The Old Neighborhood

Of course one of our stops in Kenosha was our old neighborhood - The Allendale area of town.  We lived between 7th and 5th Avenue.  Once on 73rd street and then on 69th.  Both of our addresses were 514.

The first house we lived in when we moved there we rented.  Here it is today.  Loved the way they had it painted.

Many of the houses in our neighborhood were brick.  I have always loved brick houses as a result.  LuAnne and I drove around just oohing and aahing over all the amazingly beautiful houses in the neighborhood.  It reminded us both of our old neighborhood of Laurelhurst here in Portland.  No wonder I miss that neighborhood so much, it reminds me of home!

Next we drove by the old Heidi house.  The children's author Florence Perry Heidi lived here and each Halloween she and her family turned their house into an amazing haunted house and all the neighborhood went through it.  I always loved this house.  In fact it is now for sale - 7,000 square feet for about 600,000 dollars - unbelieveable.  The economy has hit Kenosha pretty hard.

Then we drove by our second house.  I could tell through the window that the wall between the dining room and kitchen had been taken out.

They were also bricking over the addition that we had put onto the house.

We then headed down to the 3rd Avenue where the really amazing houses are!

Of course our first stop was the old Harmony Hall.  Harmony Hall use to be the the headquarters for the Barber Shop Quartet Society (SPEBSQSA) of which my father was the executive director.  This was his office for 14 years! 

It is now a private residence but is also for sale.  The original sale price (LuAnne and I did some internet sleuthing to find out) was 1.6 million.  They totally remodeled it and it is gorgeous inside (there were pictures on the internet) and it is now selling for 2.4 million.  Still a deal for 18,000 square feet on lakefront property.  The house is as gorgeous, just  as I remember it!!

So wish we could have gone inside.

We drove up and down the street just drooling over all the homes.  We also stopped at Eichelman Park which is just down a half a block from Harmony Hall.  This is where we would come to swim in the summer.  It is also where LuAnne and I would lie in the sun with Sun In in our hair - turning it orange!

Eichelman Park was close enough to the high school we would also walk down here on our lunch hours.  In fact it was right here, in the park, behind this little building that Bill Glaser, my high school boyfriend, kissed me for the first time.

We then drove down along the lake and then up to see my old elementary school - Southport Elementary.

We drove by Baker Park where we use to play quite a bit and where my mom went to the Farmer's Market each Friday.  Guess what!  It was Friday and the Farmer's Market was going on!

Pretty small and low key compared to the ones we have here in Portland but it was fun to see!

We also went to Andrea's Gift Shop which has been there for 100 years!  The Andreas were also our neighbors in our first house and put on a 4th of July parade each year up and down our street.

We were disappointed that the old Red's Roller Rink was gone.  We had so much fun just driving around!

Next up - our tour of Kemper Hall!