The porch history post got me looking at old photos, and so…to keep the thought going, here is the historical –mid-historical—and current view of 1658 Court Street.  Photos do not exist of the rear of the house when it was on State Street, or at the corner of 17th and Court (it was moved twice…sort of an antique mobile home….).  In the 1980’s I chatted with Sue Rankin (Katy’s Mom) and she kindly loaned me some family photos (which I had copied).  These were very very interesting to us as we proceeded working on this house.   In 1995 Roger and I put an addition on the rear of the house so the rear facade looks  different, plus the yard is smaller.  Here though is a photo from the 1940’s showing the rear of the house…you had to go outside to get to the basement…(the kitties were named Amos and Andy…)

and here from our early years here…first in 1983 with aluminum siding still in place, and a maple tree too big for the yard.  The single bedroom window had been replaced by a sliding door in the 1960’s, and the shed covering over the basement door had been removed…the back porch first open and then latticed, now had walls and a window…

in 1985 we removed the aluminum siding and cut down the maple tree and things looked a little rough at that point:

Here’s how the rear of the house looks in 2011…the addition of about 800 sq. feet, a deck, an herb garden…

The McElhinney’s made the garden…the boxwood came from up on Jerris Street from Governor Doug McKay’s house (he didn’t like boxwood and HE had a Lord and Schryver garden!)   Before they really got going though the yard looked like this in the early 1930’s, and then Nell and Charlie worked their magic

By the 1950’s the garden was well established:

The same views from 2011:

Every member of the McElhinney family we met over the course of the 1980’s had great feeling for this house and garden, and we think it’s part of what makes living here so sweet.