If This House Could Talk...

By Bonnie Heidinger

If this Anna house could talk, it would tell us that it was built by an Anna brick mason in about 1914. Not surprisingly, the inside and outside walls of the house are brick, even the additions added in the 1970s. Even though it is not far from the railroad, it is a quiet house when the windows are closed.

The original house had a full screened-in front porch (a photograph shows it with a pretty awning). Since the 1970s, however, the entire front is covered with brick. Inside, visitors were greeted with a large parlor and living room, separated only by decorative side shelves and columns; a kitchen; a bathroom; and 3 bedrooms along the west side. The original owners later built a larger kitchen on the east side and transformed the old one into a dining room. All rooms of the original home had hardwood floors and 10-foot ceilings.
Another addition made to accommodate the growing family was a sunroom with a fireplace, built on a lower level; and above it a bedroom with a fireplace, which also had windows all along the western and northern sides (see photograph).

In the 1970s, a major updating of the house included adding air-conditioning and a major addition onto the back on the east side, a large family room connected to the kitchen, again with a fireplace, the fourth one in the house.

Outside, many distinctive features further add interest to the distinctive house. A stone gazebo was built by the original owner west of the garage, and a stone arched bridge crosses a large curving concrete pool, in which fish used to swim. Grand daughters of the original builders remember flowers always being abundant outside as well as inside the house.

The three daughters of the family who built the house never married: Marion lived in the house until her death in 1989; Elizabeth left for awhile to teach in California but returned to live there until her death in 1999; and Ann lived in the house 92 of her 96 years until she passed away last fall. A grandchild of the original owner and her husband have recently bought the house.

Do you know the address of this house and its current owners? If so, if you are the first to contact PAST with the correct answers, you will receive a prize. If you have information about the history of the house or the people who have lived there, share your memories for possible inclusion in the final Gazette Democrat article that will give a more complete history.

Mail your responses to PAST, P. O. Box 778, Jonesboro, Ill 62952, or send e-mail responses to pastinformation@pastonline.org.
 

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