What’s that? Yup, you read it right–there is an old tenant house (or modest farm dwelling) that sits just over the property line from the land we have been given on which to build our house!
It’s in pretty rough shape and overgrown with vegetation (we saw the biggest spider we’ve ever seen in our lives inside) but interesting nonetheless. It appears to have been quite altered but contains three rooms with a sleeping loft above and is clad in vertical wood siding and features a stone exterior chimney with upper brick portion. It sits on a foundation of rough stacked stone piers.
One of the coolest things is the big “bottle dump” trash pit down the hill from the house, where there are literally hundreds of old glass bottles all over the ground that have been stuck in the dirt for who knows how many decades.
Here are more photos:
 |
| one of the only remaining windows in the house |
 |
| the first room upon entering–the primary “living room” or “parlor” as evidenced by the mantel |
 |
| a view of the primary entrance door to the house into the “living room” or “parlor” |
This room in the photos below may have been a bedroom possibly–it contains a ladder that leads to a loft above likely used for sleeping or storage.
The newspaper in the photo below looks as though it was used as insulation between wood exterior and interior walls. I found a piece that had a date of 1915 on it!
 |
| the upstairs loft |
This room in the photo below was the old kitchen. You can see the watermarks/ghostmark on the wood wall where the stove was and there is still an existing piece of a stove pipe piercing the roof.
After all this time of wanting to rehab an old farmhouse, it’s thrilling to know that there is indeed something old right near where we will be building a new house. I’m just grateful that I was able to document the structure before it falls in or is damaged any further.
That's interesting. I've never heard of a Tenant House so I had to look it up. It made me wonder who lived there and why did they leave? Thank you for sharing.
So neat. If you had the money it would be a wonderful place to rehab and make an airbnb rental.
What a wonderful find, enjoyed the pictures. Did you find any treasures you could take home?
Tenant houses were very modest rural dwellings for tenant farmers, pretty common in the south. Makes me wonder who lived there too! Glad you enjoyed the post!
Tenant houses were very modest rural dwellings for tenant farmers, pretty common in the south. Makes me wonder who lived there too! Glad you enjoyed the post!
I know I would LOVE to do that. Unfortunately it may be too far gone to actually rehab but you could probably dismantle and then reconstruct it but would have to use quite a few new materials because a lot of the wood was rotted. My first thought and hope is always to save an old building!!
We did find one treasure- a very primitive piece of an old plow- pretty neat!