#704 National Register - On to the Keeper

The state of Missouri recommends listing our house on the National Register of Historic Places!

August 19 is a beautiful day in the City of Jefferson and Kelly is ready to make our case to the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. He arrives at the Lewis and Clark State Office building, a very green building on the banks of the Missouri River, carrying his notes on months of research.  He is ready.

Most importantly, we stack the audience with friendly faces.

Kelly expertly tells the story of our house.  Following questions, comments and compliments, the Council votes unanimously to forward our National Register nomination to the Keeper at the National Park Service for the ultimate decision.

We are excited to move the nomination forward and thankful to all those who have supported our efforts with good wishes and advice and hospitality and custom, hand-crafted gifts!

We expect to hear the Keeper's decision by the end of October so stay tuned.

In the meantime, let's celebrate!

Yours in celebration,
Mary

#703 It Happened in August 1996

It's been 20 years since we first laid eyes on our favorite house in Aurora, MO.

On August 2, 1996, we are living in Kansas City and visiting family in southwest Missouri.  Kathy and Mark are moving to Texas so we're all getting together to celebrate their move, either that or to try to talk them into staying in Missouri!    

During the weekend, the family meets for a meal at the Plantation in Aurora (can't remember if big hats were worn) and accidentally, serendipitously, we drive down College Street and discover the house.

Our first photos are taken in 1996 when the house is owned by the Duncans and the grounds are so beautiful and well maintained.   

We continue to drive by (or stalk, if you must) the house for the next 13 years whenever we're in the neighborhood until we eventually learn it is for sale, which is yet another story of serendipitous good fortune.

Yours in serendipity,
Mary

#702 Intensity of Caring

"I've always felt that the details, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, are more than just nice things to notice.  They are manifestation and expression, a kind of measure of the intensity of caring." - Fay Jones

A tour guide at the Frank Lloyd Wright house at Crystal Bridges once told me that and I believe it.

We are the proud fifth owners of our 102-year-old house following behind the Colemans (1914-30), Moores (1930-83), Duncans (1983-2004), and Holmes family (2004-09).  All these Aurora residents have shown their intensity of caring by their stewardship and looking after the details.

So we are thrilled when previous owners or their descendants come from near and far to attend our house party and share memories and photos of the house through the years.

Yours in house parties and celebrating people who care,
Mary

#701 House on the Move

Historic photos of our Ozarks Bungalow are hard to find but we just keep looking.  Sometimes the stars align.

Until recently, the earliest photo we had found is this 1937 photo from Lawrence County in Pictures, published 23 years after the house was built in 1914. 

At the most recent meeting of the Aurora Historical Society, Bill told us about his family's early-20th-century house-moving business using horses and a winch.  It worked something like this...

From http://www.searshomes.org/index.php/2013/12/17/moving-houses-in-1916/

Lucky for us, Bill still has a circa 1920 photo of a large white frame house moving west down the center of College Street with OUR HOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND!

With a closer look, we see more detail about the upstairs window (previously hidden by an awning in the 1937 photo); we can see a lighter paint color in use on the top floor; and if we use our imagination, we can almost make out the outline of the outdoor porch lighting. The porch visible to the left of the horses belongs to our neighbors Bill and Denise.  The porch visible to the right of the horses is ours.

Yours in appreciating historical society meetings, family archivists, magnifying glasses, and the spirit of house movers,
Mary