Sepia Saturday: The House That Violetta Built

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt of a ship under construction has given me an opportunity to display some of the photos that had been stuffed into an envelope and forgotten for many years.  They are of my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan’s apartment building under construction. 

She was just a fairly young woman in the early 1930s when she broke ground at 473 South Mason Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  Her goal was financial independence.

Breaking ground at 473 South Mason Street

Supplies delivered to the back yard

Her plan was to build an apartment building with two floors and a basement, with two units on each floor. 

Violetta was there to supervise - no surprise there!

She would occupy the left apartment on the first floor and rent the others. 

Look at that scaffolding!

Violetta's apartment was #1.  In the 1970s, she created a hall
through back-to-back closets and made #1 and #2
one big apartment.

By 1940, the house had been fully rented for at least 5 years, according to the census of that year.  Violetta and her husband Dick Ryan along with her mother Mary Frances Jollett Davis shared the one apartment.  Other renters included college professor Clyde Shorts and his wife and daughter, teacher Mona Lyon (who remained Violetta’s lifelong friend), factory owner Michael Mintzer and his wife and daughter, and telephone company engineer Henry Newman and his bride and baby.

In no time Violetta must have realized she had attic space that could be put to better use.  A renovation to the top floor brought her total to 7 apartments.

And what a lovely building she created too.  The fine details reflected in part the style of the day but also they were the result of Violetta’s desire for “nice things,” things like wood floors, beautiful wood moldings, brass doorknobs, brass chandeliers, fireplaces for each renter as well as one in the backyard.

Apt #6 - Note the beautiful woodwork,
fireplace, built-in bookshelves,
and just a snip of that brass chandelier.

Violetta said that residents often held parties
together in the backyard.

Storage in even the basement apartments was generous with several deep closets, a kitchen pantry, and built-in bookshelves.  The four main apartments all enjoyed a beautiful porch facing South Mason.

While these photos would be considered just old photos to others, they are most fascinating to me because of the history.  The house at 473 South Mason was more than the Mecca of my youth when family vacations always included visits with Violetta.  It was home to many in my family at one time or another.

Violetta’s sister Velma lived for awhile in Apartment #6 in the basement, the same one I lived in as a bride.  Across the hall in #5 lived my cousin Glenn and his bride Rita.  Several years later my sister lived in #5 while in college.  The attic apartment (#7) was the newlywed nest for my cousin Barbara (Glenn’s sister) until the baby came along signaling they had outgrown the place. 

We youngins came and went but some of the residents were there a long time.  In fact, I can’t remember a time when they weren’t there.  Apartment #3 was home to Mrs. Ruth Cooper and #4 to Miss Rosalind Trent and her brother.

from 1952 yearbook
Madison College

from 1952 yearbook
Madison College

Mrs. Cooper and Miss Trent were colleagues of Violetta’s at Madison College.  Mrs. Cooper was the sweetest little lady.  We always drove her to Richmond at Christmas so she could be with her family.  Miss Trent must have been the youngest of the three as she was still teaching English at the college even though Mrs. Cooper and Violetta had retired.  I took at least three English courses from Miss Trent, two during the same semester.  She even let me submit the same essay for both classes. 

Whenever I’m in Harrisonburg, I avoid driving down South Mason because my cousin assures me the house is just not the same, it's sad to say.  Like an old ship decommissioned and slated for scrap, 473 South Mason has lost her stature as a grand and desirable place to live.  I prefer to remember this house when it was one of the jewels of the neighborhood. 

Please visit my neighbors at Sepia Saturday to see what they’ve constructed this week. 

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.