Details of a house can give one clues to pictures with no names, addresses, or dates. The first picture in this post was positively identified by Gene Lee as being their Grand View home, and he identified his mother and the place in the image below. From there we need to make educated guesses about other images in a photo album that look similar.

Things we know about this house:

1) It has large white rectangular stones along foundation.

2) The house has brick above the foundation, probably a red brick.

3) There are arched bricks over lower windows of the house in the basement.

4) The house has a basement.

5) Lattice surrounds the base of the porch.

6) A wooden railing with columns surrounds the porch.

7) Height of porch is about 4 feet.

8) The front porch has wide steps.

9) It looks like the wild vegetation was cleared back and columns made bigger on the porch- note differences from first image, but others of these images were verified by  Gene Lee (who lived there)- he said they were 1038 Grand View Place.

10) There is a lone tree at the base of the steps.

11) A narrow sidewalk curves around the side of the house.

11) The house appears to be on a cul-de-sac.

12) Using Google maps and street view, we can see that there is a large two-story building nearby (currently a school and may have been in the 1920s as well), plus a house nearby that has a third story window that is the maximum height for its width in the gable. (This house seems to have been demolished; the freeway is very close by now and the road was terminated.)

Using these clues, there are other images in the Lee photo album that were most probably taken at 1038 Grand View Place. Knowing who lived in the house at certain times can help us narrow the possibilities of the persons in the pictures.

The Lees had moved on to 6704 Alamo by the time of the 1930 US Federal census.

The house is still standing, and is listed on Zillow.com as being 1,444 sq. ft. with one bathroom, built in 1908. It is located near Clayton and Berthold Streets on Grandview Place (now ‘Grand View’ is one word instead of two). Due to Google’s Terms of Service I cannot post an image of the house, but if you click here, it should take you to the image.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Photos from the Lee family treasure chest.

2) GoogleMaps street view of house today: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6310572,-90.3012714,3a,75y,87.49h,90.75t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sZ8aSXN4kZFkCNUzY4o9ygQ!2e0

The gift of the “FAN Club” continues- Jeff Reuter has more images for us with dear family on a Colorado trip.

Little Bobby Lee was born in 1932, so would have been eight if this trip was in 1940.

Here is another clue to place. Victor, Colorado is about 6 miles from Cripple Creek, and all these historic towns are part of a mining area that has been frequented by tourists for many, many years. Our son was about the same age as his grandfather, “Little Bobby,” when we visited Victor and Cripple Creek. Going down into the mine was such fun for us- wonder if the Lees and Reuters made that trip deep into the earth back in the 1940s?

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Family photos shared by Jeff Reuter- thank you again, Jeff!

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Jeff Reuter is the wonderful person mentioned on my Monday post who found our blog after reprinting images from his family treasure archive of negatives.  Thankfully he enjoys photography, and has all the equipment needed to reprint the found negatives. (Jeff has a business called Silver Coast Photography in Bradenton, FL; he may be found on weekends taking and making black & white images at the Coquina Beach Market.)

Here was the first comment Jeff left on our blog:

“Gene and Ruth were friends of my mother and father, Henrietta and Walter Reuter. I have reprinted photos of Ruth and Gene and Henrietta when they were in Colorado in 1940.”

From an email:

“When I printed the photo with the car, I knew that was Gene, but I had never met Ruth.  I would have been nine when she died.  I did a Google search for Gene & Vada Lee [Vada was Gene’s second wife, after Ruth died.] and found the Heritage [Ramblings blog] website.

“After finding photos of Ruth online I concluded that the other woman in the photo was Ruth.”

From Jeff’s second comment:

“There is also a photo of a sign post in Victor, CO. with directions to Florence, Divide, and Cripple Creek.”

When I saw the above image, I felt that I had been there, and thought it might be Cripple Creek or Victor, Colorado. Jeff’s thorough description of what was in with the photos gives us a more specific clue as to place.

Email:

“The photo [below] of Henrietta and Walter was taken in about 1935 around the time they were married.  I have no idea how they met Gene and Ruth.  My mother’s maiden name was Fasterling and there is a building in St. Louis called the Fasterling building.  She was born in 1913 and grew up in south St. Louis around Magnolia and Brannon.  My dad was born in St. Louis in 1908 and grew up on a farm in Batesville, Arkansas.  He worked for Southwestern Bell in downtown St. Louis his entire career.  The photo with the 1940 Pontiac has a Missouri license plate from 1940, so that pretty much dates the photos.”

