Chapter 2 - The House on Gorham Street
20 Gorham St. - The House
Our family lived at 22 Gorham St when the side-by-side two-family house was owned by Mom's uncle, Sam Liberman, and he and his family lived at number 20. At a time when the Libermans became relatively well off, they moved to Meigs St in a nicer section of Rochester. Pop bought the Gorham St house, moved his family into number 20, and rented number 22 to others.
(At various times Pop also owned other residential property in Rochester - particularly four-family houses. The work of collecting the rents from tenants, however, fell to Mom together with all the chores of managing the property - like getting new tenants when a flat became vacant, getting repairs made, etc. And since Mom never learned to operate the "machine", she traveled on foot or by streetcar, often taking with her an infant child too young to leave at home alone.)
The house was on the corner of Gorham and Martin Streets. It was a two story house, each flat consisting of four bedrooms, living room, dining room, parlor, kitchen, bathroom, attic and full basement. The house had a coal furnace and a gas hot water heater. In each room there was a gas jet in the wall which could be used for emergency lighting. The gas jet was the source of lighting originally, via gas mantles. While we lived at 20 Gorham St Pop installed electricity but retained the gas jets.
The house had a porch that ran along the front and side of the house. Rocking chairs (and later a glider) were kept on the porch where we sat and looked out on a small front yard and Gorham or Martin Sts. The front door led into a small vestibule that had a coat rack, and was where rubbers and galoshes were to be left.
That small front yard was a challenge to Pearl. It was only about 6 by 8 feet including a hedge. It had some grass that we used to cut with a paper scissors, there was certainly no room for a mower, which we didn't have anyway; later Pearl bought gardening shears that we used to cut the grass. Pearl planted a peony bush, hyacinth and crocus bulbs in the front, and iris along the side of the porch. Of course after Pearl moved to Washington the yard didn't receive the care that she had provided. But somehow the crocus and the iris survived. Each year there was a little bit of color in the front and at the side of the house.
The living room (also known as the front room) had the sofa, two comfortable overstuffed chairs, and an uncomfortable black wood and upholstered chair that resembled a throne. The legs and arms ended in the shape of animal paws, and the wooden headrest was carved. In addition to floor lamps, a ceiling lamp and end tables, the living room had the big Atwater-Kent radio. The radio was a floor model, a major piece of furniture in the living room. (That was the only radio in the house until Mitch bought us a small table model, one of the earliest small radios, in 1935 to put in Bucky's room while he was confined to his room with nephritis. After he got well the radio was brought downstairs and put on the kitchen table.)
The sun room or parlor, in front of the living room and looking onto the porch, we called the music room. It was the music room because it had the upright piano and the floor model Victrola, a record player that had to be wound by hand before a record could be played. Lou, Pearl, and Et all took piano lessons, but none of them played the piano for pleasure. It wasn't used much, except perhaps by guests, as when some of our musically talented relatives would visit. For one period of about four months we had two pianos in the music room. It was strange having the two unused pianos in that room. The Victrola was used more often. There were records that Mom and Pop would listen to, mostly Yiddish records, and there were the popular and classical records that the children bought. The bookcase also was kept in the music room.
The dining room had a big dining table, 6 chairs, a linen chest, a china cabinet. Pop's desk and swivel chair, and the telephone. We ate in the dining room when we had company, on Friday nights, Saturday noon (dinner), and on the Jewish holidays.
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