Monday, October 17, 2016

Demolition Day 5

I forgot to mention yesterday that I stepped on a rusty nail.  It went right through my thick soled shoes and into my foot.  It was a big nail.  My mom freaked out, so we had to go to Urgent Care.  They cleaned it out, gave me a tetanus shot, and an antibiotic for 10 days.

Wonderful.

Today, my foot is sore, but after a little padding and advil, I was ready to go.  I started the morning at the Connellsville Historical Society building.  I had collected so much information on the past owners of this house, and wanted to share.  I also wanted to see what other information they might have.  Sadly, I have yet to find pictures of the inside (or outside) of this house as it originally stood, but we are still searching.  Apparently the courts aren't required to keep any kind of layout of the homes on file, so we may never find it.

After our morning of learning, we went to the house to continue demolition of the second floor.  We spent a lot of time making piles for trash today - things that couldn't go into the dumpster because they just took up too much room.  We wanted to save room in the dumpster for the construction materials.

I decided to take a break at one point from pounding, and went to the first floor to check out the understairs closet.  It still had its original door on it, but it was blocked off by some garbage the old owners left.  What we found in there was true treasure for this house.  We found many moldings that were missing from around most of the windows.  I am so grateful they had just stashed them and didn't throw them away.  I was so excited.  I lined up all of our findings in the living room on the first floor, so that we can use them as we need them.

Also, while we were taking down some of the paneling and plaster on the stairs, we found some drawings of layouts.  I took their picture - no idea when they were put there, but they were neat all the same.

This is a picture of Joseph Soisson from a newspaper article in 1902.  He was the original founder of the Fire Brick Company
 I had my mom take a picture of the historical society, and this is what she took. :)  I love her, but I wanted the whole building.
 These are original paintings of Joseph's oldest son, John, and his wife.  They hang in the historical society.  They are the only paintings that were ever found.
 This is Leo Soisson.  Son of Joseph  Soisson, and the person who owned our house the longest.  Check out that stach.
Some of the drawings we found of room layouts behind the paneling and first layer of plaster.


 The gold mine of things we found in the understairs closet.  We are going to have a good time finding out where they all belong.




2 comments:

  1. News of your blog is now making the rounds of the Vincent H Soisson descendants! Vincent H , my grandfather, was the youngest of 11 children of the Joseph Soisson whose photo you posted.(His father was Joseph senior, but he never emigrated to the US. However, the names of beloved parents were passed on to descendants. Vincent H’s older brother was Leo Joseph who you mentioned, and another older brother was Joseph J.) My grandparents’ house was on Fairview. However this is fascinating!! I have a brick with Soisson imprinted on it, which I keep by my fireplace. One of my favorite memories of Connellsvile as a child was seeing all the streets made of brick and being told they were made by the Soisson family brick company. Hope your foot is healing up nicely!

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  2. My great great great great grandfather was Joseph Soisson! I'm doing my ancestry and located your blog through it. Are you still in the process of renovating the house?

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