This Old House

By Ethel Geary

The first and only time I saw my grandfather, John Joseph Geary, Sr., was in 1942. My father, John Joseph Geary, Jr. had been called home on emergency leave from the military because his father was dying. My grandfather still lived in the house that he built just after the turn of the century, and in which he had raised my father and his eight brothers and sisters. We were there for five days, and then my father had to return to duty. My grandfather died a week later. Some years later my fathers sister sold the house.

Although I was only six years old at the time, I never forgot that house. I always carried a clear picture of it in my mind. Several years ago I was searching the Internet for my family name and made inquiry on a message board for information on the Geary family of Woburn, Massachsetts. I was pleasantly surprised when someone answered my inquiry. The gentleman, now a New York resident, wrote that his father lives behind the old Geary house in a home he built on five acres that he bought from my grandfather. He had a picture of the house taken many, many years ago, and would send it to me.Several weeks later he sent me the picture as well as several current pictures of the house.The picture, left top, shows the house just as I remembered it. Today it is divided into apartments and shows some neglect. A new street had been added. The house sits at the corner of Prospect and Geary Streets. How I would love to be able to acquire the house and restore it to its original beauty.

Published in U S Legacies Magazine October 2003