As soon as I open the front door, I see four people getting out of a car parked in the spot we normally park in. (Erin was gone doing choral stuff). I initially assumed they were visiting our neighbor Kathleen, with whom we share a driveway, but they looked at me and this woman said "Hi, I used to live here when I was a little kid."
Turns out there was a Puerto Rican family who lived here in the Bi Chalet 50 years ago, and they had three kids who spent their early childhoods here. There were two boys and one girl, and the girl got old enough to be babysitting neighbors before they moved out. They rented what was then the ground-floor apartment (now the level with our kitchen and parlor) and lived here for some time.
The people who came were the girl who babysat who is now a sophisticted looking middle aged woman, her 30something daughter who lives in NoVa and sells real estate, the woman's brother who was 4 when the family moved out, and the brother's wife. The brother lives in Puerto Rico with his wife; they'd come up to visit his sister and their niece and they decided to come up and see if the house was still here.
The brother was very enthusiastic about seeing the house, and of course I invited them in. He remembered the fireplace downstairs, and his sister said she'd slept in the front room that now serves as Erin's office. They remembered being over Sligo Creek, and apparently there used to be an apple tree here...the guy said his brother once got in trouble for throwing knives at the apples as though they were darts. Too bad we don't have the apple tree anymore...I'd love an apple tree!
Apparently our house is totally different in layout than they remembered. The stairs to the second level were somewhere around where our bookcase is in our living room, and the kitchen was near the foyer. They didn't know anything about the others who had lived here, since they were so young when they moved out, although the sister did remember babysitting for somebody who lived in the house now belonging to Kathleen.
It was pretty cool to see these people. They took a picture of me in front of the house, and another one of me, the niece, and the sister...they promised to send me copies and went on their merry way.
It's pretty random that I saw them at all. They were very kind and respectful of my privacy; they didn't even ask, they waited for me to offer before checking out a part of the house I hadn't led them into. I'm glad I got a chance to learn more about the history of our house while they were here, and I wouldn't mind them coming back for another look-see. Anybody who has tidbits about the history of the Chalet is always welcome, as far as I'm concerned.
The visit did get me to thinking about history of homes in a more general sense. We've heard before that our house was once a manor, and the two houses behind ours were part of the same property and served carriage house type functions. I wondered why there aren't histories kept in our homes? I mean, maybe I should write down everything I find out about our house so future owners and tenants can learn more if they care. Would future people be interested in some of the parties we threw, or what kind of people we were, or why we pulled up carpet in some rooms (my allergies) or who built the stairs into the lower yard (Erin)? Perhaps this journal can be a starting point for such a document.
Meanwhile, I do hope those people send me a picture and come back, perhaps with their older brother from Puerto Rico. I'd like to learn more from them.