3655 Vincent Avenue North - The House

Growing up we referred to our homes by their numbers. Our Kansas City home was at 6519 Garfield so it was referred to as 6519. Our Minneapolis home was at 3655 Vincent Avenue North and we referred to it as 3655.

I remember this house so well! My bedroom was at the left window on the second story. When you walked in the front door, on the left were the steps up to the second floor. In the middle as you entered was a hallway and on the right was the long living room. The living room had a fireplace that had been boarded up at one time. Straight down the hall and connected to both the living room and the kitchen was the dining room. One time my parents found some old newspapers in the storage space under the stairs! The kitchen had a little porch on the left and that is where my brother Tim slept. The upstairs had a bedroom for my sisters in the front right with my parents bedroom in the back right. The only bathroom was across from my parents bedroom. It had a claw foot tub and I remember getting the back slippery with soap and sliding down into the water (and probably making a big mess!).

The first photo shows the Christmas decorations Mom put over the nonfunctional fireplace. That year Martha, Tim, and I, made our stockings out of felt (and yes I still have mine)!  Those little Angels and Santas were actually candles. The plate on the right of the fireplace shows London Heights Methodist Church in Kansas City, KS.

Here is a peek at our kitchen! Out that door was the porch where Tim slept. Mom had the Revere pots and pans for her whole life!

The front porch had windows, no screens. One summer my Mom was outside washing the windows and the neighbors came out to tell her to go in or she would get heat stoke! She laughed and said, heat stroke? I just now got thawed out. That story was told time and time again. 

This home was where I first saw my Dad garden. He planted saliva, coleus, and cockscombs along the side of the house and morning glories against the wall of the garage. He liked to stand outside and water his plants. His Mom, my grandmother we called Nanny, was also a wonderful gardener. We had Hollyhocks too! We had them on the side of the house and by the garage. I would take a flower, insert a toothpick, and add a bud to make a little flower doll.

My room was not very big. Room enough for a twin bed and a dresser. The window had criss-cross sheer curtains. I would press the fall leaves between wax paper and pin the leaves to my curtains. I still like little cozy spaces!

In my sisters' room we had a treadle sewing machine. I learned how to sew on that machine and made doll clothes for my Mary Hoyer dolls. I loved the feeling of moving that treadle pedal back and forth and the magic of the thread making a seam. One year I made my Mom an apron out of gingham and it seemed like it took forever to make! Probably because I tried to make it the night before Mother's Day!

Even though we did not live there long, I consider this house to be a dear family home. I was excited to learn recently from a friend on the Old North Minneapolis Facebook group that it has been updated and well loved by other families. It was endearing to see it in its present day glory. I hope to visit it one day!!