Found in Our Collection: Historical Photographs of Houses
Below are a few historical photographs of houses found in our collection.
Ca. 1878 - Sod House in Osborn, Kansas.
Sod houses were a common type of house found in Kansas in the 1870’s. When settlers first arrived in the Great Plains, they had to use dirt and other natural resources to build homes. Sod houses kept cool in the summer and were easy to heat in the winter. The trouble with sod houses is that the roof would leak for a few days if it rained, and the occasional snake, bugs and mice would fall from the ceiling!
For more information about sod houses, read this article by the Prairie Museum of Art and History.
Ca. 1890 - Home of J.H. Johnson. Located 5 Miles South of McPherson.
Ca. 1890 - Home of Andrew Nelson. Located North of McPherson.
Ca. 1891 - Home of Daniel Vaniman.
Ca. 1910 - Home on the Range.
This is a simple farmhouse that does slightly resemble a Folk Victorian style home with the decorative features along the porch posts and a gabled roof.
Notice there are no trees near the house or in the distance. The Great Plains was an open prairie until Shelterbelts were built around farmsteads to block the wind and protect the crops and wildlife. The Great Plains Shelterbelt was a project established in 1934 to create windbreaks by planting trees around fields and farmsteads in the Great Plains states. President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the project in response to the severe dust storms of the 1931 Dust Bowl, which resulted in significant soil erosion and drought.
Read more about Shelterbelts in Kansas here.
Ca. 1918 - Home of Melissa Turner. Located on the Southwest Corner of Elizabeth and Ash. The House was Moved to East Woodside in the 1930’s.
This home resembles a Folk Victorian style of house, popular from 1870 to 1910 according to the Kansas Historical Society. Notice the decorative features and details of the porch, gabled roof and simple folk form.