Widows Walk

A widow's walk, also known as a widow's watch or a captain's walk, is a railed rooftop platform often found on older coastal homes, particularly in New England and other maritime regions of the United States. These architectural features have an interesting history and several possible origins: The most widely accepted origin of widow's walks is connected to maritime history. In the 19th century, many coastal communities relied on fishing, whaling, and shipping as their primary industries. During this time, the sea was dangerous, and it was common for sailors and fishermen to be away for extended periods. The wives of these sailors and fishermen would often climb up to the widow's walk to scan the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of their husbands' returning ships. It became a place of solace and anticipation for these women, hence the term "widow's walk." Another theory is that the feature was initially called a "captain's walk" because ship captains would use these elevated platforms to observe their ships coming into port. The term "widow's walk" may have evolved later due to the association with the wives waiting for their husbands' safe return Widow's walks are also appreciated for their architectural aesthetics. They often have decorative railings and provide a picturesque view of the surrounding area. In some cases, they were added to homes purely for their visual appeal rather than their functional purpose. Widow's walks may have been seen as a status symbol during the 19th century. They were often added to the homes of well-to-do families, signifying both wealth and a connection to the maritime industry. This idea of status and prosperity may have contributed to the romanticism of the widow's walk. Today, many of these widow's walks have lost their original function as lookout points due to advancements in communication and navigation technology. However, they remain a charming and nostalgic architectural feature that adds character to coastal homes. Some have been preserved or restored for historical significance. They say that social media is the downfall of relationships, its where all marital troubles start. This is something I would have to agree with in our case. More specifically one social media page. Damn Historic Salvage. The troubles with this social media page seem to hit us right in our pocketbook and ends up being a create work project for my husband. From my end I’m okay with it, if you were to talk to him , I’m not certain of his version because I’m far too busy tagging him in the cool Shit they get in! While it may seem like they are a sponsored add in our blog post this is not the case, but what a great idea!! We have the “unfortunateness “ as we call it in our family, with a new build home that’s modelled after a Victorian house. (If you know us you know a new build was not anything we wanted) However everything is made to be garbage anymore, to an embarrassing point. So we are in pursuit of the older things in life. The small details that end up being the big details in pulling the house together. The historic Salvage just makes it easy, I can pay for the items online and then my husband is forced to go pick them up because hey we own it now. So why the history lesson on the widow’s walk, well it was something I was hell bent on. We have this weird ass flat roof because we could only build our house so tall due to bird migration. At this point in dealing with insurance, permits, the builder, life and now the damn height of our custom build home, I just told them to cut the point off. I was just so freaken done with it all. Mature maybe not. But now I have to make a flat roof look good, and I have always admired widows walks. Upon seeing one posted online, I took too long to make a decision and it had already sold. I was fortunate enough the next one coming in we got a message about. Tanner let the pieces fester in the workshop so that I knew just how excited he was for this project that he was to take on. I combated this power move by stopping to wash his underpants, so here we were in a stale mate. Eventually when his underwear started to walk themselves out the door he set to work. Sandblasting and polishing the old parts. He then painted them. And made corner pieces and did some welding. I make this sound really easy, but the reality of the matter is he did boy shit in the shop. One evening I was outside with Paige and the dogs, and something scared the living daylights out of us on the roof. It was Tanner, he got to work on the install I tried hard not to watch realizing this is one of the reasons that women live longer than men do. One thing I can’t deny is how beautifully it turned out. It truly does make the house and I am so very thankful we decided to take this avenue.