So today I took a trip to see our city's archivist and learned a few things about our home. My #1 burning question was:
Just what year was our house built anyway?
Rumor has it that all of the building records burned in a fire back in 1910, so they had to start over. Any existing structure before the fire is now considered to be a 1910 building according to public record. The archivist said that he's never seen evidence of a fire, but something happened because they definitely started over in 1910.
.... drum roll ...
Looks like our house was built in
1908! Not too far off, but I'm happy to have some historically accurate info on the date.
It was hard to make out the handwriting in the ledger, but the water records show that what looks like a Mr. Brisner requested a water permit in June of 1908 and then the house was occupied in December of that year. The next owner was a Mr. Oldfather (love it!) whose occupation was "real estate, loans, insurance."
When the house was built, it was 7 rooms, plus 1 bath, and 1 water closet, and even an outdoor lawn spigot. That is some fancy stuff.
I wasn't able to find an old photo of the house, unfortunately, but that was to be expected. Apparently if I go to the county assessor's office I may be able to find one, so that is the next step!