We Found a House. Now I’m Finding Stories.

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
7 min readApr 30, 2019

Part I of chasing down the history of our new old home.

Photo Taken April 26, 2019

What can I say? It’s and unassuming brick box with a beautiful bay window and glass paneled door frame. I was instantly intrigued. It’s currently a two-family home but that was not its intention when it was built in 1926. Buildings, like people, reveal their pasts in pieces.

My husband and I were shopping for our new home when we found it. We’re moving back to the small Northern Kentucky community where I grew up. We visited the school and we participated in local events to check out the vibe to make sure this is where we wanted our three-year-old Ezra to grow up. It is. I have a few friends remaining in the community and I’m looking forward to being a part of it once again.

But this house. Hardwood floors throughout, a beautiful fireplace on the second floor, even the bricks of the building are textured and gorgeous, I loved all of it. The big lot with even bigger potential makes us eager to make it our own. But in the process of of making it our own I want to know and honor the property’s past somehow. I love an old house and my husband and I have rediscovered that we like home improvement projects. Both of us grew up in homes where our fathers undertook large projects. I remember wearing a work apron and learning to put screws…

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Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Bonnie is an award-winning syndicated columnist and opinion editor for The Louisville Courier Journal @WriterBonnie