Preserving the History of Our Home

I received a phone call this week from an older couple who live in a century old Arts & Crafts house. They had recently had their house appraised, but their question for me had to do with something else.

"How much would the original drawings for our house be worth?" the husband asked.

Not knowing exactly what had prompted his question, I launched into an explanation of how original drawings would typically be of greater interest to the next owner of the house than an Arts & Crafts collector. "Unless," I added, "the architect was well-known."

"Well, how much would they be worth?" came the response.

Again, I explained, that would depend on who the architect was, plus the number of pages and the artistic quality of the drawings. "What are you thinking about doing with them?" I asked.

After a long pause, he slowly explained. It seems that when they had their house appraised, the appraiser took the original drawings with him and now refused to return them. "What would you want with them?" he reportedly said. "They're just a bunch of old drawings."

My blood began to boil as I imagined this appraiser taking advantage of an older couple who happened to have a set of architectural drawings of monetary value. I took a deep breath and began explaining exactly what the couple needed to do, starting with one more phone call to the appraiser, to be followed with one to their local police or sheriff's department if he did not immediately produce and return the drawings.

Afterwards I continued to think about the drawings and their importance, not just to this particular couple, but to the next family and the one after that. Too often we forget to take the time to document our own house, starting with some simple research at the courthouse, but including contacting former owners. Back when I owned a 1914 Arts & Crafts house in Asheville I was shown the wedding pictures of a young woman who was married in the house a few years after it was completed. While I enjoyed looking at the faces of the wedding party, the photographs also provided information on the house itself: windows and doors that had been changed, missing woodwork, even original furnishings.

We know the importance of documenting the Arts & Crafts antiques we have collected, now we just need to do the same for our Arts & Crafts homes.

- Bruce Johnson