Perfect day to blog
Actually, everyday would be a good day to make myself write something. I have no problems making a habit of playing Words with Friends, or working a virtual jigsaw puzzle every morning. I've even managed to make a habit to go yo Yoga 4 times a week. But writing still feels like a chore. The actual typing is a killer, but it also requires using good grammar and correct punctuation not to mention coming up with interesting (sorta) things to say and entertaining (sorta) ways to say them).
But today the official word came out. It was a rumor, or a an unconfirmed possibility,. But now it's fact and apparently final. They are tearing down the old parsonage in Jefferson city!
The news is just another layer in my need to become aware of the ethereal quality of life and mortality.. The sweet little home where I experience coming-of-age has been declared unworthy of renovations. It is being relegated to the heap of :used to be" building; beloved by those who had the opportunity to experience her, but not enough to warrant a full overhaul for those who are financially responsible. It has too many problems, some of which were probably there when we were!
For now, I am remembering the list of firsts in my life that occurred at 713 Washington. First crush, first date, first kiss (none are the same person). Remembering the laughter and the arguments. The pain of unrequited love; Practicing the cello in the living room and switching over to the piano to pound out melodies of all the song from the Reader's Digest song book. I would sit there and sing for hours! I learned old standards; songs from movies and Broadway, and everything else I could find. It must have made my parents and sibling nuts! But no one ever stopped me. Love, love, love in that house.
We had sleepovers -or bunking parties. JC was just far enough south for that name. Boyfriends, best friends, frien-emies, all made appearances there.
It was a sad day in 1981 when I watched my parents leave for their new house in St. Charles. I stayed behind with the stuff I was taking to college in Kansas City on the opposite side of the state. It made no sense for me to drag everything to St. Charles only to drag it back a week late. So I stayed by myself in the dining room using the beautiful pocket doors to give me a sense of cosiness and safety. I said goodbye to old friends. Went on a date with my long-time off and on crush one day, and went on another date the next with the guy who seemed out of reach for so long. He's still in the top two of ones who got away!
When you're 18 years old, embarking on a who new journey in life, it is hard to comprehend the significance of small things. It's hard to see the conveyer belt of life moving you a little closer to mortality and finality.
But as a firmly middle-aged grown -up, I am able to see losses and goodbyes and send offs through the lense of longing and wisdom and, ultimately, the beauty and magnificence that is life.
This is the article and some pictures from the Jefferson City Historical society I hope I am not breaking any laws by putting on my blog! I am bolding the whole thing so you know it is not mine!!
I'm sad I didn't know half the things it says about the house in that article!
Here's one more story about that house. Birds used to stay in the chimney on the migratory pattern in the fall (maybe spring...I forget). They would roost in a tree in the day time, but then,one by one, the would circle up to the sky before diving into the chimney. the would star slow, but after a while there would be dozens of birds diving in. It was avery good idea to keep your mouth closed if you were standing close to the house to watch! More than one person was baptised by bird poop!
One more thing. I sincerely hope they salvage all the beautiful wood and architectural details. If they do, I hope they let me buy the
rose window!
Enjoy the article!
Disheartening Breaking News! Central United Church of Christ has just voted to DEMOLISH ITS HISTORIC 1898 PARSONAGE. The vote was made at a congregational meeting after the 10 a.m. service, May 1, 2016.The cost of rehabilitating the structure was estimated as roughly twice the cost of tearing it down. Architect for the Queen Anne-style building was Charles Opel, who designed many of Jeff City's notable buildings. Read the below for its history--an essay written in 2015 by Walter A. Schroeder:
Central United Church of Christ in Jefferson City in 2015 announced its intention to demolish its vacant parsonage at 713 Washington Street. Should this happen, we all will miss this wonderful, historic residence in the very heart of Munichburg. A brief history and a taste of the lore of the 117-year old parsonage is appropriate to inform us of its importance to Southside.
It is not the congregation’s first parsonage. Shortly after the immigrant German Protestant congregation was organized in 1858 and built its church in 1859 on the hill on the corner of Washington and Ashley, it hired Reverend Joseph Rieger for its first pastor. On the day he arrived, the congregation decided to build a parsonage next to the church and directed the new pastor to design it. It was constructed of brick on a limestone foundation and built directly on the front property line, which was the custom in the old country. It was similar to other simple German-style cottages being built throughout German-speaking Muenchberg at that time, like the Hess house across Washington Street and the Buehrle house across the alley on the north. It was finished in 1860. Reverend Rieger cared for Civil War wounded in that parsonage, while at the same time it was home to his family of five daughters and two sons. During the war, “Southern” ladies of Jefferson City entrusted jewelry and other valuables to the pastor for safekeeping in the parsonage. Reverend Rieger also married former slaves in the parsonage (identified as Farbige, or “colored,” in the marriage register). Reverend Rieger died in 1869. All of his next six successors and their families also lived in that parsonage.
