Guess the House Archive

Former Swarthmore resident Bill Menke, a landscape architect and planner, donated his time to sketch homes in Swarthmore. Each week, he challenged you to identify a specific residence he captured. From Bill:

The origin of the house sketches for The Swarthmorean happened a few years before their appearance in print, at the Swarthmore Historical Society’s historic house tours. The board members added me as a liaison due to my long term interest in Swarthmore history and historic landscapes. As a landscape architect, I joined my colleagues in moving to digital media and away from hand drawing long ago, primarily as CADD (computer aided design and drafting) allowed rapid last minute changes without starting from scratch. So, going back to hand drawing was a plus. I was hard pressed to find a role at the Swarthmore Historical Society, as the board had all the various aspects covered — except for graphics. They mentioned that a poster for the tour was something they had trouble preparing, so I created a poster with a historic bird’s eye of Swarthmore with sketches of the homes on the tour keyed to the background. It was never printed, but the sketches made their way into the handout on the day of the tour. It was so popular that we did the same for the next biennial tour.

Not long after, I attended a senior citizens lecture about the then-anticipated demise of The Swarthmorean. The editor at the time and the art director spoke of the issues of the paper, noting that the enterprise had been losing money for a long period, but especially took a hit when Nextdoor eroded their cash cow — classified ads. They asked for suggestions on how to make the paper not go down the drain after such a glorious history.

I came up with three ideas, one of which was the “Guess the House” contest. I had no idea it would become so popular. I was totally serious about the $10 prize for those who guessed the house correctly (if someone didn’t want a sketch of their own home), and even gave a figure of $200 as to how far I would fund the venture before bailing.

I have met, through the contest, many wonderful residents, all of whom have been terrific in their support of this venture, many sending me images of their framed sketches hanging on their walls. It has been a pleasure to have been a part of the continuation of The Swarthmorean, and I hope that it continues to exist for a long time, if not forever.