What Would The Front Porch Looked Like Back In 1920

Oh definitely, right now the whole thing, the yard the house, the porch, just looks so naked!! That's what I was thinking too, A Railing of some sort. When there is some Oklahoma breezes, theres nothing like sitting out on the porch or sitting out on the porch at night listening to the locusts sing.

I used to paint with Braswell Paint Company out of Tyler Tx and I hve never heard of Dixie Bell Paint, but I will certainly look for it when I go to buy the paint for the house.

It is great. No sanding, priming or waxing required. 55 soon to be 60 colors and other products such as glaze, stain and patina available too.

I cannot find pictures or info of the colors Judge Joe Ralls had his house painted when it was built in 1920. Since I come from a very Military Family I'm think of a Patriotic Blue with a white trim for the outside. ALL the wood work and doors on the inside is original and has to be stripped of probably 3 to 4 coats of paint before I can stain it.

If Yankee Blue is your most Patriotic blue then that's probably what I will look into. Thank You Dixie Belle Paint!

Ohhhh, definitely we want protection from the restless spirits!!! Hubby watches too many of those horror movies where the spirits stay in the house, up in the attics and stuff..and I'm the kind where the spirit would only have to tell me to "Get Out" once and I'm gone!! I DO NOT DO GHOSTS AND SPIRITS!!! So Haint Blue..I WILL remember that and paint the ceiling of the porch that color!!

In Southern states people painted their porch ceiling a light sky blue so you feel like you are sitting in the yard.

This is good advice, take ideas from this porch and ideas from that porch till its exactly what you want. I gotcha. And your right its kind of hard to give advice from this one photo, I wish I'd have gotten more from different angles, but smoke was coming off my heels to get inside..LOL. I have already been doing countless hours trying to find pictures of the house back in it's day and I cant find any except for the ones from 1979 that were taken when they submitted it to be put on the Historical Records. Whats cool about this place is that there are so many Original things still in tact, like the window over the front door (the red door), the windows to the sides of the door and then in the living room and dining room, every other window at the top are stained glass windows. They are hinged at the tops and open inward at the bottoms but they have the hand cranks to open them. The door bell is the old time slider door bell and it sounds just like the door bell from the movie "Lizzie Borden" (lol). I truly love this house and I just want to do it justice.

check some of the old house forums that are available online. Those people all have old homes and can give great suggestions for what to do. Also if you can check old records of previous owners you might try to get in touch with them to see if they have any old photos' of the house. I know i have old photo's of my 1900 home. Also Kelly@oldhousedreams.com shares pictures of old homes up for sale all over the country. Her followers are all old house buffs and owners.

Here's an authentic color palette from that time period, if you need painting ideas:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b6/8a/ee/b68aee375c86e6d61b64067e71255661.jpg

OMG.. Thank You so much for the link!!!!! BEAUTIFUL pictures/ideas and not just of the porch! WOW!!! Thank you. I do agree. A porch railing is in order to be built and put in place, it just looks too bare the way it is right now.

Hydrangeas would be beautiful . I wouldn't change the original posts unless they are rotted. If you have to then try to get something very similar. There was probably gingerbread across the top that you might want to add back but don't go crazy with it. Hope you can find photos.

WOW, even the "less ornate ones" are absolutely gorgeous!!!! Thank you so much for the links.

OMG.. I had NOT seen the first picture. That is...WOW..(I still don't like the AC unit in the bay windows tho..lol). Not far from that bird bath is quite a peach tree that I'm looking forward to harvesting from.

But the other link I had seen and it leads to a lot of confusion. THE Joe

G. Ralls that had this house built and was married to Eva Standley, the daughter of Capt. J. S. Standley, and had 10 kids together, died Nov 1933.

I have no doubts that a JD Catlin was the architect and builder of the house and, heck, even today, Atoka is small, so JD Catlin possibly did meet and marry another one of Capt. J.S. Standley's daughters (from what I understand he had a lot of kids too). But this is the only document that says JD Catlin was the owner of this property and everything else I'm reading says it belonged to Judge Ralls and his wife Eva Standley Ralls from the beginning...Its confusing and I see a trip to the court house..lol.

Thank you so very much for the links.. the one picture I had not seen and it is beautiful, Weeell, I'm kind of partial, I think they all are.

If you read the last page of that historical registry application, your house was built around 1900 which makes so much more sense to me since it is a late Victorian Queen Anne. I would believe what they wrote in the registry application, as memories get confused over the years.

