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Monday, November 22, 2010

Hidden Plainfield: November 21 home ID


Sunday's Plainfield home's clue was hidden in the Addams cartoon.

The clue in yesterday's 'Hidden Plainfield' was a visual one. The house in Addams' cartoon is in isolation, just like the Plainfield Victorian I found. It is the only Victorian in a long stretch of home on Myrtle Avenue, near the border with Dunellen.

By the way, the convex line of the mansard roof helps identify this home as probably from a pattern by Elizabeth architect A.J. Bicknell, many of whose designs featured the bowed roofline. (Bicknell is probably also the architect of the former Board of Ed administration building at 504 Madison Avenue, donated to the school district by the Seventh-Day Baptist denomination. See more about Bicknell here.)

Reader Mike Townley got the house spot on, by using the house number as an aid (see original post here).



In one of Addam's most famous cartoons, the Addams family
prepares to greet some Christmas carolers. Note the house is in isolation.


That house number leads to a further matter (I forgot to blot it out as I have planned to do for all the photos in the series).

A commenter asked if I got permission before posting the photos. The answer is, while permission is not needed, permission was given for some but not all.

Homeowners who were home when I took the snapshots were universally enthusiastic, thinking it nice that something positive was being said about Plainfield and their neighborhood in particular, and being somewhat flattered that I picked their home out of those in their neighborhood.

If the commenter is concerned about privacy, please note that I do not mention the names of the owners, nor the street number of the house.

As for having pictures of one's home available, I wonder if the commenter is aware of Google Maps (see here) and Google Street (see here), where both aerial and drive-by views of homes in Plainfield are available to anyone browsing the Web, with no permission having been gotten.

And as if that's not enough, consider that Union County is presently compiling an online listing of all the information available on properties in the county -- including not only address, tax information and photos, but ownership and when the property last changed hands and for how much. (All of this information is currently available in the Tax Assessor's office, but one currently has to go in to City Hall to inspect it.)

I'm for having a little fun exploring Plainfield and praising it at the same time.


-- Dan Damon [follow]

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