My Great Grandparents Home

Circa. 1930s. 24 Broadway, Machias, Maine. View from the front parlor through the wide, wooden, sliding doors into the sitting room and the dining room beyond. When I was in High School, my friends and I sat and listened to rock and roll music in this room. There, we mastered the skills of the hula hoop prior to a local contest in the 60s. There were dances in the parlor with a parquet wood floor fashioned by my father. I have no idea what the balls are but must be decorations hanging from the archway. The sliding doors are open wide with velvet curtains to slide shut instead of the doors.

I have this rocking chair in my home. It was at the family summer camp at Indian Lake ever since I can remember. My mother told me the rocker came from the Means cottage, Edgemere, at Roque Bluffs.

Most of the furniture in my home today belonged to my great grandparents. In a future post, I’ll take you for a tour. Here’s a preview. Nellie’s table. It sat in the barn after my grandmother Harriet died in 1948. The marble top was missing. I replaced it with slate and oiled the wood with Hope’s 100% tung oil. It’s a beauty.

My grandmother Harriet’s oak desk sat in the barn for decades. I oiled it with tung oil and it came alive again. The charcoal drawing is by Nina Bohlen, a friend of my parents, and given to me by my mother. The bronze fisherman and duck are treasured gifts from David and Kate Watts and belonged to Delia Houghton from Roque Bluffs.

Advertisement