In all my moves over the years, I have lived and worked in some rather interesting locations.  I have lived in a house that was literally right on the Oregon Trail (we could still see the ruts running from East to West).  For many years I was stationed at a base that had the first Marine Recruit Depot on the West Coast, had my office in both the old Marine Brig and the infamous Naval Prison there, and ran a rifle range that dated back to World War I (Mare Island was also the first Navy Base on the west coast).

I have served at the site of WWII battles, Indian Wars era Cavalry Posts, and where the US built the first atomic bomb and conducted it's first rocket tests.  However, where I am working now and will be working next week is unique in itself.

Now very little of San Francisco from before 1906 survives, the Great Fire took care of almost all of the town.  But are still a lot of unique sites around, even if the original buildings are gone.

Where I work now is the former site of "Fort Gunnybags", the headquarters of the Committee of Vigilance in 1856.  I knew of it even before I moved here, and it had a pretty grim reputation.  Created to help end the corruption of San Francisco, several corrupt politicians were hanged here.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Lynching-of-casey-and-cora.jpg

And it got the name because those in the committee built a wall of burlap sandbags to prevent it from being stormed (they even mounted cannons on the roof).

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-california/Fort%20Gunnybags%20in%20the%201850s.jpg

However, it burned down in the fire of 1906.  Much like the place I am moving to next week.  Across the street from the Transamerica Pyramid", it was the destination and headquarters of the Pony Express when it was in operation.

http://www.sfmuseum.org/photos15/px4.jpg

However, it also is gone, and I could not even find a photo or drawing of the original building.

New Jersey was a battle ground state in the Revolutionary War and pretty much anywhere is a historical location in one form or another. In brief, Union NJ was known as Connecticut Farms during the time of the war, it's located between Elizabeth and Morristown, with Springfield boardering it on the west. The English occupied Elizabeth and George Washington had his headquarters in Morristown. Many battles were fought on the land between the two towns. A major battle known as the battle of Connecticut Farms was fought in Union and Springfield. A major battle where George Washington and 5000 troops marched down from Morristown to Union to support the patriots fight. A battle that changed the coarse of the war for the Patirots, forcing the British army out of NJ and back to New York.

My house is built on the land where that major battle took place, and where Washington's 5000 troops camped after the battle. It's about 300 yards from the Connecticut Farms Church that the British burned down, and shot and killed Hanna Cauldwell, the wife of Pastor Cauldwell. The pastor who is famed for his battle cry "Give them Watts boys", when our troops ran out of cannon wadding, a stuffing to fire the cannon balls with, so he gave them Watts prayer books to stuff the cannons with, a jesture that help win the battle at the Springfield boarder. Washington and his troops spent some time at the camp site after the battle to secure the position.

Over the years, while gardening in my yard, I've dug old rusted items that had to be from the troops, nothing of value, only my personal interest in the history of the old rusted pieces and the stories that are connected to them. I marvel at the thought of George Washington inspecting his troops while walking on the land that my home is now on...it's a cool feeling.

Over the years, while gardening in my yard, I've dug old rusted items that had to be from the troops, nothing of value, only my personal interest in the history of the old rusted pieces and the stories that are connected to them. I marvel at the thought of George Washington inspecting his troops while walking on the land that my home is now on...it's a cool feeling.


Wow, that's pretty awesome.  Maybe you should call Ric Savage and see if he is interested in checking out your place.

The house we live in now was built around the turn of the century. Our living room used to house the phone company. There is a name written in the basement with the date 1915 on it. We are planning on adding our names with the date 2015 but we may have to up the date earlier than that because we will be moving.


As for a historical building...


http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=48369.0



Cat

I live within less than five miles of the Land Between the Lakes recreation area in Kentucky. I suppose you could consider it a historic location.

Wow, that's pretty awesome.  Maybe you should call Ric Savage and see if he is interested in checking out your place.


Mushroom, I don't know Rick Savage, please fill me in on him. Pioneer farmers from Connecticut came to this land that was part of Elizabethtown around 1667, and settled the land turning thousands of acrers forest into farmland and the area was called Connecticut Farms on maps. My house is on land that was once a farm owned by a family named Johnson at the time of the war. After generations the family sub divided the farm into residential lots in the late 1800's as the area grew, it incorporated into it's own township and adopted the name Union in 1808 and today it's 9 square miles large and about 70 thousand reside here and all the farms are gone. I've dug up is old rusted relics like long nails from the colonial era, wagon hinges, horseshoes, bits of pottery, clums of rusted metal that look like a residue from a metal forge, horse briddle bits, and a lot of pieces that are un-identifiable, and that's from a small area on the side of my house where I plant my tomatos. I'm going to pull my oil tank out of my front yard this summer, I'm going to use a metal detector on the shoveled out dirt and in the hole itself for more stuff.   

Mushroom, I don't know Rick Savage, please fill me in on him.


