Tracking an old home's roots takes time, patience

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published Saturday, February 23, 2002

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Kenneth G. Goode bought a mansion last spring, but he's still house hunting.

The spokesman for Monroe County, N.Y., wants to learn more about the 10,000-plus-square-foot Queen Anne/Classical Revival home, which boasts a 2,600-square-foot carriage house and takes up half a block at the intersection of two Rochester city streets.

A portfolio on the property assembled by the Landmark Society of Western New York has been invaluable. But Goode also turns to neighborhood long-timers at the gas station across the street and the nearby hardware store for the home's historical tidbits, such as the one about the doctor who owned the first Saab in Rochester.

"You can clip newspapers and look at microfiche and all that stuff," says Goode, 69, who hopes to move into the place this summer after extensive renovations, "but the personalization of the property is missing."

Finding information on a house's former life can be tremendously rewarding, especially if you want to use that information to make restorations or repairs. But before you go searching for clues, keep in mind that even the experts hit dead ends.

"You may feel as if you're being sucked into a vortex, and it could be fascinating to do the research, but there could be pitfalls," warns Cynthia Howk, architectural research coordinator for the Landmark Society in Rochester.

Neighborhoods and streets may have been renamed. Roads that used to front houses may now run behind them. A house built in one style may have gone through so many expansions that it falls under an entirely different category.

"And it's hardly ever going to happen that you're going to get the exact month, day and year your house was constructed," Howk adds.

Don't panic. If you were the type in school who always wanted the answers without studying, you can hire a professional consultant -- a "house detective." Otherwise, take advantage of historical societies, libraries, records offices and the Internet for free tips on digging up the dirt on your property's past.

One fact: There were no Colonial-style houses built in western New York, unless a house was dismantled elsewhere and trucked in -- and that has happened. The closest thing is the Colonial Revival, popular between 1880 to 1940, according to the Landmark Society.

Irene and Bill Unterborn's Victorian home and bed-and-breakfast in nearby Palmyra, N.Y., was built in the 1840s on a site occupied as early as 1812 by a blacksmith shop. Scouring census figures and land records, the couple also learned that the house once served as a Baptist parsonage and that its carriage house -- with what appears to be a hiding area -- may have been part of the Underground Railroad.

They've even met former owners and their descendants.

"You feel like part of the family," says 37-year-old Irene Unterborn. "It feels like the house just opens up and welcomes you the more you know about it."

The Unterborns have an advantage because the historical significance of their house -- with its cupola, gingerbread and sweeping veranda -- has been well-documented. Your abode, on the other hand, might not have been given the same attention.

The good news is there are plenty of experts available to help you out. So take advantage of them.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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