I was driving by one day with friends and saw the owner out in the yard who just happened to be another friend of ours from school. We stopped and got the royal tour. It was such a blast for everyone!

I have tried to find my childhood home on Google satellite and apparently the road it was on must have changed names because I cannot find it. I even checked the address with my mom. 1104 Woodlawn Avenue, Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Anyone live in that town who could help me out? I live all the way across the country in Washington state now, but I have such fond memories of the screened in front porch with a swing and a huge willow tree in the back yard. I would guess it was a vintage early 20th century four square and I remember every room after more than 50 years!

There is a 1104 Woodlawn Avenue in Cramerton, N.C. Could that be it?

My parents still live in my childhood home. As for the rest, I've lived in 11 different houses/apartments as an adult. Not sure I could even recognize all of them.

I would be afraid to drive into my childhood home's neighborhood! It's now referred to as "the hood". :)

The first house I remember living in only now exists in my memories. It was a small, late '50's cinder block bungalow with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and no air conditioning in central Florida! How the family survived 8 years there is a mystery to me!! Alas, the entire neighborhood was demolished in order to make way for a golf course....................YUCK!!!! I cannot think of a more pointless end to such a sweet little cottage than another HORRIBLE golf course!!! Can you tell I am not a big golf fan?

Thanks, Angel. I checked it out, but Cramerton is near Charlotte and Elizabeth City is on the coast. Maybe my lovely old house ended up as part of the Interstate. Who knows. And PS beadella - I am so with you on golf courses - suckers of water and havens for the wealthy and no one else that they are!

My parents still own my childhood home on the farm, but they do not live in it. We live just 4 miles away. We've been in several times to take stuff out, but it is decaying. A hole in the roof has developed this summer, and coons have been in, it's not good. My dad does not want to do anything about it. My mom is ready to push it all in a hole along with everything left in it.

Unfortunately, yes. It was very much a middle-class neighborhood in the late 50s and 60s. I lived there from second grade through junior year of high school. When I drove past, it seemed like a war-zone. Whole neighborhood as well. Very depressing. :(

My parents still live in my childhood home in Los Angeles, but my dad grew up in Omaha and during a cross-country drive I stopped by both houses to see them - fun to imagine my dad as a little boy on his bike

Nothing fancy for me unfortunately, but I have some good memories from it. A tiny row house duplex in Montreal, Quebec's Cote-des-Neiges neighbourhood.

my parents still live a few houses down the street from the house I grew up in, so I see it "from the outside" at least, everytime I go visit them. My grandparents house (the house my mom grew up in) is a few houses up the street in the other direction and was just sold out of our family about 3 years ago. And the house my Italian immigrant great grandfather -- he was a brick layer -- built (which was the house my grandfather grew up in) is about 2 blocks away from that, and was in the family until about 2 decades ago.

I was able to find this on Zillow, even saw pics of the inside. I never remember our house looking this nice! My dad wasn't much of a yard guy, or the handy type.
When my parents moved out my niece moved in and her dad was the groundskeeper at a golf course, thus the beautiful yard! She fixed up the house and sold it.

Way back when, it was a very nice neighborhood, and still is. Older, but very nice. It's just a half mile off of a main drag, but it's always had a tucked away feeling. I can tell you one thing, at a value of just $161,000 - 50 years after it was built, I don't think you can call it an "investment" though.

Drive by it about every other year. Always amazes me that 4 people lived comfortably in about 1200 square feet! The new owners are not taking good care of it though ... they painted the sandy colored brick a fire engine red :(

I see the home I was raised a few times a year. . . My sister has made it her home.

I come from another country. My childhood house was bombed to the ground with everything in it. I tell the story to my sons and remind them how lucky they are to live in the same house since they were born.

my husband and i love to go back to visit the houses that we grew up in.there is something so special about (your house) still being right there,kind of as a gentle confirmation that we count and special things happened in those childhood years in those little houses togive us a special securityin our inner selves for us to say thats wher i came from,and no matter how many others had lived ther, it's important to go back andsee & feel all you felt still there .thankyou little house, i'll always try to visit you ,love you

Have not, but would love to do so. Can one really go back, though? Like others I've Google Mapped it.

