Need help with terminology

[Rrty]

I'm trying to find the correct term for a piece of real estate that has an elevated yard. I want to see examples of them in an image search, but cannot come up with the correct search words.

Several months ago, I happened to catch the Steve Martin film Roxanne on TV. Remember that one? Cool film.

One of the aspects of the movie that many mention is its filming location, which I believe was in Canada. It's a gorgeous film. The scenery is a character.

I remember a scene where the main character was walking along a street and came upon a house that was higher than street level. Imagine a house with a yard that sits up high, a few feet from the street, and the edge is set up on top of a stone wall; in other words, you could sit on the edge, upon the wall, and dangle your feet. Maybe I'm exaggerating on the height, but I'm sure you get what I mean.

Any ideas on search terms that would bring up images of that? When I use elevated yard, I see examples of houses that are higher up than street level but have a sloping yard. Not precisely that which I seek.

Thanks for any help...and if you own that film, maybe skip around it until you get to the scene to which I refer (and I hope that isn't a phantom memory; I'm pretty sure though that was the film that made me want to do the search).

 

[FlakeNoir]

Terraced? Stepped?

(The walls are called "retaining walls" (in NZ) and the land is either called terraced or stepped.)

 

[no bounce no play]

Like this? I'm not sure if there's a term for front yards with stone retaining walls.

 

[Nomik]

I'm trying to find the correct term for a piece of real estate that has an elevated yard. I want to see examples of them in an image search, but cannot come up with the correct search words.

Several months ago, I happened to catch the Steve Martin film Roxanne on TV. Remember that one? Cool film.

One of the aspects of the movie that many mention is its filming location, which I believe was in Canada. It's a gorgeous film. The scenery is a character.

I remember a scene where the main character was walking along a street and came upon a house that was higher than street level. Imagine a house with a yard that sits up high, a few feet from the street, and the edge is set up on top of a stone wall; in other words, you could sit on the edge, upon the wall, and dangle your feet. Maybe I'm exaggerating on the height, but I'm sure you get what I mean.

Any ideas on search terms that would bring up images of that? When I use elevated yard, I see examples of houses that are higher up than street level but have a sloping yard. Not precisely that which I seek.

Thanks for any help...and if you own that film, maybe skip around it until you get to the scene to which I refer (and I hope that isn't a phantom memory; I'm pretty sure though that was the film that made me want to do the search).

I don't know the term but my grandothers's house in Lawrence was like that; we could sit on the wall, dangling out feet, watching the cars pass below. My Derry home had a similar feature; the Wall dropped down to the pool are. I have old picture of my grandmothers house- let me see what I can dig up.

 

[Spideyman]

I think Flake has the correct terminology.

 

[Nomik]

Probably, I'll find out tomorrow. I did go through some of the photos I had. I found a lot of photos - just not of the right house. I've been wanting to share some of these anyway. I have many more and I will find the house, complete with verified terminology.

This is a smidgen of what spilled out when I went through a box of family photos - nice houses, just not the right one. Those slides are of an eclipse.

A farm my family owned in Canada.

Another house - could be New England or Canada - family home before my time.
I'll share a few more elsewhere and as soon as I find the terminology, I will let you know. There wasn't a whole lot to retain in Lawrence; the house we lived in was built by an aristocratic family. I think it was to set it above the street.

 

[GNTLGNT]

...need help with The Terminator?....OK.......

.....done!....yer welcome......

 

[DiO'Bolic]

This is one from my childhood. At the time it was abandoned, dilapidated and haunted. Built by Civil War General Elisha Marshall. I snuck into it several times as a kid. Then about 20 years ago someone bought and remodeled it with vinyl siding... Vinyl Siding! Took all the spookiness out of it.

 

[DiO'Bolic]

This is one from my childhood. At the time it was abandoned, dilapidated and haunted. Built by Civil War General Elisha Marshall. I snuck into it several times as a kid. Then about 20 years ago someone bought and remodeled it with vinyl siding... Vinyl Siding! Took all the spookiness out of it.

