If it hadn’t been for “Family Day,” a project assigned to her son Dev’s second grade class, Julie Seely might not have discovered her connections to a house hundreds of miles north of her home in Baltimore, Md.
Seely, author of “Skinny House: A Memoir of Family,” told her story on Sunday, Oct. 20, to a group of local residents gathered at the Jay Heritage Center. Her memoir tells the story of the despair and devastation brought to some families by The Great Depression, and how her family persevered through it.
“The Skinny House,” built in 1932 at 175 Grand St. in Mamaroneck, still stands. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2015.
Built and designed by African American carpenter Nathan Thomas Seely, who was Seely’s grandfather, the house is three stories high and only 10 feet wide. Since its construction, it has had to be held down with cables to prevent strong winds from knocking it over. It was built from salvaged materials, a testament to Seely’s grandfather’s ingenuity and determination.
The long, thin property on which the house sits is next to the previous Seely house, making it especially sentimental. They moved into “The Skinny House” after they could no longer afford their original house during the depression. Nathan Seely, born in 1893 and raised in Westchester, had ambition and a drive to succeed, his granddaughter explained. Like many others during the depression, though, Seely’s construction company, which he started with his brother Willard in 1925, went bankrupt, leaving him with little to nothing.
Growing up in Baltimore, hundreds of miles away from “The Skinny House,” Julie Seely was unaware of her grandfather’s story until she came across a simple pamphlet titled “Homes for Colored People” as her son Dev researched a “family day” project in second grade.
Seely said her father grew up in The Skinny House, but was secretive about his upbringing. She grew up knowing there was a story behind “The Skinny House,” but “I could not understand why my father would not talk about it a lot, and I vowed that one day I would find out the true story of ‘The Skinny House’ and the story of my grandfather.”
Being only 10 when the depression hit in 1929, Seely’s father was forced to move. But, his father, Nathan Seely, took advantage of his carpentry skills, and built a new home for them from recycled materials.
She described how she never met her grandfather Nathan, which amplified her interest in his hard work.
“I was inspired because of his family legacy, and legacy means everything,” said Seely. When she started writing her memoir, she realized this was not a story just about a family and its troubles, but a family that was heavily influenced by history and events.
During her presentation, Seely expressed gratitude to her Aunt Sug for saving that pamphlet, noting that her father never would have kept it. Little did she and Dev know that this piece of paper was a hidden artifact with a background of hardship, devotion, and history.
Her grandfather started his business, Seely Bros Inc., in response to The Great Migration, during which African Americans moved North from the harsh discrimination in the South. He was especially influenced to start this business by “Crisis Magazine,” which had articles about people’s struggles during The Great Migration and The Harlem Renaissance. He then made it his mission to ensure housing for all of those in need and to put his carpentry skills to work. Those skills just happened to come in handy when he and his family were in trouble.
In a world where information is mostly passed down generation to generation, Julie Seely made it her mission to not let her grandfather’s story go unheard.
“If I don’t write about it, then my son won’t know and neither will his son, and his son, and his son,” she said.
Even though it is now a private residence that does not offer tours to the public, “The Skinny House” represents gratitude, and the idea that you don’t need much to survive, Seely said. The house is a reminder of her grandfather’s simple values, and the idea that all anybody should want is a home in which to raise their family, no matter its size.
Seely encouraged her audience to ask their relatives questions, noting that everybody has a story, and every story deserves to be heard.