My brother lives in the home I grew up in. I never moved until I moved out. It is a bungalow and was very influential in what I love and do for a living and who I am as a person.

Like many of the commenters here I, too, am amazed that we all lived in such a tiny house. At first we only had one bathroom and it had only a tub, no shower. But that wasn't really an issue because my father only bathed once a week and my mother maybe two or three times a week. That wasn't that unusual in that era....the 50 s.....as many of my friends families lived the same way. And people didn't smell much either. I was considered a wasteful egomaniac when I insisted on bathing every other day. Then when our family grew we got a second bathroom with a shower and suddenly everyone was showering every day or so.
The house is still there and looks pretty good considering how the neighborhood has declined.

Whoa, I grew up in the 50's and I can assure you it was de rigueur for the whole family to bathe every day.

Taking a bath or shower every day (especially the folks that fill a soaker tub or take 20 minute showers) is an INCREDIBLE waste of a precious resource, not to mention how much it dries out one's hair and skin (thus prompting the use of expensive moisturizers to put BACK the natural oils we have stripped from our bodies). Now if you work out at a very energetic level every day, I could understand it, but let's be honest, how many of us do that.? Maybe we should take a page from the book of mfwolfe's parents.

I grew up in the 50's and as children, we took a bath once a week on Saturday night and had our hair washed and put in curlers for pretty hair for church the next day. Our dad showered every night using the shower in the basement. Our mom went to the beauty parlor once each week to have her hair washed and styled.
We lived in a small town in Iowa, and that was how a lot of our friends families did as well.

My nephew & his GF live in our childhood home. It's been paid off for years. My stepdad stayed there after my mom passed in 2001, then when he passed last April, we weren't ready to sell just yet.

Nephew & gf are both in school with limited incomes. They pay property tax & keep the place clean & lived in. It's a win-win for everyone for now!

As far as filling the tub for a soak....it's my tub, my money & my house. A Saturday evening soak is my special treat!

The thought of not getting a shower or bath every day doesn't fly with me. On a hot day when I've been mowing, scraping paint & gardening, I might rinse off 4 times throughout the day!

That house is amazing!

And all of OUR Earth and Water, (especially our grandchildren's).

i'd give anything to go back and live again in our first home-its well preserved perfect and almost as we just left it-it was one of the post world war two houses that was built from brick and cement,like a bomb shelter and when you went you closed the basment doors you couldn't see a crack of light(i guess it was a bomb shelter) thinking of it now.my mom used to put emergenceny foods down there..i think my dad bout it for 14 thousand and now it's more like 200thousandbecause its by the water,have a good week my friends,i'll try to get a picture of it,

My mom still lives in my childhood home so I see it 2 to 4 times a year! In fact I'm headed there at the end of the month for about a week or so. After Daddy passed away in 2008, I thought it would be hard to go in and not see him, but his presence and hearty laughter is still felt throughout the house!

My parents still live in my childhood home. They still own my dads childhood home, and I live in and recently remodeled my great aunts home. Funny, we have been able to salvage a lot of antiques from my grandmas basement and put them back in my new (old) house where they once came from 60+ years ago. Being tied to the past has been a wonderful blessing for me. But I appreciate how it is not the case for so many. I recently took my mom past her childhood home. She became very quiet and I could tell it was very bittersweet for her. I learned that house ended up being a source of great tension between her father and his brother. It caused such an issue that it led to the distancing of that entire side of the family. I grew up knowing very little about those people, apparently because of feelings tied to that house. Just seeing that simple old house made her experience feelings long forgotten. Thank you to person who started this thread, it is a very thought provoking question. So much can be said about how the physical house frames our memories of what "home" means.

Yes, it got smaller. Or I got bigger.

My mom redid my childhood home in Jamaica from a measly two bedroom where she raised 8 kids. It is now a measly 4 bedroom that can accomadate us so much better when we all go home for visits. Went back a year ago and planning to go back next year.