Jeff’s second comment included:

“I remember that Gene and Bob would bring fireworks to the home of Mildred and Pete Peterson in Affton, MO on July 4th in the fifty’s. The Petersons were good friends of our family. I can also remember Gene inviting us out on a yacht owned by a drug company and we motored up the Mississippi for a while. That was around 1960 when I was 16.

“The negatives from the Colorado trip that I have printed were stashed in old envelopes that Henrietta kept. I don’t know what happened to the original prints. She died in 2011 at the age of 97. I found the negatives and printed them in my darkroom along with other photos that look to be from that same time. They show Henrietta’s mother Hilda Molin and stepfather Algot Molin and his 1939 Dodge.”

Since the Petersons were good family friends, that might explain how the Reuters met Gene and Ruth Lee- Mildred (Alexander) Peterson was Ruth’s sister. Another tidbit that seems small but can actually provide a link.

When we started this blog, we were hoping it might be ‘cousin bait’ but it has also been a great way to connect with friends, associates, and neighbors, AKA the “FAN Club.” Our family so appreciates Jeff taking the time to contact us and share these wonderful photos!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Photo from Lee family treasure chest.

2) Commented post: http://heritageramblings.net/2014/09/22/mystery-monday-tressa-cullen-and-eidlh-cullen/

3) October 2014 comments and emails from Jeff Reuter, reprinted with permission.

4) Willard Goodale “Pete” Peterson (1913-1992) was married to Mildred Rosalie Alexander (1912-1981), the sister of Ruth Nadine (Alexander) Lee.

5) Monday’s post about the Lee’s trips to Colorado: http://heritageramblings.net/2014/10/13/mystery-monday-where-are-our-photos-of-the-lee-family-and-friends-visiting-colorado-in-the-1940s/

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

I was excited this morning to see a comment on a previous blog post from a reader whose parents were friends of Gene and Ruth (Alexander) Lee. Henrietta and Walter Reuter were close friends of Lloyd Eugene “Gene” Lee (1907-1991) and his first wife Ruth Nadine Alexander (1906-1953). The commenter has photos of Henrietta with Ruth and Gene in Colorado in the 1940s. What a great opportunity this is to share images and help each other identify people and places!

I knew there were quite a few photos of being out west in Colorado or in Banff, Canada, in our Lee collection. Closer scrutiny, however shows the majority of the photos are from the 1920s- too early probably to include our commenter’s parents, and Gene was a teen in those photos- too young to be married. The only photo I could find from the 1940s with a person in it is the above photo with Gene Lee sitting high on a rock outcropping by a lake.

(I really need to get my photos into a program like Lightroom- my search would have taken just a short time had I tagged all the images I have.)

I wonder if the family visited the same places year after year? Gene did tell us that they went out west frequently for the good air. (Of course, they were all smokers then so maybe the fresh air cleaned their lungs a bit.) There are some images from the twenties that could be the same place as above. It is sort of hard to tell with beautiful mountains and lakes though- they do look somewhat similar, I suppose.

We are really looking forward to seeing the new photos!

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Lloyd Eugene “Gene” Lee is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Jennings, St. Louis County, Missouri, along with his first wife and uncle.

Gene Lee was the son of Samuel J. Lee (1879-1964) and Dorothy Aiken Lee (1884-1953).

His first wife, Ruth Nadine (Alexander) Lee, was the daughter of George Harrington Alexander (1879-1951) and Wilhemina Schoor (1882-1942). Ruth was also the mother of his son, but died at the young age of 47.

Claude Frank Aiken was the uncle of Gene Lee, and brother to Gene’s mother, Dorothy “Dottie” (Aiken) Lee. Claude was a pharmacist and helped Gene get his license as well; they attended school together and tested together for their licensing- see Friday’s Faces from the Past: Claude Aiken. Gene was very close to his uncle throughout their years.

Gene’s dearly loved second wife, Vada Kovitch, was cremated. Sadly, the state of Missouri has allowed a stranger to control her ashes and burial, rather than the family who loved her so much. (They wouldn’t let us see her either- unbelievable.) The last contact with this person indicated that she still had the ashes but not the money to bury them with a headstone; she still refused to give them to family.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Tombstone photograph taken by family member and permission to publish granted.

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.