Omigosh! Once Ray's Grandparent's house, it's now for sale in Waukegan (Green Town, IL)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nard Kordell,

Nard,

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for posting these photos. As much as I love the old site, you've just demonstrated the superiority of this new site. How wonderful to finally see these houses that figure so prominently in Ray's life. (Yeah, I know, we can see some of these on your fabulous website, but it's good to be able to have them right here and easily accesible.)

Now, how to get together the money to buy the place. . .

Best,

Pete

Thanks, Nard, for some nice photojournalism!

I have to say, though, that these houses are nothing like the ones I imagine from Dandelion Wine. My imagination clings to the possibility that there may be some porches round the BACKS of these houses...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philnic,

Phil, I believe there were porches which were removed as early as the 1970s. I don't have the Weller biography, does it contain earlier pictures?

Nard, THANKS so much and what a SHAME we didn't know beforehand! Perhaps Sam Weller would know someone in Waukegan to contact who might be interested in forming a committee to buy the house to preserve as a museum! If so, please sign me up for a contribution! Phil, perhaps our contributions could go towards rebuilding the porches!

All house plans in the U.S. used to include a front porch. Folks would sit out summer evenings and visit with neighbors strolling by. This changed in the '40s and '50s with the advent of air conditioning and, especially, television. Now people in the suburbs can tell you more about television personalities than they can about their next-door neighbors.
I understand porches are making something of a comeback, though. We can only hope...

Thanks also for the posting. Seeing these homes brings back memories of similar dwellings in my home town of Ottumwa, Iowa.

And, oh yes, about porches. My wife and I love them, but now we live in a retirement community with only a side walk out front and a lake, thankfully, to the rear.

And yes, porches are on the return. They were the focal point of many families and get togethers with the neighbors.

dandelion,

unfortunately, there are no pictures of the houses in Sam's book. (There is one photo of baby Ray outside his grandparents' house, but only a tiny part of the house is visible - the "strawberry window" no less!)

The idea of transforming the Bradbury house(s) into a museum is excellent. Bradbury is one of the few writers who strongly connects to a very specific sense of place, and given what Sam Weller says about the decline of Waukegan in recent years I would have thought that the tourist potential of a museum would be most welcome. (In the UK there are a couple of writer's dwellings which have been turned into museums, and they always seem to bring visitors. There's a Charles Dickens birthplace museum in my home town Portsmouth. There's even an entire visitor attraction devoted to Ellis Peters and her medieval monk detective Cadfael in Shrewsbury.)

Braling II, thanks for that fascinating insight into US house plans! I notice a lot of American suburban dwellings we see on TV (obviously film sets or backlots) have porches, but I hadn't realised that they were air-con surrogates.

biplane1, I've a feeling this has been mentioned before, but wasn't Ottumwa, Iowa also the hometown of Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H?

Phil,
I'd love to get to Portsmouth someday and see that museum! We have been to the Lakes and visited Dove Cottage, Wordsworh's home, and some of the Beatrix Potter National Trust sites.
Love the Lake District. And North Wales. And Yorkshire. Another place I'd like to see is where James Alfred Wight (a.k.a. James Herriot)
lived and worked. In fact, it may be interesting to see a list of famous writers' homes that are preserved and visit-able. Maybe there's a website? I'll look...
Oh, good for you for not picking up that Brummie accent!

philnic/ dandelion/ biplane 1/ Braling II/ pterran
___

The price on the house is $186,000. Does the RealEstate fellow know what the house is? I don't know. But his name is Tomas Gomez. Sounds like a character from one of Ray's stories. Is the price a little high? Yes!

I asked Tomas to find out about the adjacent porperty. Who owns it. And may they be willing to sell! Sam Weller says he has looked into these properties a long while ago, and is worried that someone just may tear them down and build a regular condo or apartment house on the corner. They were not for sale when Sam looked into it...but at least one is at this time.

Now to find a buyer. Anyone out there want a piece of American literature history?

Again, it would have to be restored. Too many changes have happened to the properties. So just start adding a lot of dollar figures to that selling price.

Nard,
Thanks for all your efforts here.
Believe it or not, in this part of California, $186,000 wouldn't buy a tumble-down shack!
Hope you're reaching some wealthy Bradbury
afficionados...

Perhaps the good people here http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/wolfe/Main.htm would have suggestions.

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
Thanks also for the posting. Seeing these homes brings back memories of similar dwellings in my home town of Ottumwa, Iowa.

And, oh yes, about porches. My wife and I love them, but now we live in a retirement community with only a side walk out front and a lake, thankfully, to the rear.

And yes, porches are on the return. They were the focal point of many families and get togethers with the neighbors.

Gee, in my part of S. Calif we all sit around and type on our keyboards and "talk" to our neighbors (and I mean across the street neighbors) on the internet - or is becoming the intra-net? One world, one mind, many e-connections, not far off, eh? I vote to make front porches manditory in all new home construction. Now, if there was just someone at home to talk with. Ah, the two-income reality of today's world.

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
I'd love to get to Portsmouth someday and see that museum!

You can visit it online, and take a virtual tour (it's not the sort of place you'd really want to cross continents to get to):
http://www.charlesdickensbirthplace.co.uk

Thanks, Phil!
Actually, if I had the dosh, I'd head over there more often - England's green and pleasant land - the land of real beer and real cheese!

Phil--Yes, it was Ottumwa, Iowa where Radar was from. Ottumwa is also the home town of the actor Tom Arnold. Years ago I worked with Tom's grandfather, D. B. Arnold who was, at that time, the Director of the Wapello County Social Services. I remember him as having a great sense of humor.

The last time I ran into Tom Arnold was at the Canteen, a "loose hamburger" cafe that Roseanne Barr Arnold featured on the Rose Ann Show as the "Lansford Cafe."

Looking at the homes where Ray and his grandparents lived remind me so much of Ottumwa as the style was very predominantr there as well, I am sure, all throughout the midwest.