2015, Kaiser Penderschloß wrote: "Neither a crank nor some sort of prophet of Truth, Charles Fort brought wry humor to the usually dreadfully humorless process of questioning our most basic assumptions about reality and dealing with data that just doesn't 'fit'."
• Goodreads negative review excerpt: In 2013, Mandy wrote: "What a slog this is — I may not finish. Fort builds his arguments slowly and the narrative thread is thin; his method is to convince the reader by overwhelming with similar data points — it is tiresome at best."
• Amazon rating: 3.9 stars (out of 5.0)
• Amazon positive review: Earlier this year, Ralph E. Vaughan wrote: "The original compendium of the mysterious and unexplained, and it's still as relevant now as it was to Fort's first readers. I suppose what's kept it fresh is the fact that Fortean events (as they are now known) continue to this day. Though his literary descendants have the advantage of instantaneous communication and worldwide news sources, none of them write with Fort's verve and excitement."
• Amazon somewhat negative review excerpt: In 2002, John Landry wrote: "Criticizing science is one thing but by coming up with equally as silly theories, Fort has painted himself into a corner. He believes that there is a 'Super Sargasso Sea' in our upper atmosphere that harbors fish, frogs and gelatinous substances."
• One last thing: In 2008, Jim Steinmeyer published a biography titled Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural. In reviewing the book for The Independent that year, David V. Barrett wrote:
  

  "There's no doubt that Fort crossed the line between an enthusiast and an obsessive. His life, as graphically portrayed in this book, was often frustrated and unfulfilled. But the legacy he left makes the world a brighter place: paradoxically, both saner and sillier."
  

The colorful back cover

Another round of pruning family photos, Part 4

Still plugging away...

1. Helen Simmons Carey, (possibly Helen Gregg Simmons Carey). She lived from 1894 to 1957 and was a cousin to some of my ancestors. It doesn't seem to be known who the child is. This photo is on a real photo postcard that was produced by Cummings' studio in Wilmington, Delaware. Based on the AZO stamp box, it was produced between 1924 and 1949. (If you've been following along, you might have noticed that many of these photos have already been scanned and placed in the Find A Grave database. That was the handiwork of Mom.)

2. Look, it's a kid hanging out with books and ephemera! Written on the back is "Edna?" but then that's crossed out and someone appears to have scrawled "Swithin" underneath. If that's the correct ID, it would be Dr. Swithin T. Chandler (1888-1961), who was the older brother of my great-grandmother, Greta Miriam Chandler Adams (1894-1988). The cabinet card was shot at A.P. Beecher at 315 Market Street in Wilmington, Delaware. So they were probably just the photographer's prop books.

3. Someone has written Sophie Simmons on the front of this cabinet card, which was shot at A.K.P. Trask on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Obviously, with the name Simmons, this young lady fits somewhere into the family tree. Bauduy Simmons (1805-1882) was one of Greta's grandfathers. But I don't see an obvious Sophie anywhere in the main tree.

4. And, finally, we have Elizabeth Simmons Sheward, per the writing on the back of the card. Hey, I just saw her when I was looking through Bauday's side of the family. I think. There's an Irene Simmons Sheward (1871-1923) and her daughter, Elizabeth Ann Sheward Burns (1894-1985). I wonder if there was a mixup or conflation somewhere in the photo notations. This cabinet card was shot at Jarvis White & Co. in Davenport, Iowa. That company lists itself as the successor to Hastings, White & Fisher.

Another round of pruning family photos, Part 3

Still plugging away...

1. Adella Fredd??? The cursive writing on the back appears to be that of my great-grandmother, Greta Miriam Chandler Adams (1894-1988). The full text is: "Adella Fredd, Papa's older sister." But Greta's Papa was Lilburn Chandler (1858-1948), and I don't believe he had a sister, or even a half-sister, by that name. So I'm left confused. It's possible, of course, that the caption is incorrect, in which case we're left at its mercy. This cabinet card was taken at A.P. Beecher of Wilmington, Delaware. (It's also possible I'm misdeciphering "Adella Fredd.")

2. Mystery. No caption whatsoever on this miniature cabinet card (2½ inches wide) from M. & W. Garrett of Wilmington, Delaware.

3. Another mystery. I have no idea who, where, or when this is. It's just a thin snapshot. Cool dress.

4. Katie, 1935. This is Katie holding a lot of flowers in 1935. There's a short last name written after Katie, but it's illegible. My best guesses would be Cure, Luce, or something along those lines.

5. Gertrude Horsey Winder and Edward John Winder. Gertrude (1881-1963) was mentioned in a previous post. She was the aunt of my great-grandfather, Howard Horsey “Ted” Adams (1892-1985). Edward (1858–1952) was her second husband. The caption states: "This is Uncle Ed and Aunt Gertrude snapped in 1940 on beach at Fort Lauderdale, Fla."

New Deal with an old ephemera vibe

As you might guess, I firmly believe that the United States needs a Green New Deal as soon as possible, if not sooner. I don't require any convincing regarding the science of climate change.

I also firmly believe that these new posters touting the Green New Deal (pictured above) are freaking awesome.

Any poster style would have been great, I'm sure. But these are, as CityLab's Amanda Kolson Hurley explains, "intended to evoke posters produced nearly a century ago by a singular federal program in American history: the Federal Art Project, an office of the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration." The new posters were released by the office of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was one of the driving forces behind the Green New Deal resolution in February. The designs are by Scott Starrett and Gavin Snider of Tandem.

More from the CityLab article:

"The Federal Art Project was one of five cultural initiatives, known collectively as Federal One, that employed out-of-work writers, musicians, artists, and actors. Over the eight years of its existence, the project’s thousands of artists produced a staggering amount of public art, including 108,000 paintings, 17,000 sculptures, and 2,500 murals. Some 35,000 poster designs were part of that output.

"The posters served manifold purposes, from advertising dramatic productions, agricultural fairs, and community art classes, to issuing public-health warnings about tuberculosis testing and workplace hazards. In the program’s final years, after the United States had entered World War II, artists designed posters with messages urging citizens to be on the alert and to support the war effort.

"Perhaps the best-recognized Federal Art Project posters today, though, are the ones from the 1930s that advertised national parks and monuments. Often rendered in pastel and earth tones, they conveyed the majesty of landscapes like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone in a style that was modern and romantic at once."

And what did the old WPA posters look like? You won't be surprised to learn that I have some reprint postcards of those designs. Here are a few:

Only about 2,000 of the original 35,000 WPA posters still exist, and the Library of Congress has a collection of about 900 of them.