As a portion of the long shotgun house, with its beautiful recessed side porch, is prepared for moving, I heard from Darlene Boesch, whose grandparents once owned the home for many years:
"The house was our best memory of growing up. Thanksgiving dinners, sleepovers, digging for doodle bugs under the red bricks. It will be great to know that someone else will be able to live in this house again and hopefully the spirit of the house will come alive again."
Here are a few old photos, shared with Darlene's permission:
That's Darlene in the pink in the first photo, along with her mother and her sister, sitting on the porch at what was known simply as "MawMaw's House."
3 comments:
This is Darlene's brother Brent Normand, are you going to be able to find out the final location for our grandma's house? We appreciate your efforts. Thanks
Brad, Thank you for your tireless work to document the happenings in this area. My family has many wonderful memories from Tonti Street and I am very sad that I will no longer be able to bring my children there to see my grandparents' old home. We will tell our wonderful stories.
This is Gayle Ruth. I purchased your grandmother's home from Gayle Normand and her brother in 2003. The house was lovingly restored, keeping its N.O. charm. I enjoyed the breezeway created by the French doors with their working transoms opening onto the side gallery porch. I worked in the side garden and was constantly surprised by flowers that your grandmother must have planted long ago volunteering and showing up when they were ready. The wood floors and joists were the most solid I have ever seen ...the house had "good bones." After the 2005 flood, the house was cleaned up and sheltered me for another 5 years. Because of the state buyout for the VA Hospital, I was forced to leave. Very reluctantly did I give up this beautiful home.
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