Remember the old Reese’s Peanut Butter cup commercial where some highly contrived set of circumstances would cause the bringing together of peanut butter and chocolate?
A for example:
Though the results are perhaps less palatable in this instance, it’s all that comes to mind. Your thoughts?
Located: Near East Side
6 Comments on "WTH Wednesday: No Really."
Wish to follow these blogs on these “odd” buildings!
Where is this located?
You know, until I started doing house histories I was totally baffled by this sort of thing. I mean we have all seen false fronts, and they serve their purposes, in a business district usually. BUT….hahaha to see this total lack of design (structurally, architecturally and artistically) it makes you ask:WHY?! I started trying to find out any thing I could about former owners/residents of houses to see if there could be a plausible answer. Sometimes I could kind of figure it out , but sometimes not. It certainly leads to some interesting history searches though. Good luck with this one. Kinda seems as though there may have been a pissed off brother-in-law carpenter around……
My guess would be under the ugly siding is a small shop with windows for an old home business. The other option is that it looks small enough for a Model T, so a possible garage which someone eventually connected to the house. (The near east side is littered with small Model T size garages or the left over footprints.
Could be a store / residence combination (purpose-built that way).
It’s interesting how the addition has been converted from the old lean-to kitchen that you see in the back of a lot of these old cottages. The false front says that it was a business to me. It might have been a barber or beauty shop. Or possibly a tv or radio repair place. Not that unusual in a lot of these old inner-city neighborhoods to see the houses turn into little businesses over the years. Looks to small to have been a neighborhood grocery store though.