We’ve always lived in old homes and been interested in them. Our childhood home was built in 1812 in a small town in the country. It had so many interesting stories and quirks that it often felt like it had a personality of its own. When we look at old pictures for our website, we’ve always kept the ones that show what life was like in these homes in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
We hope you have as much fun looking at these pictures as we did putting them together.We love old pictures of houses that show how people used to live. In 1865, Lady Frances Jocelyn took a picture called “Interieur” that shows the same thing. How lovely!Here’s a favorite of ours: This painting by Marcel Vanderkindere shows a summer lounge in Belgium in the year 1895.
Doesn’t that rocking chair look like a nice place to sit?A rare look at the inside of a Victorian house from the 1800s. Isn’t it beautiful? It makes me want to start a fire and just relax.Inside a home from the 1880s. The gun, rug, and antlers show that this family went shooting, and the spinning wheel shows that, even though they were pretty well off, they made do with what they had.
In the 1890s, this beautiful home with high ceilings was in Cortland, New York. You can think that in the winter, it would take a big fire to keep that room warm.Here is a lounge with a more middle-class feel. Still a lot of beauty!From VictorianChildren.org, here is a picture of a very nice, upper-class home from 1885. Take note of the palm on the right!
We think this room is almost too full of stuff, but not quite. You can see how people could spend a lot of time here, especially with that big stove.Here’s what a normal parlor looked like at the turn of the 20th century. The floors were almost completely carpeted, and there were many chairs for working, having people over, or just sitting and listening to someone play the piano.
Many people today would call Victorian homes crowded or messy, but we don’t agree. If you look closely, you’ll notice that a lot of what looks like clutter is just more chairs, which were always needed when people came over or when you had a party. “Y’all have chairs here!” was an old saying.Here’s another look at a living room that was also a work room. We’d love to get a better look at all the pictures and drawings on the wall.
Another look at a beautiful living room in the Eldon House. Can you imagine what cool old things people had in their Victorian homes? The best thing about old things is that they tell stories.