The Penrose Home Where Everything Began

This photo was taken years after the house was abandoned.  Someone later covered it with brick siding after we were gone.  The original home was limited to the space under the curved part of the roof and had two rooms:  a kitchen on the right, and a bedroom and everything-else-room on the left.  Later, Dad built an addition on the back which included the kitchen and eating area, and couch and sitting area.  The house had no insulation, no electricity until 1939 when I was seven years old, no telephone, no inside plumbing.  But for the older children, this home and the surrounding yard, orchard, and the nearby river just down the hill in the back, is the scene of many of our happiest childhood memories.