My family home was a beautiful Federation style home ( craftsman style to US readers) , in a leafy suburban area of Sydney. My parents had it for over 30 years and it was surrounded by beautiful flowering trees and flannel flowers. Unfortunately the new owners changed the roof so it looked liked a Chinese restaurant- very odd and very sad as these historic homes are beautiful as they are. We live in a art deco style house and I have tried to source original materials - door hardware etc to replace any new "improvements". Now many of these homes are listed on the heritage register so people cant destroy these beautiful historic homes.

Sure did! It seemed to small when I saw it again, but it definitely brought back a lot of fond memories :)

I can't go back. It was 30+ years and three continents ago.

My folks lived in our home from 1938 to2002 when Mom passed away. Bro and I grew up there. Went back last year to visit the neighbor and was so happy to see that it is being cherished. New folks have made a number of sensible changes and are raising two girls there. I was offered a tour but declined, I have every square inch of that house in my memory and wanted to keep it so.

Google earth helped me out. I grew up in this Bauhaus-style flat roofed house on the shore of Lake Michigan . Worth lots of money now, wish I owned it . I can see the whitewashed wall next to the driveway, that I fell from, causing a scar in my eyebrow. Takes me back....

I've not been back to see the home of my early years but I do know from sources that two houses have now been built in the garden, am guessing that a developer bought it at some point. My grandmother would be upset at that so I'm glad she doesn't know and in a way I am too as I have great memories of playing in it. Digging in the sand pit and waving at the trains as they went past, usually got a wave back too.

I don't particularly want it to see it as it is now, I prefer to keep my memories as they are.

i love the memories of my first house-it was so small compared to the big house we eventually wound up in but i think we were happier,and closer in a way .like i said if i could i buy it up in a second,but the owners in it now love it know what a gem they have,and all this talk this week has done one thing for sure.were driving over to my first houst today or satuurday,maybe the owners will let me in once more ?will let you know

I'm haunted by the house I grew up in.....nothing bad, just so, so remote--a very tiny 3 bedroom (ha!) house in Brooklyn under the elevated train tracks. I still dream I am back there sometimes. I've been back about half a dozen times over the past 40 years. It has changed little. I still see our ghosts about the place.

Should have mentioned that, we moved from Brooklyn when I was 13. Spent most of my adult life in Los Angeles but now I live in Israel, after a 2-year stint in Germany.

I have gone back to my childhood home, but not as often as I would like. I spent most of my school age years growing up in an old Victorian in upstate NY near Taughannock Falls. It had beautiful gables with intricate detail, 3 fireplaces, two marble and one wood with hand carved leather inlay and one of a kind tiles. We had 5 acres of land with a pond in the backyard, and the original 3-seater outhouse was still in tact. I could roller skate on the wrap-a-round front porch, usually lined with hanging baskets, and where we would eat all our meals in the summer time. Rumor has it that one of our US presidents danced in the ballroom during a visit. All my fondest memories took place in this beloved, childhood home.

yes i went back a few days ago.i think the owner's are used to my car every few year's so noone came out this time.it was nice,i just sat there in the car with my husband and i told him old stories of things i remembered doing in my first house.now we have to go to his in brooklyn : )

@ VIP Interior Design...OMG what a beautiful old gal!!! Must have been amazing growing up there!

Yes I found my childhood home in Miami Fla. where I lived back in the 50's up to mid 60's. The white tile roof is gone and someone chopped off the garage. The school is still there, it's upgraded though.