Ric Savage was a professional wrestler in the 1990's, and when he retired he started an "Archaeology Recovery" business.  Basically they do archaeology on people's land, then split the profits.  He also has a TV show on Spike called "American Digger", and they are always looking for interesting places to do some digging at.

http://american-savage.com/

I had a summer job doing light maintenance on a house that was built in 1775. The field adjacent to the
house was used as a training site for the Revolutionist. During the Civil War years the house was used as
a stopover for the Underground Railroad.

I also worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard - founded in 1776. While there I worked on, in and under the
USS Forrestal...CV-59 and the USS Lexington...CVT-16

Ric Savage was a professional wrestler in the 1990's, and when he retired he started an "Archaeology Recovery" business.  Basically they do archaeology on people's land, then split the profits.  He also has a TV show on Spike called "American Digger", and they are always looking for interesting places to do some digging at.

http://american-savage.com/


Yes! I do know of him and his TV show, I watched one show when dug up stuff in New Orleans. I'll keep him in mind if I find anything in the hole when that oil tank comes out of my front yard, Thanks.

I had a summer job doing light maintenance on a house that was built in 1775. The field adjacent to the
house was used as a training site for the Revolutionist. During the Civil War years the house was used as
a stopover for the Underground Railroad.

I also worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard - founded in 1776. While there I worked on, in and under the
USS Forrestal...CV-59 and the USS Lexington...CVT-16


I love history, I hope that house is a landmark and preserved for future generations to learn from.

Yes! I do know of him and his TV show, I watched one show when dug up stuff in New Orleans. I'll keep him in mind if I find anything in the hole when that oil tank comes out of my front yard, Thanks.


Heck, you should get ahold of him first...  bet he would dig the hole for free.  ;D

A friend of mine lived here, in the basement apartment.  There was a walled up tunnel that led to the Charles River so they could ferry the escapees over to safe houses in Cambridge where they were eventually brought up to Canada.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House
66 Phillips Street


Lewis Hayden was born a slave in 1816 in Lexington, Kentucky. After escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad to Detroit, he moved to Boston with his wife Harriet and soon became a leader in the abolitionist movement. In Boston Hayden's political activities were based in the clothing store he owned on Cambridge Street, and in his home here on Phillips Street (then Southac Street).

The house was built in 1833. Hayden moved in as a tenant around 1849. Francis Jackson, treasurer of the Vigilance Committee, a radical abolitionist organization, purchased the house in 1853, possibly to assure that Hayden would not be harassed in his Underground Railroad activities. (Jackson's estate sold the house to Harriet Hayden in 1865).

In 1850, Southern slave owners were given legal sanction by the Fugitive Slave Act to retrieve their runaway slaves. Boston ceased to be a haven for escaped slaves. Hayden and his wife, Harriet, turned their home into an Underground Railroad station. William and Ellen Craft, a fugitive couple who masqueraded as master and slave, were sheltered here as were countless other fugitive blacks.

The Haydens reputedly kept two kegs of gunpowder under their front stoop. They greeted bounty hunters at the door with lit candles, saying that they would rather drop the candles and blow up the house than surrender the ex-slaves in their trust. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the Hayden's home in 1853:




http://mass.historicbuildingsct.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Hayden-House.jpg

I love history, I hope that house is a landmark and preserved for future generations to learn from.


Unfortunatly no, vandals burned the house to the ground. They were never caught.

Unfortunatly no, vandals burned the house to the ground. They were never caught.


It is a real shame how one ignorant person ruins it for the thousands of knowledgeable ones.

I used to work for my uncle's family business in downtown Chicago...the building that housed the business was built in 1903. As far as I know, nothing of note happened there, but I have never had the opportunity/means nor the inclination to research the history...until now. It was interesting when I would have to use the freight elevator which was manually operated. The regular elevator was the same way, and very old looking as well. In the 107 years between the time the place was built and the time I began working there, they updated a lot of things but never replaced the 1903 elevators with a modern ones. The basement of this place was super creepy too...it had this totally ancient bathroom which I can only imagine had been out of order for several decades. You could tell by looking at the toilet that it was from a completely different time. I only got to go down there a few times though.

The company actually just moved to a new building a few weeks ago though so I will probably never have the opportunity to go in that building again.

About 8 years ago, I lived in a mansion that had been converted into apartment suites. The building was dated from 1912. It was pretty cool living there except for having to step outside to get to the laundry room...

There's an embarrassment of historical riches within staggering distance of where I work...

Here's one...

http://cdn.ltstatic.com/2006/March/HJ757163_942long.jpg

Walked past this more times than I've had hot dinners!

There's an embarrassment of historical riches within staggering distance of where I work...



Same here.  I live in the Boston area and you can't spit without hitting an historical marker.  The sight of the Great Molasses Flood is now a park, it's a great story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster

"The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. A large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and for many decades residents claimed that on hot summer days, the area still smelled of molasses."

2,300,000 US gal ....40 foot wall of molasses.

http://ctmonuments.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC04414.jpg

My grandparents' house in N.J. was a pre Civil War house which was part of the underground railway.  There was a wall of a fireplace that moved to reveal  a ladder to a secret room on the second  floor and in the cellar there was a block of shelves that opened to reveal a tunnel that led under the Passiac  River to another house.