Wednesday, April 27, 2011

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 150: The Carringer House is Finished!

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I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from the Seaver/Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:



This picture was taken in November 1951 in front of the Lyle and Emily Carringer home at 825 Harbor View Place in the Point Loma area of San Diego.  My grandparents moved into this house in November 1951, and lived there until their deaths in 1976 and 1977.

The house is completed, and ready for my grandparents and my great-grandmother to live in for the rest of their lives.  You can tell that it's ready because the mailbox is installed.  That darn mailbox knocked me down more than once as I chased my brother around the property.  I don't recall when it was removed, but I was happy that it was.

Two men are shown in their suits standing on the sidewalk in front of the wall.  The one on the left is my grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976).  The man on the right is, I'm pretty sure, Admiral Marshall E. Dornin.  Lyle and Emily bought the lot for their home from the Dornins, and they were neighbors and friends with Lyle and Emily for the rest of their lives.

Do you see the cat in the picture?  I think it is the Dornin's cat, since my grandparents didn't have pets to my knowledge. 

Note the window views through the house.  From the street side, you could see San Diego Bay through two sets of windows. 

Note also the central chimney.  That was the most important feature of this house for this 8-year-old boy - it meant Santa Claus could bring me really good presents.  Starting in 1952, my family stayed overnight with my grandparents and Santa brought gifts around the chimney.  I think the major reason for having the chimney, from my grandparents perspective, was that it might stop a car that went out of control coming down Lucinda Street (if the block wall in front of the house didn't do the job first). 

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