In preparation for the 2012 Historical House tour, I am under the gun to find out information on two "new" houses that will be on the tour. All the houses on the tour are in Fulton County except one that is on the corner of Fayville Road and Route 7. Our interest in this house all started with a photo that showed it with a sign on it: Fish House (Rooms and Meals). I have to find out when it was a hotel or boarding house. (Probably after the original Fish House Hotel which burned down in 1920). There was also a rumor that this huge house had been moved in preparation for the Sacandaga Lake. Using a website that accesses old newspapers, I came across a small blurb that mentioned this house and that it was moved to the "new" corner of Fayville Road. Success!!
July 10, 2012: This house was build in 1900. The town deed show that Marvin & Minerva Brown sold it to Abbie Seeley in 1907...so I am assuming that the Brown's built it as I cannot find anything specific as to its earlier history. In 1928, Abbie Seeley sold it to Lauren Ostrum. He took one year to move it up to its present location. Then, in 1934, unable to pay the mortgage, the house ownership went back to Abbie Seeley.
As the photo of this house was so closely cropped, there were no clues as to where or when this photo was taken. It is unlikely that the photo is from before 1920, as the Fish House Hotel was just down the road and one would not think that the owner of this house would give it the same name. Since the Fish House Hotel burned down in 1920, this photo is probably after that year. The 1920 census shows Joseph Seeley (Abbie's husband) as being a farmer, not a hotel proprietor. Abbie Seeley's grandson remembers being there (at its present location) in the late 1940's and it was not a boarding house at that time, nor since then. So my assumption is that when Ostrum moved it to its new location in 1929, he set it up as a boarding house.
July 10, 2012: This house was build in 1900. The town deed show that Marvin & Minerva Brown sold it to Abbie Seeley in 1907...so I am assuming that the Brown's built it as I cannot find anything specific as to its earlier history. In 1928, Abbie Seeley sold it to Lauren Ostrum. He took one year to move it up to its present location. Then, in 1934, unable to pay the mortgage, the house ownership went back to Abbie Seeley.
As the photo of this house was so closely cropped, there were no clues as to where or when this photo was taken. It is unlikely that the photo is from before 1920, as the Fish House Hotel was just down the road and one would not think that the owner of this house would give it the same name. Since the Fish House Hotel burned down in 1920, this photo is probably after that year. The 1920 census shows Joseph Seeley (Abbie's husband) as being a farmer, not a hotel proprietor. Abbie Seeley's grandson remembers being there (at its present location) in the late 1940's and it was not a boarding house at that time, nor since then. So my assumption is that when Ostrum moved it to its new location in 1929, he set it up as a boarding house.
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