Letters of Home

Those of you that have been reading my blog for a couple years might remember the post in August 2006 about my childhood home (there are several pictures). The current owner of the home (Janice) was more than gracious in allowing our family the freedom to roam throughout the house (three stories and the basement), reliving our memories. About a month ago, we received a letter from Janice. She is doing a presentation on the house for one of her study groups, and she asked us all to write to her with our stories. That request prompted an idea...I suggested that we compile all our letters in a booklet, so we all will have a written account to cherish in years to come. If you know my family, you know that a few of my siblings suffer from "grandiositis"...in other words, ideas tend to turn into productions. (I do not happen to have that condition in case you're wondering.;) ) So now the booklet idea is blossoming to the potentiality of a collective-effort book about our life in our beautiful Victorian home. We'll see about that, but first things first...writing our letters to Janice.

Mom was the first one to get her letter written, and she sent us all a copy. I got her permission to post excerpts on my blog:

"It was fall of 1958 when my husband (Gene) told me that Joe Erickson had purchased this big, old house. Gene was a plumber who was working with Joe (a building contractor). No repairs had been made on this house for 30 years. Joe bought it for $5000 and wanted to make a fast buck, so he offered it to Gene for $8500. We already had three little boys (Bruce - 9, Doug - 7, and Rick - 6), and we were expecting another baby in December. We had outgrown our little house. Naturally, I had to see it immediately, so we went that night and looked at it by flashlight. All I could see were the two beautiful fireplaces, the open stairway, and large pocket door between the foyer and the dining room. I loved all the space! I told Gene, "I have to have this house!" So, he bought it the next day. However, when we saw it in broad daylight with all its stained wallpaper and hanging ceilings from a leaky roof, and all the dirt and defects I thought, "What have we gotten ourselves into?!" The drapes and wooden venetian blinds that were once beautiful were now broken and rotten with age.

We decided that if we had heat, we could move in after cleaning it up as well as possible, then work on it while living there. The first project was a new heating system. Gene installed a new boiler with baseboard radiation. We were able to use some of the existing radiators. We decide to move in January 4, 1959 when Jeannette was a two week old baby. The temperature was 14 degrees below zero on moving day, and Gene still had to check for leaks before turning on the heat.

I wish we had taken pictures before and after, because it really looked like a haunted house when we first bought it. The broken venetian blinds gave it an eerie look, and the yard had a high ornate wooden fence around the back, then in need of much repair. Lilac bushes had grown to ten feet tall between our yard and the Van De Marks to the west of us. All the yard was overgrown with trees, bushes, and weeds. What a challenge!

We started with a new cedar roof and worked down. Basically, it was very well built with beautiful oak woodwork; we never found any knotholes in any wood there, not even in the flooring. Coal had been delivered to a dirt floor room in the basement through a west basement window. We changed that to concrete right away.

Ice was delivered to the butler's pantry through an opening on the east side of the house (still visible from the outside). There was a buzzer in the dining room floor for maid service. (We disconnected it right away!) There is a maid's stairway at the rear of the house that leads to a small room upstairs, which used to have its own lavatory.

We called the porte cochere on the west side of the house the "buggy porch." The Bolmans (prior owners) loved to entertain. Helen Carlgren, owner of Wilson Furniture, told me the house was called "the showplace of Concordia." She also told me that the crystal light fixtures, mounted on the staircase posts, had hand-blown globes and were ordered from Austria.

Every year we were busy doing something on the house, stripping fourteen layers of wallpaper and restoring the woodwork to a beautiful golden oak. It had been very dark. My only regret is that we didn't get the attic room finished, although it still was a fun place for my children and grandchildren to play.

We all loved our home; it was perfect for all the holiday family gatherings. When Jeannette and Joel were married, we hosted a wedding luncheon for around eighty out-of-town guests and family.

Gene died in 1981, and I lived alone in the house after Patrick left for college (1985) until 1993. I married Art in 1993 and moved to Salina. My children were all so supportive and helped with everything. We all hated to sell, but no family members lived in Concordia anymore. We all miss the wonderful home we had through the years. We are so happy that you, Janice, now own the house and have it furnished so beautifully. We hope you love it as we did."