'Throughout 1862 Marshall participated in several major campaigns. At the close of that year Marshall joined in the Union forces- flags flying- that charged into the entrenched Confederate troops at Fredericksburg, where they were killed by the hundreds. Marshall was so severely wounded at Fredericksburg that he was sent home to recover. It was not until June 17th 1864 that he found himself with Grant’s forces outside of Petersburg, on the doorstep of the Confederate capital of Richmond, in front of a mass of fortifications that the Army of the Potomac could not crack.

This, on July 30, 1864 put Marshall at the center of what is known as the Battle of the Crater, which Grant was later to call “the saddest thing I have seen in the entire war.” A group of soldiers from Schuylkill County, former coal miners turned soldiers, dug a tunnel underneath the Confederate entrenchments. Here they placed 4000 pounds of black powder. The idea was to blow a huge hole in the Rebel lines, so big that they would be stunned. Before they knew what was happening, Union troops would charge either side of the entrenchments, breaking the Petersburg defenses. Marshall’s men charged into the crater and were so amazed that they became transfixed by it. “The division was simply there,” recalled one eyewitness, “a mass of brave men without orders and without a head.” Then the Union soldiers discovered they could not get out of the sheer clay walls of the crater, and that gave the Rebels time to reorganize. Marshall held his post to the last, refusing to abandon a comrade whose artificial leg made of cork had been splintered by a flying shard of boulder, and left him lying on his back, helpless in the crater. “Men were dead and dying all around us,” one officer recalled, “blood was streaming down the sides of the crater to the bottom for a time before being absorbed by the hard clay.”

Marshall, severely wounded in a Confederate POW camp in Columbia, South Carolina survived. After Lee’s surrender he was released. Marshall resigned his commission in 1869.'

- - - -

'Marshall had one more tragic act to play, this time from the grave. In 2000 his body was taken from the grave and the skull removed. The groundskeeper claimed it was probably taken for a satanic ritual. His headless body was reburied.'

 

[Dana Jean]

'Throughout 1862 Marshall participated in several major campaigns. At the close of that year Marshall joined in the Union forces- flags flying- that charged into the entrenched Confederate troops at Fredericksburg, where they were killed by the hundreds. Marshall was so severely wounded at Fredericksburg that he was sent home to recover. It was not until June 17th 1864 that he found himself with Grant’s forces outside of Petersburg, on the doorstep of the Confederate capital of Richmond, in front of a mass of fortifications that the Army of the Potomac could not crack.

This, on July 30, 1864 put Marshall at the center of what is known as the Battle of the Crater, which Grant was later to call “the saddest thing I have seen in the entire war.” A group of soldiers from Schuylkill County, former coal miners turned soldiers, dug a tunnel underneath the Confederate entrenchments. Here they placed 4000 pounds of black powder. The idea was to blow a huge hole in the Rebel lines, so big that they would be stunned. Before they knew what was happening, Union troops would charge either side of the entrenchments, breaking the Petersburg defenses. Marshall’s men charged into the crater and were so amazed that they became transfixed by it. “The division was simply there,” recalled one eyewitness, “a mass of brave men without orders and without a head.” Then the Union soldiers discovered they could not get out of the sheer clay walls of the crater, and that gave the Rebels time to reorganize. Marshall held his post to the last, refusing to abandon a comrade whose artificial leg made of cork had been splintered by a flying shard of boulder, and left him lying on his back, helpless in the crater. “Men were dead and dying all around us,” one officer recalled, “blood was streaming down the sides of the crater to the bottom for a time before being absorbed by the hard clay.”'

- - - -

'Marshall had one more tragic act to play, this time from the grave. In 2000 his body was taken from the grave and the skull removed. The groundskeeper claimed it was probably taken for a satanic ritual. His headless body was reburied.'

