This is the house where we were living in Sudbrook Park.
The community dates to 1889 when it was designed by American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (1822–1903) and developed by the Sudbrook Company. Known most for designing well-known urban projects like Central Park in New York City, Olmsted conceived this "suburban village" with curved roads and open green spaces, traits that set the community apart from its contemporaries.
Sudbrook Park was registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and from 1993 to 1999 portions of Sudbrook Park became listed as Baltimore County Historic Districts.
The auction was held in one of the historic homes and included all the interior furnishings. The story, told by residents to each other at the time of the auction, and seemed to make sense from a neighbourhood perspective was that when the family died off, they left the use of the property to their servants (household help) until their death, which ended with the last person dying in 1976.
It was a sunny day with lots of attendees. I wanted to bid on lots of stuff, and althouigh I had a large home nearby, I didn’t need much. I bought a silver plated over copper English tray, some old photographs, a great old lithograph in a golden oak frame (in my bathroom today) and some other items I can’t remember.
There was a large wood wardrobe cabinet in many pieces that was beautiful but needed some work. While I had no used for it, I considered it great for a friend of mine (or maybe a few of my friends) and thought if it was a bargain I would bid on it. I have always been a sucker when it comes to bargains and sometimes buy stuff I don’t need, because it’s just too good to let go for that price. I am an idiot, of course.
When the bidding started, I was in the middle of it. There was a woman bidding against me who seemed to want to go crazy for it, but I was determined. At $5 increments (these were 1970’s dollars) we moved to $80 and she was out. I bought it for $80 and thought about it for a while and realized I had to move it to my house, while only a half a block away, it was pretty big and I had to do it myself so I decided to do the noble thing. I asked the woman to take it from me for $90.
She said she would think about it, and to this day she has not responded.
Funny about auction activity, even if she really wanted it, after a moment to think, it didn’t seem like a good idea.
A friend of mine had it picked up at my house and paid me the $80. It was refinished and had a beautiful rosewood veneer.
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