Our House in Photos 100 Years Ago

Above: Our house c1905. Second from the left is Mabel Wrolstad, youngest daughter of John Olson Wrolstad who built our house in 1893. We received this image from the Iola Historical Society in July 2009.

Glad to see this photo image to confirm the width of the original stairs. This summer (2011) the newly fabricated rails matching original profile will be installed, along with repaired original spindles.


Above: Our House September 6, 2010 Dad and Jon finished pouring cement pad and rebuilding front porch steps. I photographed them taking a break. They were exhausted.


Above: Our House - Dining Room c1893

Above: Our House - Dining Room removing wallpaper and repairing cracks in the walls November 2007.

The Rolling Stones song, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" goes through my mind while working on the house. This instance is certainly true. At the time, we were not able to repair wall cracks in the dining room and save the stenciling too. However, a couple years later of course we found technology where we could have made the repairs and kept the original artwork. Such is life, eh? The stencil work is still there under a couple layers . . . and there is always the possibility of restoring it, but I'll have to let another generation find this treasure.


Above: Our House - Recent photo of our Dining Room taken May 31, 2010, confirming the woodwork, etched glass doors, hardware, and screen porch door are original to the house. So glad.


Above C1893 family portrait John Olson Wrolstad Family.


Above: Detail of little Mabel Wrolstad from the family portrait c1893.


Above: Our house c 1893 - Sitting Room (Living Room)

In this image, we see a portrait of John Olson Wrolstad and hanging below his portrait is his powder flask from the Civil War. Below is a current image of the powder flask.

The c1893 images of the Sitting Room above and the Dining Room were provided to us by Heather Westgor great great granddaughter of John Olson Wrolstad and his wife Mathea. Heather's great grandmother is Mabel. Heather and her family will visit us this spring/summer to talk about their family.


Above: June 2007 photo of the Sitting Room (Living Room) after removing 4 layers of wallpaper.

I'll have to get busy and take some current photos of the living room, just as it was photographed above in 1893. First, I have to remove the 56" diagonal tv from the spot where John Olson Wrolstad's portrait hung. Eventually, Jon will fix up the carriage house into his man cave, and his tv (I call the size of Cleveland) go away from the Sitting Room (Living Room). Yeah!