And this is one of the reasons I am being cremated. I refuse to be some headless corpse in a grave, and I do NOT want to be dug up a bazillion years from now by archeologists who will make up sh*t about my life that isn't even true.

They don't KNOW me.

 

[Out of Order]

- - - -

'Marshall had one more tragic act to play, this time from the grave. In 2000 his body was taken from the grave and the skull removed. The groundskeeper claimed it was probably taken for a satanic ritual. His headless body was reburied.'

Yeah, sorry about this. Needed a pencil holder....

 

[DiO'Bolic]

And this is one of the reasons I am being cremated. I refuse to be some headless corpse in a grave, and I do NOT want to be dug up a bazillion years from now by archeologists who will make up sh*t about my life that isn't even true.

They don't KNOW me.

Putting Kurben out of business, eh? Heartless.

 

[DiO'Bolic]

Yeah, sorry about this. Needed a pencil holder....

And here I thought it might have been the demented goat worshiper... well, according to archeologists a bazillion years from now, that is.

 

[Dana Jean]

Putting Kurben out of business, eh? Heartless.

Well, all I have to say is, if you are going to be buried, put a note in there that explains all personal aspects of your life.

You've seen pictures of that famous bog guy with a rope around his neck? Tolland Man.

"Scholars believe the man was a human sacrifice rather than executed criminal because of the arranged position of his body, and the fact that his eyes and mouth were closed."

Wrong. I think it was autoerotic asphyxiation. He was out in the bog, minding his own business, doing his thing and BOOM! dead. Fell in a bog and becomes some human sacrifice showcased in a museum.

 

[DiO'Bolic]

Well, all I have to say is, if you are going to be buried, put a note in there that explains all personal aspects of your life.

You've seen pictures of that famous bog guy with a rope around his neck? Tolland Man.

"Scholars believe the man was a human sacrifice rather than executed criminal because of the arranged position of his body, and the fact that his eyes and mouth were closed."

Wrong. I think it was autoerotic asphyxiation. He was out in the bog, minding his own business, doing his thing and BOOM! dead. Fell in a bog and becomes some human sacrifice showcased in a museum.

You should write horror stories. Know anyone in the business?

 

[Rrty]

Thanks for all your replies! I read and appreciate all of them.

No bounce, that is indeed what I am looking for. That is exactly the type of wall I mean. I notice that in the image you supplied the yard seems to be steep and managed in a step-like fashion away from the wall...I also am looking for one that does not have steps and is flat, but that is still basically what I was going for, so thank you so much for that. (Imagine if you will instead of the trees in the picture and the next level up, a lush lawn just rolls out flat from the wall to the house proper; again, though, that is a great photo, I would love to own that property, the steps are extremely attractive.)

DiO, that's a great house on the hill. I'm rereading sections of 'Salem's Lot at the moment, as I am wont to do this time of year, and I have to say, makes me think of the Marsten house (even though the description in the book is different, I still thought along that line). Was it scary inside when you went in? Must have been, since it had a haunted reputation. Did you ever go in on Halloween? I almost want to write a story based on that image.

Nomik, thanks for your reply and those photos. Old pictures are great, and they likewise make me want to write.

Flake and Spideyman, I will give those terms a shot later today.

GNT, cool Terminator shot.

Dana Jean, what you say makes a lot of sense. Never thought of someone putting in a note, interesting idea.

 

[DiO'Bolic]

Thanks for all your replies! I read and appreciate all of them.

No bounce, that is indeed what I am looking for. That is exactly the type of wall I mean. I notice that in the image you supplied the yard seems to be steep and managed in a step-like fashion away from the wall...I also am looking for one that does not have steps and is flat, but that is still basically what I was going for, so thank you so much for that. (Imagine if you will instead of the trees in the picture and the next level up, a lush lawn just rolls out flat from the wall to the house proper; again, though, that is a great photo, I would love to own that property, the steps are extremely attractive.)

