Good-bye, Philly!

1-26-2004 ~ Approx. 7:00 AM
(As darkness gives way to light...)

Well, I guess Mother Nature decided to give us one last blast of winter before we leave for warmer places.

This a shot of my house today. My house is the one in the middle.

And here is what it looks like across the street. BTW...my car is way, way down the block. No more of that nonsense pretty soon!

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left. Start counting the houses from the closest of that group of rows. The 4th one in (or 2nd from the end from other direction), is where Nutcase's looney boyfriend decided to have his early summer barbeque. *RME* Now you can see how close that explosion actually was to us. Its being rebuilt (it looked all blighted and boarded up until a month ago), and is almost complete. Hopefully, I won't be here when the grand re-opening party is held. *double RME*

This house is on one of the corners of Green Lane, which is the cross street from mine (Mitchell). For some reason, this old Victorian has always terrified me. It's creepy and dark and scary. The woman who lives there has three barking dogs who are constantly outside and lunging at the fence. She has also had a variety of pot-bellied pigs (really), chickens, ducks and other assorted small farm animals. Whenever I pass that house and look up at the third floor, I get chills. I swear, something really bad must have happened up there at some point in time. In the 20 years that I've lived here, I have NEVER see any lights up there at all. Yeah, very creepy and not a house I'd EVER go inside of!

This house, OTOH, which is diagonally opposite the scary one (my side of the intersection), is one I've always liked. You can't really tell from this picture, but its slightly run down...you know, needs "TLC". But I've always thought that it belonged more in New England, than in Philly. Looks like it belongs on a post card, you know? :) The people who live there are as looney as they come though! Don't get me wrong, they are very nice, but...well...lets just say that I nicknamed that "The Crazy House" when I moved here, and the name stuck. LOL! Now THAT one, I'd love to go inside and see what it looks like.

This house is directly across from the one above. Its another old victorian which has been converted and is used for offices on the first floor and apartments on the second. All of these old Victorian homes on Green Lane were built by the owners of the mills that were in abundance down in Manayunk from the late 1880's through the 1940's. That's why they are so big and beautiful...they were homes of the rich. Where I live, OTOH, were homes of the mill workers. Thus, our smaller, more humble abodes. ;)

And last but not least, a view of Green Lane going towards Ridge Ave (a main thoroughfare dating back to the 1700's). The house in the middle with the shutters is the one whose back yard is above and behind the back of my house. This house has one of those grand staircases in the middle (I've seen it through the door.) It's another I've always wanted to take a peek at the inside of. There was a time when I hoped the people who owned it would put it up for sale. But they never did. I doubt that I could afford it if they did anyway, though. Its huge, has a very big back yard with a driveway and separate, very large, old garage (which is directly behind my yard).

Well, I hope you enjoyed this mini-tour of historic Roxborough and its rich history (some day I'm gonna write a book about this area, lol).