I’m still knee deep in organizing files and putting information back onto the database portion of the website. I thought I would post here the pictures I posted on my Facebook for family this weekend. It never hurts to get more eyes on a mystery so every once and awhile I post some pictures for them all to see if they remember or recognize anything! This weekend was a success because within 24 hours my cousin, Peter, had figured out where these pictures were taken. Not because he’d been there and recognized it but from some old fashioned searching!
The Pictures
What We Knew
- The pictures were taken around September of 1963, because that’s when they were developed.
- William and Llewellyn took many trips up and down the East Coast. As far north as Vermont (identified so far at least) and as far south as Key West.
- You can see a partial view of the house from the first picture in the second and a partial view of the yellow house from the middle picture is shown in the right picture.
Another Clue
Developed at the same time were a few slides from Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. William seems to be wearing the same outfit. I’ve tried to find a view of Sturbridge that fits the pictures I have but it’s been 62 years so I’m not sure Google Street View is my best option.
Tell me you wrote the caption above before Sunday morning without telling me you wrote the caption above before Sunday Morning. 🔽🔽🔽🔽
I Guess Google Street View was an Option
He sent me a screenshot from Google Street View of this view on my Facebook post and I jumped up and pretty much yelled for my family to look. 😂 To say I was excited would be an understatement. I really thought I was never going to find this one. I’ve been searching on and off for years and he found it in less than 24 hours! It’s really amazing and shows that things you are meant to find will find you somehow. Like on a random Sunday morning when your cousin checks Facebook and gets curious.
The next two are really hard to line up. The perspective is hard to replicate with just Google Street View. I tell ya, I’m so close to planning a redo of these pictures. 😂 The bench from the 1963 photo is no longer there. There is a bench a few feet to the left of this view but it’s an updated bench design. The gazebo is obviously a new addition since 1963. You can see the building with the green double doors in both photos. The white buildings are a little more complicated so bear with me. In the far left of the Google Street View photo you can see the white building that had the fence in front of it previously. It’s hard to tell completely, so lets get a little closer.
We have to focus on each section of house separately. Notice how the one in black and white looks to be on a platform. I believe that was because it was being moved, but we are getting ahead of ourselves! The fences are gone now, but you can tell the number of windows, dormers and even that unique double door situation here is present in both the 1963 picture and the Google Street View. The one drawback to my slide scanner is it doesn’t scan the whole photo. It gets about 98% of the photo, just a small bit of edge cuts off. I am going to look at replacing it eventually. I noticed when re-looking at the original slide that the storage box next to the stairs might also have been present in 1963.
It looks as if that building was moved down the street and now houses the gift shop for the Maritime museum. I don’t know where it’s original location was, but I’m sure there is more research that could be done about this whole museum and I would be able to fill in more of my gaps.
I really love it. I was feeling sad this week. Just another reason to show me that even though sometimes I feel like I’m posting too much information, or being boring, I’m doing the right thing. The research whether its good, bad or just random mysteries, was meant to be shared with whoever finds value in it.