Wednesday, January 9, 2013

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday ~ Mount Royal Boulevard

Hampton Township, Pennsylvania is north of Pittsburgh. My grandparents moved out of Pittsburgh and to their home on Mount Royal Boulevard in Hampton Township in 1940 (after the 1940 US Census).

After my last post, a cousin asked if I have photos of this house. Yes, I do.


The house on the left-hand side was my grandparents' home. I don't have a date for this photo, but I'm guessing the 1940's. Update (September 5, 2017): Based on the size of the fir tree at the right front corner of the house, this was taken in the early 1940s. The building in the middle is a garage with two bays facing front, one bay below and two rooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The very small building behind the house is a children's playhouse, still there today.


According to my mother, there was a gate at the end of the driveway. Here is a photo from September 1940 of her and her sisters in front of the gate. They had probably just moved in.



There is a date on this photo of January 1956. You can see the Christmas wreath on the door. I'm not sure who the man is, possibly my grandfather?


In 1959, my grandparents moved back to the city (of Pittsburgh). I  have a few snapshots taken of the house on that day. A. B. Pollock was the moving company.

Mount Royal Boulevard, Hampton Township, PA courtesy of Google Maps

I love that I can still recognize the house today. I may have driven by it once when visiting the area as a child, but at that age I didn't appreciate that I was seeing the home my mother grew up in.

7 comments:

  1. These pictures have so much meaning and are so beautiful.

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    1. Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, it's wonderful that my mother's family kept so many photographs!

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  2. Very nice Elizabeth, you've got quite a collection. Regarding your possible grandfather, did you enlarge it? If he was living there at that time, I would think it is he. Do you have any other photos of him. I always heard, that the ear could be a clue, if you can't see his entire face.

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    1. Enlarging this image didn't help - it made me question whether it was him or not. He died when I was nine and I have lots of photos of him, so I'm pretty good at recognizing my grandfather in photos. My mother should know who this is and hopefully will let me know when she sees this post ;-)

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  3. What lovely photos, particularly the top one. I'm reminded of the Christmas Village my mother used to set up with her Dept. 56 collection.

    The house hasn't changed much at all!

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    1. It's very interesting to see a house on Google Maps that looks just about the same as it does in old family photos. Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  4. Hi Elizabeth , I am a fan of both your blogs. I thought I would let you know that I listed you in my nominations for the "Wonderful Team Member Readership Award", which you can get more information on by going to:

    http://www.genealogyworks2.blogspot.com/.

    Magda ( www.hungarianfamilyrecord.org)

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