A Postcard Discovery

The following was a Facebook post to the Bucks County History Group on March 23, 2021. I thought it was worth a post. I did a little editing.

Yesterday I received this nice RPPC (Real Photo Postcard) of a Newtown farm, which I  bought a few weeks back without really being able to see the details so I was unsure what farm it was.  I looked at if briefly, didn’t immediately recognize it, so I sent it off to my colleague and friend Jeffrey Marshall to ID, because that's what I do when I'm stuck.  

Turns out I picked exactly the right person to ask, because the image on the postcard is actually Jeff’s farm! We went back and forth a few times to make sure it was correct, and we struggled to find the exact angle of the picture. Ultimately we confirmed it 100%, this was his farm.

As you all know, Jeff loves barns, and recently wrote this excellent article about his:

https://www.preservationpa.org/ode-to-a-barn-with-nine-four-lives-updated/

The earliest pictures he, or us at the historic association, have were from the 1930s.  This card was posted July 1906, pre-dating the other images by decades.  

I wish I would’ve spent more time trying to ID it myself and sent him an email saying “I found an unknown picture of your barn”, but I'm so happy that he was the one to actually make the discovery.  I know his property pretty well, it was almost too obvious, I likely wouldn't even have taken it into consideration.  I dropped it off at the barn today, back where it started 115 years ago.  I’m grateful that I bought the card and was able to contribute to the history of the place, however unintentional it may have been. 

We also discovered a second barn, which was hiding in plain sight all along on the 1938 aerial.

Here's a beautiful shot of his farm from the sky.