Squint Shot 083010

We are still in the second floor of the State Farm offices, where the rooms have been stripped of all plaster. The bare studs and walls are showing until further work can be done. With these two squint shots, I found the the look of the insulation to be somewhat disturbing. It looks solid enough it probably did a very good job, but just how old could it be? There are so many old houses in Fowlerville, many built before the turn of the 1900 century, that it makes me wonder what other walls (inside and out) look like. What method of construction was used? What types of wood -- local or brought in? Where were the goods purchased to build houses?

In the early 1900s there were sometimes three to four hardware stores, selling everything from what was needed to built houses, sheds, and barns to everyday items such as groceries. As time goes along and is controlled by my day job, I will post articles and information about various businesses at different times in our history, such as in 1916, Titmus and Converse operated a hardware store and implement shop in the location now used by Fowlerville Hardware, in the portion with the arched stones on the second floor. In this picture below, you can see men standing in the doorway, reported to be Ezra Titmus and Fred Converse. Doug Burnie provided this picture to me when I first began working on squint shots and then as my information-gathering evolved into book form, it can be found on page 181 of The Fowlerville Chronicles, where you will find additional tidbits of interest.