I grew up in a public housing project originally built for sailors during World War II. Small, cinder block 3 bedroom apartment that was still nicer than my mom would have been able to afford in the private sector for 5 children. I haven't lived there since I was 9. Now, I live in a McMansion in the burbs and still miss the sense of community I had growing up. If I misbehaved, my mom knew it before I made it home. Everyone for blocks knew me by name or at least knew who I belonged to. There was always someone to play with, and while it was not exactly crime-free, it felt safe as everyone looked out for everyone else. Its been torn down in the name of urban renewal, which I support, and the first home I purchased was in that same community. My daughter lived there for 9 years and still refers to it as her home. The schools suck though, and that was a major reason we left. Still, I am nostalgic. I remind my husband that I was a product of bad schools and turned out okay. Bad schools but great teachers who were invested in my success and made sure that I knew I belonged anywhere and everywhere- including the White House. Whatever success I've had, I owe to my experiences in my first home and I feel awfully grateful.

My childhood house became a teardown. It was built in the 1960s, had lots of beautiful features like ornate hand-carved wood paneling in the den and master bedroom, spacious living and dining room separated by hand-carved pocket doors, bay windows, huge master bathroom, windows overlooking manicured side and rear gardens. It was about 3,000 SF, and back when I was growing up, it was the biggest house on the block. And saying all that, I can totally understand why it was torn down.

There is only so much you can do to preserve beautiful features in a home before it ceases making economic sense. The ceilings were eight feet. The public rooms were large, though entirely cut off from each other by hallways. There were only two bathrooms upstairs, half bath on main level, and a basement bathroom. In a neighborhood rapidly filling with $1-2 M homes, people wanted more bedrooms, more bathrooms, bigger kitchens, 3-4 car garages, and all the usual luxury home amenities. A beautiful, much bigger house was built in its place. So even in well-built homes, often they may enjoy only a 50-year lifespan before they become obsolete. It's the families inside that matter, not the bricks and mortar. I have memories, but I wouldn't want to live in that house today, even if I could.

i did go back again to my cherished old 1st home and the owners actually invited us in.after all the times of seeing me & my husband sitting outside the house in our car looking in and feeling the memories. it was the best experience! the couple let me have free reign to walk all by myself up & down the stairs and all the cherished old memories rolled right back to me. it was beyound a beautiful experience. it felt like i could go home-it felt sooo good,and i don't need to go back again,but if that ever came on the market i'd try t o get it back for sure( i think) only 1 bathroom : ) )take care everyone.

I have been back to see the home I grew up in once. A year ago I purchased my first home, so I guess I was feeling a bit nostalgic. I started searching online and found a picture of my old home on Google street. It is the same outside except for the color. It is the tiniest place. I don't know how our family fit in there!

I am almost done with a gallery of pictures of all the homes I have lived in! The first home is the center piece. I cannot get the very first one I lived in as an infant as it is now a highway.

Funny thing about the photo I found: There is a chile ristra (ornamental hanging) on the front porch. These are a tradition in the southwest where I now live! I started the gallery project about 6 months ago and hope to finish the it soon. I've planned to write the owner of the old house to ask about the ristra, but haven't gotten around to it.

Even funnier, just last week, my sister sent me the exact photo that I found on Google street. She and her daughter had visited the old neighborhood and took the photo, but did not try to visit. I told her I have that same photo." She asked how? I told her about being able to find lots of home photos online.

BTW, my old elementary school, a few blocks away from the old house, is now a luxury condominium! The architects took it on as a restoration project. Last time I visited home, a couple of my sisters and I visited old haunts and saw the renovation. The facade is the same. We also found my grandmother's house - a little cottage that I never knew about - and photographed it. Only my oldest sister remembered it.

I've always said that if I ever had the money I would buy my old home. I would need close to $ 1,000,000.00...I have wonderful memories as a child there, but sadly we moved away as my parents divorced and our finances changed dramatically...

I was raised in a very large, (3 stories, 8 bedrooms) victorian farmhouse. stained glass windows. It was built by my great grandfather. In the mid 80's I did a huge mostly structural renovation/restoration. Dual pane windows were wooden custom made with wooden triple track screens/storms for the midwest horrendous winters. The basement was constructed of huge boulders with most of the lime based grout falling out. The kitchen had to be raised 13 inches. It was a labor of love. I have renoed every house I have ever lived in, accept for 1 rental while I was in college. My son and his wife now live there. I loved the house and all the contents. It was very painful to let it all go.