Before It Was Ours

Long before we started our chapter in The Cottage’s story, it belonged to others.

In 1945, as the world began settling into peace once again, a young husband and father began his journey to craft a family home. Hurcil’s dream began a chapter that would quietly shape the origin story for more than half a century. Along with his wife Pearl and young daughter, Mary Elizabeth, a future was waiting to unfold.

It’s easy to imagine those first days. Fresh paint still bright against newly finished walls. Windows opened to welcome a warm summer breeze and a little girl exploring each room for the very first time.

There were young Dogwood trees, not yet tall enough to shade the garden, and ordinary moments those walls quietly witnessed over the decades that followed. The cottage remained in the Vaughan family for more than fifty years.

Within these rooms, birthdays were celebrated, Christmases came and went, and seasons returned faithfully year after year. The neighborhood slowly changed, trees stretched higher toward the sky, and generations of memories quietly accumulated within walls that never expected to become part of history.

The cottage witnessed it all.

Like most family homes, its story was never built from extraordinary events. It was built from ordinary moments like morning coffee at the kitchen table, neighbors stopping by for an afternoon visit, and holiday meals shared with family.

The familiar rhythm of everyday life repeated so often that no one imagined those moments might one day become the most meaningful parts of the story.

That is perhaps what we love most about old homes. They remind us that history is rarely found only in famous names or remarkable events. More often, it lives in the quiet routines of everyday people who simply love the place they call home.

When we walk through the cottage today, it’s impossible not to wonder about the lives that unfolded here before ours. What conversations were shared around the fireplace? What footsteps creaked across the old wood floors?  The cottage has accumulated countless ordinary days that slowly became a lifetime.

Every old home begins with people.

Before there was our Cottage at Foxhavens…

There was a young family with a little cottage that was simply their home.

Until next week,

Next Time

When we first learned that Hurcil had built the cottage himself, something changed. We loved the original oak floors, the vintage doors, and the way each room flowed naturally into the next. We noticed little details here and there, but we hadn’t stopped to think about the person who made those decisions nearly eighty years ago.