303 Bryan Street Hopkinsville, KY

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Meredith Shellcross Hopson moved his family from the Gracey farm in 1911. He built 303 Bryan Street for $4,500. After Shell & Bettie Hopson passed, the house was left to Jim & Bess Hopson Wolfe. Granddaddy Wolfe had a thing about brownstone. Whenever he saw a piece in a shop he bought it brought it home.

4 comments:

Genevieve Netz said...: I really enjoyed the old photos and the stories that go with them. You have enough here to make a little book. Have you considered self-publishing something through a firm like Lulu for friends and family?; February 24, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Rad said...: I ran across your blog while looking for a recipe for jam cake - another piece of nostalgia! I've lived in Houston for the past 40 years, but I used to visit my grandparents, Garrott and Martha Sallee, when I was about 6 years old and they lived on Bryan street in a house that looked much like No.303. Judge Witty was a master cabinet maker and worked in the shop at Ambrose, my Dad's lumber company. He was Dutch or German, from Indiana I think, and when he learned that I was trying to play the trumpet he gave me some of his old music books. One of the Moseleys in the photo looked like Ed, whom I remember from First Baptist Church. Among the Kids on the block when I was visiting were Donnie Miller (next door), the Ropers, David Porter, Patsy Beshear, Carl Jr. Crawley and no doubt several others.... Do you remember kids putting candles in shoe boxes and pulling them along with a string to make a "train"? The only time I ever saw that done was when visiting on Bryan Street, although Robert Penn Warren later mentioned it in a poem, so it was probably a common toy during the Depression. Thanks for the memories! - Radford Sallee; March 8, 2009 at 11:53 PM
303 Bryan Street, Hopkinsville, KY said...: The shoe boxes being pulled down the street with lit candles were my mother and her playmates. Mother (Dorothy Wolfe,'Dot') will be 100 this May 2016. She lived at 303 Bryan Street.; February 21, 2016 at 6:19 PM
303 Bryan Street, Hopkinsville, KY said...: Judge Witty and his wife Byrd were very good friends to my grandmother, Bess Hopson Wolfe.; February 21, 2016 at 6:21 PM

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Christmas

Jim always drove to the country and cut a cedar himself. No one set up Christmas Tree stands in those days. Sometimes the family would clip small candles on the bows, but never lit them for fear of fire. Cranberries & popcorn were strung to make garland. The tree was positioned in the dining room with a lit fireplace.

Bess baked seven or eight cakes each Christmas. There was always chocolate cake, fresh coconut cake (she grated the coconut herself), and usually a jam cake. She would fix plates of assorted slices and give them to all the neighbors. Sidney West Wolfe (Dot's paternal grandmother) baked the pies and Christmas cookies.

Packages didn't appear till Christmas morning because Santa brought them all (adult gifts & Dot's gifts). Dorothy hung one of her own stockings, not a decorated Christmas stocking. Fruit and nuts were the big treat a child found in her stocking.

The holiday meal included both turkey and country ham, dressing, baked apples, scalloped oysters, green beans, cranberry relish, fresh coconut cake, and boiled custard.

Heat

Early on, the house was heated entirely with a fireplace in each room. Later a basement was dug and an additional bedroom was built onto the back. When the basement was dug, a coal furnace was installed. Eventually the coal furnace was switched out for a gas furnace. The water heater was fueled by a coil gas heater in the summer and by the furnace in the winter.

When the house was first built, there was a gas meter for the cook stove that was controlled by quarters as fuel was needed. The meter was in the kitchen. Later, the gas company moved the meter outdoors and charged customers a monthly fee.

Refrigerator

When the house was first built, the family used an icebox. Ice was delivered daily by a young man in a horse drawn wagon. A family would buy 10lbs, 25 lbs, 50 lbs, or 100 lbs. It all depended on the size of their ice box. There was a drain in the box leading to a pan underneath to catch melted water. A delivery boy used a toesack slung over his shoulder to carry the ice into the house and a big ice hook to set the ice in the icebox.

There was also an window box that could be used in the winter for extra space. Ice & ice cream could stay cold and in tack in window box during cold weather.

Air Conditioning

Electric fans were used to keep the house comfortable. There was one in every room. Jim Wolfe had a hugh fan installed in an attic window. There were screens on all the windows, front door, and back. These were kept open in hot weather with all the fans going. All that was used for security was a hook on each opening.

During sizzling weather, the family would take an evening ride through the country to give the house cooling off time from the day's heat. They left the house open with fans running till they came back for bed.

Some families would sleep outside on a porch or in a hammock in hot weather.