Time Capsule Real Estate

1920 Montreal house: Front hallway.

Is it the recession, or simply the turn of generations that sees old houses released onto the market? Yahoo has lately run a lot of real estate stories, which makes one wonder whether the agencies are paying for online exposure. Journalistic standards aside, unrefurbished houses are living time capsules, and show how much life has changed in the past hundred years.

In many of these real estate advertisements, 'haunted' is now shorthand for 'old' or 'not renovated,' and seems to add sensation to sale value. Hand-crafted and hand-carved aspects of old houses, evidence of lost or dying traditions of craftsmanship, are considered to have a 'ghostly' aura in our pre-fab days of machine-made mod cons. Similarly, in the photos from a Montreal house shown here, the shadows of religious worship on the bedroom wall, which once gave people comfort against night evils, are now the source of Millennial superstitions. See more photos of this extraordinary house below the jump.

Front and back exteriors of house.

From Yahoo news in Canada comes a report about a house up for sale for CAD $579,000 in the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie district of Montreal, unrefurbished since it was built in 1919-1920. See more photos of the house interior here in the real estate notice:

All floors, paneling, doors woodwork are all of Oak. ... Solid oak floors have never been sanded or varnish! Only beeswax was applied! - All the radiators are cast iron - All the handles of doors are crystal - All hinges, door handles, internal movement are copper - All the mirrors are beveled - 2 decorative fireplace mantel in the living room and dining room with a basket of resin! - The walls of the hall, the boudoir, the dining room, the corridor at the second level are covered with paneling, which is called the "lincrusta." ...  The chandeliers, the lighting wall units (all crystal) and a globe above staircase are not included in the sale price. 

1920 house in Montreal. Above: Living room.

 

 

 1920 house in Montreal. Above: Dining room.

1920 house in Montreal. Above: Interior staircase, ornate paneling has been removed. 

1920 house in Montreal. Above: Upper hall. 

 

 1920 house in Montreal. Above: Master bedroom. 

1920 house in Montreal. Above: Den.

 

 1920 house in Montreal. Above: Garage.

Recent real estate stories which have circulated about older houses, with or without ghost stories attached:

• Amityville house up for sale, October 2012
• 'Haunted' house in Rhône-Alpes region of France sells for 1 Euro (see also here)
• Mansions in Detroit's historic Boston-Edison district up for sale for very low prices (see here, here, here, here, and photos here)
• Cadaver dog brought in to check(/discount?) rumours of 1940s' Black Dahlia murder at 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, a Mayan style house currently back on the market: "Lloyd Wright-designed Sowden House has returned to market, asking $4.89M. According to ex-LAPD detective Steve Hodel, his father, Dr. George Hodel, killed Elizabeth Short in the house, in what is now widely known as the Black Dahlia murder. The case remains unsolved, but the dog's keen nose seems to have been enough to convince the current owner to move on—or they simply tired of living amid the Mayan-inspired architecture." (See related blog posts here, here and here.)