Old Houses

Walk around any historic neighborhood and look up. Just under the rooflines, delicate scrolls, sturdy supports, bits of carved or jigsaw-cut wood that seem to float beneath the eaves. These are brackets. And while they may be small, they are anything but insignificant.Like so many details in old houses, brackets—and their siblings corbels, consoles and modillions—do the quiet work of holding everything...

Impressive Italianate Mansion with 7 Marble Fireplaces! - CIRCA Old HousesWhen it comes to 19th-century American architecture, few styles flirt as shamelessly with the dramatic as the Italianate. With its towering proportions, bracketed cornices, and flourish-for-flourish’s-sake ornamentation, this style is the architectural equivalent of a romantic period novel—part poetry, part posturing, and...

Historic Mount Mourne: National Register Landmark - CIRCA Old Houses Have you made it through the six Spring maintenance tasks assigned in our last post? Don’t worry, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Old houses (and life!) sometimes throw us curve balls. A big part of home stewardship is accepting the fact that houses are never “done”. It’s an ongoing relationship that takes...

     Victorian in the Heart of the Fitzgerald, GA Historic District - CIRCA Old Houses.    Can you feel it? Spring is in the air! For those of us who love and care for old houses, it’s the perfect time to inspect, repair, and prepare our homes for the months ahead. Tackling small issues now can prevent costly repairs down the line. Here’s a checklist to help your home stay in top shape this...

What’s special about this house? At a glance, do you see anything worth preserving? Handsome red brick, original windows, lovely paneled doors and carved mantels inside… But is this relatively modest, essentially abandoned, rather quirky house that sits right up against a road and has been altered over time worthy of the hundreds of thousands of dollars (I’ll always be a realist on that front!) it...

Ready to start researching your historic house? Thanks to municipal archives, libraries, and historical societies, so much information has been preserved. And more and more of these records have been digitized and made publicly available online. But hunting down all of the bits and pieces can feel like searching for so many needles in a haystack. Here are some tips to help make the search easier....

Want to Save Money on Your Old House? Here’s HowImage Above: One of Bisbee's MOST MAJESTIC Historic MANSIONS Designed by Henry Trost - CIRCA Old Houses- A key selling point is this property’s potential as an AirBnB or wedding venue, both eligible income-producing uses for both federal and Arizona state historic tax credits.Yes, the federal government (and some states) will pay you to sensitively...

Rome wasn't built in a day...and good stewardship takes time, too. So, we're back with more seasonal maintenance tasks (make sure to read Part 1 as well!).1. Invest in a smart thermostat. Even when you’re not at home, the interior of your house should remain above 50 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid problems like frozen pipes. A smart thermostat will alert you if temperatures get too low, signaling a problem...

A Distinctive Home in the Storied "Playground on the Potomac" - Lester Cottage - CIRCA Old HousesNewsflash! Regardless of what the vinyl window and siding sales force would have us believe, there’s no such thing as maintenance-free. ALL homes require steady, ongoing care. The beauty of OLD homes (I mean, beyond the obvious…) is how gracefully they accept attention and love. But we have to keep at it....

CIRCA founders, Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein, have partnered with NYS Clean Heat as they look to make energy-efficient choices for their own cheap old farmhouse renovation. Learn fom their journey as we show you how best to tackle energy-focused upgrades in any old home.

Old houses do not need to feel like museums, frozen in time, one-note style statements. An Italianate house with mid-century inspired decor? Love that! A vintage bungalow with contemporary furnishings? Adds such interest!

Are you curious about how to control unwanted moisture in historic buildings? Repair stained and leaded glass? Preserve and reuse historic gas stations??Then you are in luck! “Preservation Briefs” is a series of 51 guides that address these questions, and hundreds of others, in expert technical detail. And they are available online from the National Park Service.I rely on Preservation Briefs for every...