Our house was built by Frank Merrill in 1886 if the plasterer's signature in one of the upstairs rooms is to be believed. Mr. Merrill was an artist who made his living by doing illustrations & his studio with a vaulted ceiling is on the third floor. He did the illustrations for the 1880 edition of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (you can see one of them here - search for Alcott - one odd thing in that show was an illustration that had as its backdrop an exact image of the stairway in our entryway so apparently even in 1880 he was thinking about this house. Another Merrill illustration is here and another here - search for Merrill. Andy provided this bio of Mr. Merrill to the Dorchester Antheneum.
On a completely unrelated note, seeing the fruit flies fly up from the ripening banana on the counter when I grabbed it to eat this morning got me to thinking: they're used in genetic research since their lifespans are so short that it's easy to trace evolving characteristics over many generations in a short amount of time. I looked up their lifespan - apparently one week so I wondered, if they live comparatively to uns so short a time, do they sleep? Apparently they do. Who knew?
Pix today from 31.May.2011. Bridal wreath always reminds me of Grandma Vi's house.
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