history of house

A recent conversation with our neighbor yielded these tidbits:

Our houses were once one lot. This is evident from the plat map, but it was nice to get confirmation. Unfortunately, we were once a dump. The ground underneath the incense cedar was the "house dump" for the farmhouse next door, and still contains the detritus of the early twentieth century. Some people get art prints and antique furniture, I get old bottles and trash. Oh well. The vinca covers it. Thank god for groundcover.

Worse yet (I think), the yard served as a septic field for the farmhouse.

The neighbor built a short cement retaining wall between our properties, literally to retain the soil from shifting under his house. The soil here is heavy clay, but the bedrock and underlayers are softer, so the ground is actually more plastic than one might expect. He said his house is over an inch lower on the west side. In light of that news, I'm impressed that our crawl space construction is so solid. Maybe it's all the dumpage under the house.

There was once a heavy rail line going down our street. We were surprised to hear this, since our land was an unclaimed, swampy meadow for the first half of the twentieth century, but it does make sense when one considers the town was on one end and the old airport was on the other end of the street, I suppose. Light rail would be for carrying people, heavy for goods?