History of the Sheridan House
Yesterday I posted a quick history, but thankfully Art, who I bought the house from, provided a much better history of the house with more details. Rather than just change the previous post, I decided to give it a new post and just add a note to the previous one.
The Sheridan House was built in the early 1920s. A few years after being built, the original owners sold it to the Buist family from whom I bought it this year. Charles and Helen Buist (immigrants from Scotland) moved-in in 1925, along with their children: Charles, Jr. (14), Helen (18) and Mona (11). In the mid-1930’s Charles, Jr. (in his early 20’s) undertook a renovation of the house, which changed a bedroom to the kitchen, and vis-versa, (the old kitchen had a hand-pump for water). An inside bathroom was installed (the original house had an outhouse in the back). The livingroom was expanded and a fireplace was built.
Charles Sr. passed away in 1952, and Mrs. Helen Buist passed away in 1975, at age 92. Their son Charles Jr. took care of the house for the next 30 years. The lawn was kept mowed and overall the property was maintained so as to not be an eyesore. In September 2004, Charles Jr. allowed his son Art to take the living room and dining room furniture, so Art could furnish a newly purchased vintage rowhouse in Baltimore. Charles Jr. passed away peacefully at his son’s house in Baltimore, in March 2005, age 94, surrounded by the furniture that had been at the house on Sheridan for so many years. Art Buist then set about closing-out not only the house on Sheridan, but also his own boyhood home which his father had built and lived in, in another part of Rockford.
August 25th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
[...] Update: This “quick history” is missing a lot of details. A more complete version can be found here. You may have read how a little trailer led to our buying the Sheridan House. I haven’t, however, posted yet about the interesting history of the Sheridan House. As a bonus, I’ve got a few newly-acquired photos of the interior from days gone by. This short history isn’t meant to be exact or exhaustive, but more just to share the interesting story of the house. [...]