I saw that..I just came up out of some reading on the house that says it was built in 1897. LOL...Girl, I think I'm just gonna stick with what 1900- 1920's porches looked like and colors of houses back at the turn of the century. If I keep trying to do the genealogy of this house I'm gonna go nuts..LOL.

Well you can be sure the OK historical society and especially the National Register did their homework. I would go with a late Victorian porch vibe. By the 20s they were into the deco and arts n' crafts movement. For colors, most citys' have a committee on historic districts and have colors they like for you to consider, if you want to do something different you have to make a proposal and get it approved. So check first, I've worked on houses where they actually had to repaint.

As to your concerns for spiders and snakes and landscaping, you might want to concentrate your plant choices to plants that repel snakes and spiders. There are lots of lists online.

I definitely plan to get with the Historical Society. We intend to keep it as original as we can, my thoughts on that is 'why by a historical house and then alter the crap out of it?'(just my opinion) you know.

I know hubby is bringing in plants from the Mint family as he has read it repels snakes and spiders.

WOW it is cool that you found it!!! I like the way it was painted in that picture too; it puts more focus on the turret.

I did find that people in Oklahoma were still using the Queen Anne porch style in the early 20's, perhaps adding to the confusion of the time line.

Thanks for the links...(lol, slayallpest). I am by NO MEANS young and in my younger day I did all kinds of hard labor construction from laying concrete, hundreds of miles of pipeline, welding to insulating and painting. For some reason I never had the patience for the wallpaper, or maybe it was the other way around and it didn't have the patience for me, lol. My dad was into Victorian Homes, it seemed odd watching him get excited as him and I would "illegally" enter old abandoned ones (he loved the wood working and architecture of them, I'd just be along for the ride). But it was odd because he was an old rough E-8, Army Master Sargent with tours of duty in Korea and Vietnam under his belt and he raised us six kids like Jr. Boot Camp, you know. But he taught us a lot about the cultures of all the countries we lived in and the cultures of Korea and Vietnam. He brought back beautiful dolls (which was odd that this rough MSG collected dolls, but he did and NOBODY made fun of him either)........I miss him and I am very grateful for all the time that I spent with him looking at old houses, he would have loved this one.

Yep I'm old as dirt now, but I too grew up military, my Dad worked for the Pentagon as a nuclear physicist, so we moved every 2 years, and fixed up another house. When I moved to Philadelphia to go to art school, I lived in a Victorian brownstone and worked doing antiques and fixing up the old Victorians on antique row.

OMG..the constant moving..lol. I loved traveling the world and living in other countries, but the actual move itself, I hated. This will be hubby and I's LAST move (husband was also Army).

Your time at art school actually sounds kind of like it was fun. And I know when you "work" at something you love to do then it just doesn't seem like "work". I've been to PA but never Philly. My oldest brother and his family lives around two good size Amish communities not far out of Harrisburg.

Now see, I see beside your name it shows you to live in Oregon. Now theres a state that is rich with some our Nation's best history, next to the American Revolution and the War of 1812 (just drops in the sea put with ALL of the US history). I'd love to come see and follow the Oregon Trail, I heard the wagon trains were so massive that they literally wore wagon wheel impressions into rock. LOL, sorry, as I said in one post, I had always thought I was more a Pioneer/ Frontiers type woman, the kind that I always wanted to live in a "Laura Ingalls" type house with 5 acres and a barn and such..and then hubby and I just sort of fell into this Queen Anne Victorian on almost a full acre and you know what..its all good.. I LOVE IT.

What a beautiful porch!! Sounds like you did a lot of work on it. But it just looks like that kind of porch that is restful, relaxing and inviting and you know there is a glass of ice cold pink lemonade waiting. Is that a Rose Of Sharon to the left?

not sure what the tree is but the porch was awesome. We put tons of work and money into this house and on the outside. We loved sitting on that porch and it faced the park where fireworks for the 4th were. We sold it last year but had 11 wonderful yrs there. We now have a 1950's ranch. Old age and knees suck!

Awww, you sold it??!!! Well it was a beautiful house and porch! And I do know about the old age and our bodies deteriorating. I'm on disability due to degenerative arthritis in my spine. I was exposed to asbestos and I deal with respiratory issues along with the infamous arthritis and carpal tunnel in my hands and arms..So yes, getting old sure does suck!!!.

Good luck with the reno...