Is one... Was two...

{Click on photo, to enlarge}

The unique thing about this house is... Today it's a one story brick house.

But long ago, there was at least one more story above, made of wood. But the wood upper part burned. And they decided not to replace it. They simply put a roof on the brick first floor and it's been thus, for as long as we can remember.
~~~~~~~~
Re: Yesterday's entry...
Yes, this is the old family corner drug store {begun in Civil War time}, I've written of before.
And the counter showing, is part of the original soda fountain, which my husband refinished.
.
.

'Peppermint Pig'

'The Peppermint Pig'

Old Fashioned Penny Scale

Click on pic, for larger view

When was the last time you saw an old fashioned 'Weight-Yourself-For-A-Penny' scale? It's been a long time, I'll bet. This one is in our Family Corner Drug Store. The tiles on the step of the scale, are the same tiles as the floor. Which {floor} was installed when they built the building in 1871.

The story of the Trout Pond...

Above, is a side view of the Canfield Casino in Congress Park. It has a beautiful large room, which was used both as a ball room and as a restaurant.

Below, is another shot of the pond outside, as it looks today.

The story goes that when The Casino was in "its Hey-Day" {meaning, when it was a very popular place}, the pond contained beautiful trout, swimming happily. If a lady wished to dine on trout, she and her escort could accompany a kitchen person, out to the pond, and pick out 'her' dinner trout. The kitchen person would scoop out the chosen trout with a net, and hurry into the kitchen with it. While the lady and her escort returned to the dinning room to await their dinner. "What unique fun!" "Picking out my own trout for dinner!"

But....

Unbeknown to the lady, when the kitchen person hurried in with the trout, he promptly 'plopped' the fish into a smooth tiled tube, the incline of which carried the fish back out to the bottom of the pond. And he resumed his life of swimming... And the chef fixed an already prepared trout, for the dinner. :-)

Old Wood Work, rescued...

Please click on and enlarge the pictures. To see the original tile floor.

Previously, I told you some, about the beginnings of the Old Drug Store. Now I will show you a bit, from inside this same store, today.

The old wood work, shown here, was the backing of the original soda fountain. Long in storage. And found again, years later. {A little bit like the story of the Signs of the Zodiac windows...} My husband restored broken parts, and refinished the whole. And it is now back where it originally stood . The working soda fountain was removed, years ago. But this beautiful old hand carved wood work is again, in use.

So that's another story of Saratoga Spgs. Maybe someday, I'll tell the story of this being found. :-)

The wall between......

Years ago, there was a terrible fire on Broadway, and a building was lost. {The lot has been used as a needed parking lot, since.} Because of this fire, we can see something unusual... Both the building front, and its side. The front facade is fancier and the wall between buildings is not fancy. It was never meant to be seen.

The walls between buildings are double brick fire walls. And this worked, because it kept that fire from spreading any farther. If not for the double brick fire walls, the rest of this block of Broadway buildings, on both sides of the fire, could have burned.

It is also a scary reminder of how fragile, all of our productions, can be...

More yummies...

Shots taken inside the old Gas/Filling Station, which was moved,
and turned into a Bakery and a Lunch spot.

A story on Veteran's Day...

Please click, for larger

We had a Veteran's Day ceremony in the Park today. But my camera work did not do a good enough job of capturing it. So I put up a photo of the statue in the Park, commemorating our Volunteers in the Civil War.

The story I tell you today, is one I really love. It tells of the founder of our family Drug Store... James Mingay. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the {above} Seventy-Seventh Regiment of local Volunteers. He put his key in the Drug Store door, locked it, went to war, came home, put his key in the door again, opened up and took up business where he had left off.

The store today does not have his name though. Mingay had an apprentice by the name of Fred Menges. They later, became partners. After Mingay's death, Menges became partners with Ray Curtis. The store continues to have their names {Menges and Curtis} to this day.

It has been run by our family for 46 years, and counting. And this is the first time that it has been passed on to a son.

The most interesting one..

And now we proceed down the street, by the side yard... Ooops, looks like Dracula's Castle is sort of deflated today. Maybe it didn't like the quick down-pour of rain yesterday.
Now we approach the front of the house...

And see the front windows...
Now the porch comes into view...

A close up of the porch... Would you like to approach this porch, on a dark Halloween night? -grin-
I don't think you can see the fake spier webs, which have been placed on the inside of these windows, below. Sorry... But I will get a few pics, after dark. I must! There is an old fashioned candelabra in the right hand window. I'll bet it's lit at night. And must give a really great effect! ,-)Especially since that is the room, where 'it' is supposed to have taken place...............

What 'it'? Well I will tell you....

The original owner of this house is supposed to have died in this front den. Which is fine.
But the lawyer who owned it, a couple of years ago, said that..... he wanted to keep one of the doors to this room closed. Maybe the one toward the front entry. {Yes, I've been in this house, at the time of an estate sale} Anyway, which door I don't know. But he closed it. And in the morning, it was open.

So he thought maybe the old house shifted at night or something, and it caused the door to swing open. So that night, he locked it shut, with the old key and lock on the door. But in the morning, it was again open.

So that night, he closed and locked the door again. Then locked the old key in a locked desk drawer, in the room. And went to bed. Next morning, the locked desk drawer had been flung across the room and had shattered. Thus freeing the door key. The door was open. With the key in the lock, of course.

After that, he gave up... If someone/something wanted it open, then open he would leave it.

~*~*~*~*~

Want to come 'Trick Or Treating' with me, Halloween night?????????

^_^

Stories, of my city...

And they have a blow-up Dracula's Castle in the yard, for the kids.

And no, this isn't the dark house I spoke of... That was another 'dark' house. But.... this one is kind of dark/weird looking too.

Anyway, one of the stories which goes with the house, on these grounds... One day the owner came home and heard noise up in the attic. Naturally he thought someone had gotten in, while he was away, so he called the police. {You're told to do that. Exit. Call police. Wait for the police to look around and see that all is ok.}

Police came. Heard noise in attic. They made sure no one would sneak out the back, while they investigated. Nope, no one up in attic. But... now there was sound coming from the cellar. Police investigated that, and no one was found. So they told the owner that it was clear, as far as they were concerned. Yes, they'd heard the noise. But no, they could not find a source. And so, it was beyond what they could do anything about. ,-)))))

An even better one, tomorrow.....

^_^