The Gold Elms

A home sweet home photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park.

Handwritten on the back of this real photo postcard: "How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood."

The words written on the back of the photo refer to a line from "The Old Oaken Bucket," a poem written by Samuel Woodworth (1784-1842) that was first set to music in 1826 and has become a popular song that's endured over the years. The poem begins:

How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection presents them to view!
The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wild-wood,
And every loved spot which my infancy knew!

Whoever wrote on the back of the photo presumably had "fond recollections" of living here as a child and must have considered it a "home sweet home" (which itself is a reference to another song that also dates to the early nineteenth century).

The namesake "gold elms" are visible just behind the house, which is a Colonial Revival Cape Cod, an architectural style common in the United States from the 1930s to 1950s. I'm not sure whether the dog that's visible among the shadows in the lower right-hand corner is there to welcome or to warn off the photographer.