DiO, that's a great house on the hill. I'm rereading sections of 'Salem's Lot at the moment, as I am wont to do this time of year, and I have to say, makes me think of the Marsten house (even though the description in the book is different, I still thought along that line). Was it scary inside when you went in? Must have been, since it had a haunted reputation. Did you ever go in on Halloween? I almost want to write a story based on that image.

Nomik, thanks for your reply and those photos. Old pictures are great, and they likewise make me want to write.

Flake and Spideyman, I will give those terms a shot later today.

GNT, cool Terminator shot.

Dana Jean, what you say makes a lot of sense. Never thought of someone putting in a note, interesting idea.

We never got upstairs or down the basement because the steps were destroyed. The windows were boarded up and we never thought to bring a flashlight as going in was a spur of the moment thing, so what you could see was somewhat minimal. When you went in, spray painted on the walls where things like, “Welcome to Hell,” “Proceed and Die,” and other happy thoughts. You had to be very careful where you walked because the floors had deteriorated and there were open holes. With the big mountain behind the hill and the gap in the mountain nearby, the winds were brutal at the house, and the sounds of the wind whipping through the house was eerie.

‘One tale was that Mrs. Marshall murdered her husband and buried him in one of the mansion's underground tunnels, which were supposedly used to aid runaway slaves. The red shale on the mountain, so the story goes, got its color from Marshall's blood.

As Gordos pointed out, however, there would have been no need for such tunnels because slavery was abolished long before 1881. Gordos added that attempts have been made to vegetate the hill, but with the exception of a few trees it remains covered with shale.

In any case, Mrs. Marshall continued to spend her summers in the mansion after her husband's death, but she rarely made an appearance in town. The ferocious dogs and the bars around downstairs windows only heightened the stories of the hill and its curious owner.’

 

[DiO'Bolic]

We never got upstairs or down the basement because the steps were destroyed. The windows were boarded up and we never thought to bring a flashlight as going in was a spur of the moment thing, so what you could see was somewhat minimal. When you went in, spray painted on the walls where things like, “Welcome to Hell,” “Proceed and Die,” and other happy thoughts. You had to be very careful where you walked because the floors had deteriorated and there were open holes. With the big mountain behind the hill and the gap in the mountain nearby, the winds were brutal at the house, and the sounds of the wind whipping through the house was eerie.

‘One tale was that Mrs. Marshall murdered her husband and buried him in one of the mansion's underground tunnels, which were supposedly used to aid runaway slaves. The red shale on the mountain, so the story goes, got its color from Marshall's blood.

As Gordos pointed out, however, there would have been no need for such tunnels because slavery was abolished long before 1881. Gordos added that attempts have been made to vegetate the hill, but with the exception of a few trees it remains covered with shale.

In any case, Mrs. Marshall continued to spend her summers in the mansion after her husband's death, but she rarely made an appearance in town. The ferocious dogs and the bars around downstairs windows only heightened the stories of the hill and its curious owner.’

Forgot to mention we were never there at Halloween. Too busy getting candy.

The tale of the mansion and hill when I was a boy, if I recall correctly, was that a Civil War general was murdered there and his spirit was haunted by dead Confederate and Union soldiers from some big battle.

 

[no bounce no play]

More like these? (I googled how to build a retaining wall next to a sidewalk)



I lived in a Dallas suburb for a few years that had a LOT of clay in the soil. Some residents built retaining walls instead of sloping the yard so that rain water had a better chance of soaking into the ground instead of just running off onto the sidewalk. Railroad ties were used more often than rock since they were inexpensive.

 

[Kurben]

And this is one of the reasons I am being cremated. I refuse to be some headless corpse in a grave, and I do NOT want to be dug up a bazillion years from now by archeologists who will make up sh*t about my life that isn't even true.

They don't KNOW me.

Oh, yes, we do....... If you only knew...... (the global archaeologist conspiracy theory)