45woodland.jpg

Doc (known to his family then, and still, as Dave or David) Searls and his sister Jan, in front of the family's new house on 45 Woodland Avenue in Maywood, New Jersey. The house was finished in 1953, and was a standard square model with wood shingles in front and asbestos-based siding that shattered when hit by, say, a baseball. Which happened often. Though small, the house had 4br, 2ba, LR, DR, Kit, and storage areas between the pitched roof and the upstair bedrooms. It also had a full basement, into which water frequently leaked. It cost $15,000 new, and the folks paid it off with a 30-year mortgage. This shot was probably taken at Easter in 1954.