House Tour

This house on River Road, Chenango Bridge, was once a dairy barn. It was converted to a house
in the 1930s, with a second renovation done in the 50s. The last owners did another renovation beginning in the late 1980s. The cattle were in the lower part and the upper storeys were hay mows. The hay track remains in the peak of the house, but covered now.

It is now a luxurious home with so many rooms a person could get lost in it. In fact the current owners were living there three months when they found another room.

This barn is a tobacco barn and still smells of tobacco when you step inside. The barn is not far from the river and I believe the tobacco was grown in a field near the river bank. Windows have been put into the openings.

The barn is on the former Thomas property in Chenango Bridge. The house was there when the Thomas family came from Connecticut just before 1832. The house has many of its original features including remains of a cistern in the cellar, wavy window glass, original doors and hardware and a stairway with a newell post.

We visited a house on Shore Acres Drive that was remodeled from a house with cardboard and paper insulation to a modern home with a spiral staircase that the current owner and his father built. The fordway from Chenango Bridge to Port Crane is down the driveway. This was used before the bridge at Chenango Bridge was built. This home is charming and decorated with art work done by the owner's mother and brother and features a beautAiful stone fireplace that was part of the original house.

It was interesting to visit the Birchard home on Kattelville Road. This large house was once the Wagner Rest Home. It was purchased by Endicott Johnson for a rest home for female employees. The women recovered from nervous ailments and surgeries. They slept on a porch dormitory, with beds heated by soapstones in winter. The women spent much time outside with mandatory rest in the afternoons. One of the visitors yesterday was of a woman whose mother was there. She had pictures of her mother at the home.

We enjoyed a visit to the Beach farm on Prentice Road. This farm has barn quilts, which I've shown in a previous blog early in the summer.

Thanks to Chenango Historian Alice Ruby and her deputy Fran Lamb and to Laurel for all the work they put into this tour. I hope they do another one next year.

After the tour I went home and made BLTs using more of those heirloom tomatoes. So good and what a wonderful flavor they have.

Back to machine quilting my Chickens and Roosters wall hanging that I pieced some years ago.

Chris