Last Updated: 16 Aptil 2007
Wallpaper, Wall Coverings, Wall Paintings
I understand that stencils were often used to make patterns on the interior walls of a home. Much like we see on some of these "home shows" on tv. Have any of you heard your family painting or even wall papering the walls of a "sod house" [adobe house]?
In a message dated 6/4/03 9:48:38 AM, patd@proaxis.com writes:
<< ...I am trying to remember what my Mom told me about the early homes. I believe they used calcimine on the walls in later years. One thing that fascinated me. They stuffed the cracks around the windows with colorful bits of rags. Besides making the home warmer, it brightened up a dreary dark room.
I have a photo of my grandmother feeding bummer lambs in front of her home on a homestead near Forres Alberta Canada, taken about 1915.
Pat Dunn >>
In a message dated 6/4/03 3:15:57 PM, jmeeuwig@attcanada.ca writes:
<< For those who want to see stuff like sod houses and other "early" buildings there is also Heritage Park in Calgary, AB which does have an "authentic" albeit reconstructed sod hut.
Personally i can use my imagination, having been in "root cellars" that were pretty much like that... >>
In a message dated 6/4/03 10:22:43 AM, jamesofnd@twincitizen.net writes:
<< My great-grandmother smeared lime on the sod, stuck her old issues of the Staats-Anzeiger newspaper to that, and then brushed over a final coat of lime.
I have heard of accounts where scissors art was used to create lacy curtains out of newspapers and then hung over windows. That was a favorite in Bolshevist Russia when you were happy just to be alive.
Jim Gessele >>
In a message dated 6/4/03 10:39:15 AM, gwbcedo@polarnet.ca writes:
<< ...There are some interesting parallels between the sod houses of our GR ancestors and those formerly used by Inuit in the part of Canada where I live. For photos of Inuit sod houses, with interior walls pasted with newspaper, check out the following links:
Thanx...
George Bohlender
...CANADA >>
In a message dated 6/4/03 2:30:45 PM, Norse sal writes:
<< I have read of early settlers using news paper and burlap sacks to cover the ceiling and walls.
It would help keep "dirt" from breaking off and dropping on the "dirt" floors. I don't know if anyone mentioned this or not, but on the outside roof of the house, you could sometimes see wild grasses and flowers growing. These houses were said to be very cool in the summertime and easy to keep warm in the winter. I believe there is still a sod house in North Dakota that was used as an early post office and has been kept in repair.
Kaye >>
Interview: 14 June 2003:
Lillian, nee Hein, Remmick: The Lone Tree Fort ,which we called home in Montana when I was little, was adobe. The walls were very thick...... The windows were about six feet tall and let in a lot of light and a slight ridge with notches where a soldier who rest their guns to shoot out of the window when opened. My mother didn't like the gloomy dark paint and before moving into the place, all the walls and ceilings had to be painted with a white wash known as calcimine. The floors were covered with linoleum. Then we had to paint at least three or four coats of varnish over this. There were two floors. The upper floor held huge rooms. One of them became the boys' and another became the girls'. These rooms were like huge dormitories. I assume they were barracks for the soldiers. The boys' room was larger. I remember when the Welk boys and the local boys got together and practiced their music in that room. It was really something. The Welk boys, one of whom became the famous Lawrence Welk of the Big Bang Era, use to work in my Father's beet fields. There was a huge attic. I remember crawling up there and seeing boxes filled with old letters and photographs of the old fort, people, including Indians. I use to make up stories that went along with the photographs or the letters. I was still to young to read. It's sad to think all of that was destroyed in the fire.... So much history gone with the flames..... And, I sometimes think about those letters. Especially the ones that were bundled together in a pink ribbon.
Judy A. Remmick-Hubert: What about wallpaper?
Lillian: It's funny, I don't recall wallpaper on any of our walls in any of the houses we lived as kids.
Judy: Did you have pictures or tapestry?
Lillian: [Shook her head "no".]
Judy: No pictures?
Lillian: Photographs of family were in frames sitting on furniture..... Can't recall anything like pictures or anything decorative on the walls.... Just things that needed to be hung. Wet clothes on pegs in the entry hall with boots and such on the floor.....
Judy: How about your walls, Dad?
Ed Remmick: Mom had the huge frame of myself, and my brothers Elmer and Raymond in our military uniforms [of WW II. Dad was in the Navy, Elmer was in the Marines and Raymond was in the Army]. Don't remember anything else on the walls... Windows had curtains.....
There was a wide variety of wall hangings / decorations on the walls just as there were personalities. I think most homes were meant to be shelters that were comfortable and used for sleeping, cooking, sewing, reading the bible, doing homework, playing cards or music, and keeping the hot sun and rain off of ones head and body. The more wealthy the family, the more luxury items were in the home. Farm / Ranch homes were different then homes in towns and city.
Photographs of family members seem to be the only items on most walls. More photographs were taken of the family if there was a member interested in such luxury and had their own money to pay the expense. City people seem to have more photographs than country or town people. Perhaps this was because there were places on a Saturday afternoon where a person could have a photograph taken. Therefore, the availability was a part of the equation. Farm/ranch people tend to have photographs of weddings or funerals when entire families get together as a group. Unless of course, there wasn't a photographer in the area. Then a couple would go into town and have their photograph taken. COpies were made and placed on cardboard. They were went through the mail to relatives to announce the marriage to another family member or very close friend.
As for wallpaper. I think this was a luxury most families didn't have until the 1940s and 1950s in their homes. By this time, the sod houses were no longer part of our everyday lives and the buildings were made of different materials. I'll never forget my mother making a statement in our small kitchen and dinning area at 303 Elm St. It had huge pink roses [fully open and buds] with green leaves on a very black background on just one wall behind the dinning / kitchen table. My mother's eye for decoration was modern and bold. I especially liked our coral [orange] velvet sofia with the dark wood frame and the claw feet... I'll have to go to google and find some URLs that will give us more history on wallpaper.
In some of the photographs of the Hubert family in Banat / Austria-Hungary, they did have wallpaper. One has to remember, the Huberts were living in these homes since the mid-1700s and the someone through the years had found the walls needed a personal touch. Perhaps, it was because they were closer to a huge city like Temesvar and Arad. Maybe, the influence of the Rumanians was different then the Russian peasants in Besssarabia and Odessa, which itself was a small harbor town until 1805 when it was rebuilt by duc Richelieu. See Edward Remick's Memories of Odessa. One the second page of this article is a photograph of the Opera House. Notice the walls of the public this building. It's lavish and expensive. A huge contrast when compared to the homes of the majority of German-Russians of the Bessarabia and Odessa area.
Interior of Odessa Opera House -1986
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