If This House Could Talk...

By Bonnie Heidinger



If this house could talk it would reveal that the first recorded mention of the land upon which it now sits was when the United States government granted Levi Craver 80 acres in 1839. After Anna was founded and grew, a part of that acreage was platted as the Catharine H. Miller’s First Addition to Anna in 1892. The house sits on Lots 3 and 4 with the original main entrance facing the orchards immediately to the west.

When the house today is compared to a painting of the house created by Anna artist Maurice Metzger, we can see some later changes and expansions have enhanced the look of the house. The main entrance is now on the north side, and the current owners have added an extended enclosed vestibule. In addition, a porch with banisters now flanks the entrance and goes all around the western side of the house. On the eastern side of the house, a sun porch and TV room constructed with a lower flat ceiling were added sometime after the original house was built. A considerable amount of landscaping was added after Kay and Wes Boie bought the house in 1976.

If the early inhabitants of the house had left their signatures on the walls somewhere, their names would reveal some of the prominent families in Anna. Edwin F.S. Leib and Anna Wiley Leib bought the property in 1918 from Alonzo and Kate Bohannon. Mrs. Anna Leib, the daughter of Ben L. Wiley and Emily Davie Wiley, was the granddaughter of Winstead and Anna Davie. Edwin F.S. Leib lived there until his death in 1925, and Anna Leib died in 1932 leaving the house to her daughters Mary E. Halterman and Ruth Alden. Ruth and Frank Alden owned the house for awhile and then willed it to their children, Dr. Blair Alden and Mrs. Margaret High.

In a visit to Anna a few years ago, Dr. Blair Alden told the current owners some of his memories of his grandparents’ home. When he was young, his parents lived in the country, so to go to school he came to town to live with his grandparents during the school term. Orchards stretched to the west and south of the house. He remembers a large chicken yard along the eastern side of the house, where much later owners installed a swimming pool.

If you are the first to correctly identify the location of the house and the names of its current owners, PAST will send you a prize. Please include any additional information you have on the history of the house or its previous inhabitants. A more complete history of the house will appear in a later edition of the Gazette Democrat.

 

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