"The House that Hats Built"

[RBH]

"Last Link To Orleans' Stetson House Dies"

 

[hatsRme]

"Last Link To Orleans' Stetson House Dies"

Is the link linked?

 

[jlee562]

http://www.wbiw.com/local/archive/2013/05/last-link-to-orleans-stetson-house-dies.php

 

[Art Fawcett]

This is too bad, hate to see history end on such a quiet note.

 

[KingAndrew]

A couple of years ago my wife and I were lucky enough to tour John B. Stetson's home in Deland, Florida (where he founded the school that today is Stetson University). The couple who currently own it had just finished restoring the place and opened it for the weekend. It was definitely not a pre-fab like the house in Orleans. The Deland house is four stories of beautiful wood trim and over the top decoration as only the Victorians could do it. I wore a Panama hat for the visit (although it is not a Stetson).

 

[alanfgag]

Prefab could be pretty fab back in the day.

 

[tonyb]

Prefab could be pretty fab back in the day. ...

It surely could.

The first sentence of Richard Nixon's autobiography -- "I was born in a house my father built." -- packs a whole lotta information about our world and how it has changed over the lifetimes of people born early in the 20th century. He was born at home (common then, quite uncommon in his later years) in the house his father built (again, once common, now rare). I believe the Nixon residence was one of those kit jobs bought from Sears Roebuck (whatever happened to Roebuck?) and delivered on a railcar.

There was a time when using store-bought lumber (as contrasted with milling one's own from whole logs) might have seemed a shortcut. And I'd imagine that earlier than that it might have been deemed extravagant (or lazy, or shoddy, even) to buy manufactured fasteners (nails, pegs, etc.) instead of fashioning one's own.

These day, doors come pre-hung, and kitchen cabinets all but ready to load up with dishes. Few people even craft their own simple garden structures (arbors, etc.) anymore.

I'm wondering how much longer "manufactured" houses will be considered inferior to those of the "stick-built" variety. I can see some real advantages to constructing sections of structures (modules, I suppose we could call them) in a climate-controlled setting, and then transporting them by truck and assembling them on the construction site. Most of the manufactured houses I've seen in recent years seems much more like "regular" houses than anything that might be considered a trailer. (Ooops, 'scuse me. I guess they've been doing that for quite some time now.)

 

[KingAndrew]

Dover publishes several re-prints of kit house catalogs from the turn of the last century which are very interesting to look through. You may well find a few of the nicer old houses in your town came from a kit. It's a pity you can't order 'em like that any more.

A very funny movie from the 1920s about building a kit house is Buster Keaton's first solo film, "One Week."

 

[mingoslim]

My brother bought a 1920s Sear-Roebuck home in the 90s and lived there for a number of years. he sold due to a job move, but I thought the house was incredible . . . a real beauty. In fact, I was always a bit jealous I would see if I can dig up some pics. But I think we are getting way off topic for a Hat thread