Sunday, January 13, 2013

1119 Polk Street, Topeka, KS - Edward and Betsy Walker's Home



     The first photograph is labeled 1908 and the second 1911. When I first compared them, I came to the conclusion that they were different houses. For one thing, the house from 1908 has only a single window on the second floor, compared to three in the 1911 photo. Also the 1911 house has an additional story above the porch, including a set of windows.
    But then I looked at the bay window and the porch and they seemed similar beyond pure coincidence. The trim under the bay window appears to be the same. The angle of the porch is the same in both.Unfortunately the house is gone. If it wasn't torn down before the 1966 tornado, it may have been damaged or destroyed by it. In my memory this is in or very near to the swath of that tornado. 1119 SW Polk, Topeka, KS
     I've never found any evidence of the Walkers ever living in another house in Topeka so my conclusion is it's the same house. Sometime in the years between the photos they added on to the house. In my ignorance or arrogance, I never thought that people before 1950 would add on to their homes. A belief based on absolutely nothing. 

   If anyone has a thought as to are they the same house or are they two separate house, let me know.

1 comment:

  1. I thought I might find some clue in the photos you posted of the bedrooms back in May of 2012. The roof line in those photos could be either house. I also thought that maybe the older photo showed the house to the side as being too close for a sideways extension but it is possible they just raised the roof six feet. In short, I couldn't figure it out. Do you have any shots from the inside that would show windows are any other clue?

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