This Old House

The Brown Hotel, built 1902, restoration begun in 2004
This house is full of memories for me. My grandparents lived here when I was little, but it was abandoned for nearly 20 years, home only to birds and stray cats. Now Cindy and Blake Angell are restoring it!!!!
The house in its new location, I miss the trees!

The living room, beautiful!






The Brown Hotel, built 1902, restoration begun in 2004 by Cindy and Blake Angell!!!!
They are keeping a history of the home and have asked for any special memories or spiritual experiences, etc that you may be willing to share in connection with the home.
The back porch serves as a beautiful dining room!

there is a gate at the top of the stairs that kind of matches the rails and makes the stairs more toddler proof, I thought it was clever.


The old shelves of canned fruits are replaced by an upstairs bathroom

The Brown Hotel/Hale Home
The Brown-Hale house was moved from its original location in Fairview about 3 years ago to Auburn, Wyoming. When it was moved the foundation was raised several feet so that the ceiling height of the basement would be 10 ft like the rest of the home. Currently the basement serves as a garage which you enter from behind, but the family hopes to convert it into living space in the future. The rear entry which used to contain a freezer has been converted into a dining room and the upstairs fruit storage room has been converted into a bathroom. The floors are all original hardwood. The only carpeted room is the loft which makes a beautiful family room just as we always imagined! The fireplaces where removed to make room for electrical and plumbing conduits. I enjoyed touring my grandparents restored historical home with Matt & Lanita Rodabough because Matt is a carpenter and could really appreciate the orignal carpentry detail.

Pilgrimage to Star Valley

In August I had the sweet experience of making a trip back to the scene of all of my happiest childhood memories. The Hale farm in Star Valley Wyoming. Spending time in the valley lifted my spirits magically just as it has always done. I visited this place every other weekend when I was young. As we drove up the dusty lane, there was always an eager row of cousins to great us as if we were the most important people in the world. Then we fished, swam in crow creek, ran through corn and alafalfa fields, played trampoline dodge ball, fed the lambs and calves from bottles, saddled up the horses for rides, climbed through the hay bails, dug potatoes, collected eggs, teased the pigs, milked the cows, played the most exciting games of hide and seek ever, and finished the day with my favorite childhood game "no bears are out tonight". I loved Grandma and Grandpa Hale's home. Whenever I couldn't sleep at night, I would always imagine renovating the beautiful old home. When I grew older I discovered that my sister had also spent many nights imagining how she would redecorate this old home too. The last time I visited, nine years ago, the old home was abandoned, I ventured through it. The furnishings were rotting and rusted, but left where I remembered them. The roof had caved in and the upstairs was home to birds and animals. As I approached the farm this time I was saddened to see that the home had disappeared entirely. I was overjoyed to discover however that it had actually been moved to a new location and completely restored. The new owners proudly gave me a tour. I was also delighted to see yet another generation of Hales were living on the farm and that it was all still in the family. My children had a wonderful visit and we are in hopes of going again next summer.