Another Sepia Saturday, this week featuring a prompt image of a water mill taken 136 years ago. I didn’t have any mills in my family photographs, but I do have lots and lots of buildings. Here, we even have two of the same building, taken at slightly different times and from different angles. I know I’ve posted about Nellie Eimer before, a woman who shows up in lots of photos, but I don’t quite know the specifics of her relationship with my family. I suspect she was a family friend, but the circumstances of how they met aren’t clear. Anyway, this was Nellie’s home where she lived with her father and later, her husband, until her death in 1930. The address is 3 Dixon Ave, Carbondale, PA, and as far as I can tell, the house still exists, though it’s a smaller street that Google Street View seems to have skipped, so I can’t tell if the house still looks like this or not! The photo on the left was likely taken between 1914 when her mother (Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith) died and 1920 when her father (William Howell) died since that’s Nellie and her father sitting on the porch. The label on the back of this reads, “Nellie Eimer and her father, home in Carbondale, PA.” The one on the right may have been taken between 1920 and 1930 since the man seated on the porch has darker hair and was likely her husband, Frank Eimer. The label on the back reads, “This is our home,” with, “Aunt Nellie Eimer, Carbondale, PA” written below in a different hand and different ink. If the photos were taken 10-20 years apart, it appears not much changed during that time between the flower boxess out front, paint and whatnot. It’s really rather neat to see them side by side like this and I’m really rather curious to see if the house still looks the same or not. It’s possible to sneak in a side trip some time since it’s only 2.5 hours away, if we ever happen to be driving past that area. I’ll have to report back if that happens!