In 1891, the congregation, having outgrown its original church building, built a new one, the present Gothic church with the tall steeple. That was during the time when many of the original small German cottages built by immigrants in the surrounding Munichburg neighborhood were becoming obsolete. Their prospering children replaced them with more modern, larger, American-style residences. Joining in that trend, Central’s congregation voted May 1, 1898, to replace its 1860 parsonage with a new one in the same general Queen Anne style as other Munichburg residences then being built in the neighborhood. This is the present parsonage now being considered for removal. Charles Opel was the architect. It was completed before the end of 1898 at a cost $3,109.33. The congregation had instructed Pastor Theophil Mueller to collect funds for its construction—for his own residence—and he raised money well in excess of the final cost. Just a few months earlier, Charles Opel also had been architect for congregational member and city councilman Henry Asel’s residence at 210 Lafayette Street, which was nearly identical to the parsonage. Could Asel’s residence have influenced the choice of style for the parsonage? Asel’s very similar 1898 house still stands and is in excellent condition.
The new parsonage for Central Evangelical Church (the congregational name at the time) was built on the same land the old parsonage sat on, but this time set back twenty feet from the property line, conformable with the American style for front yards. The parsonage measures approximately thirty feet wide by fifty feet deep, with two-story bay windows on both the north and south sides. The main floor has a large front hall with open stairway and beautiful banister, a large living room facing the street, large dining room, kitchen with pantry, and a spacious pastor’s study with bay window facing the church. Abundant woodwork shows high-quality craftsmanship. The second floor has four large bedrooms and bath (a “porcelain bath tub” was specified in the contract). The ceilings are high! A full basement extends underneath the entire house. Except for the limestone foundation, the residence is built completely of brick. Fred Buehrle, a member of the congregation, was responsible for the brickwork. The congregation paid members Ernst Braun and a Mr. Schwartz for construction work. Foundation stones and bricks from the original 1860 parsonage were probably recycled into the new parsonage.
The original small, ornamented, wooden porch at the front door (Germans were known for decorative entranceways) was replaced in 1914 by the present, much larger, brick-pillared porch that wraps around the south side. Also in 1914, water usage was put onto a meter, because the frugal congregation wished to save on the flat-rate monthly fee then charged for residences. The coal furnace was converted to a gas furnace in 1954.
In 1915 the congregation put in a driveway along the north side of the parsonage and built a garage (at a cost of $131) for the newly arrived pastor, Reverend Paul Stoerker, who was the first pastor to have a car. The concrete driveway and garage served as the ceiling for the church’s bowling alley, dug out and built 1920. The bowling alley was entered through the adjacent Sunday School Building. The remnants of this structure, demolished in 1981, butt against the parsonage’s basement wall and are causing structural problems with the parsonage today.
Over the years the parsonage gained many stories to tell. During Reverend Berlekamp’s pastorate (1923–1939), 151 of the 191 weddings he performed took place in the parsonage. On one busy day, four couples were married there! During World War II, Reverend Henry Damm’s wife, Esther, and their two daughters often served as witnesses for marriages hastily arranged for servicemen home on short furloughs. While the war was being fought, the discovery of an abundance of four-leaf clovers in the backyard of the parsonage led to sending one of the lucky charms to several dozen members in military service.
In his memoirs, Reverend Damm recounts an incident during the days of racial tension in Jefferson City, around 1950, while the city was still strictly segregated. The nationally famous mezzo-soprano gospel and classical singer, Rosa Page Welch, came to Jefferson City for a musical performance. Arriving by railroad late with an entourage of six or eight people, the African Americans could not find any place that would serve them food. They needed someplace to eat and relax after their long travel, and Reverend Damm invited them to the parsonage. “So,” in the pastor’s own words, “if anybody knows my Esther, you will know that within 30 minutes she had quickly gotten together everything we had in our kitchen and had a marvelous meal for about a dozen of our black friends and there probably never has been and never will be again such a beautiful evening of classical and church music as was held in that parsonage that evening.”
The Damms’ younger daughter, Nalora, had the bedroom facing the church. As a teenager, she longed to “sleep in” on Saturday mornings. However, Carl Burkel, the musical prodigy well-known to all in Jefferson City, would begin practicing on the church’s powerful Moller organ at 6 a.m. With the facing windows of both parsonage and church wide open to let in cool morning air, Burkel’s booming chords and octaves of Bach’s D-minor Toccata shook teenager Nalora out of bed. (Nalora went on to sing on the Metropolitan Opera stage and for presidents in the White House. She is now professor emerita at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston.)
Every pastor’s family complained about the “roar and rumbling of the bowling alley” underneath the driveway just below the parsonage bedroom windows. Bowling could go on well into the night. And several teenage PK’s (“preacher’s kids”) later admitted leaving some marks on ceilings, walls, and woodwork.
Naturally many updates were made to the parsonage since 1898. Knob-and-tube electric wiring had to be improved and the electrical system expanded. Since the original parsonage was built without closets, they had to be constructed in the large bedrooms. Until 1948 the women of the church were responsible for redecorating and cleaning the parsonage from attic to basement twice a year. The women also raised funds for repairs and painting, interior and exterior.
When Reverend Stephen Buchholz and his wife, Becky, moved into the parsonage in 1982, the aging parsonage could no longer be considered suitable as a residence for a young family of the late twentieth century. The neighborhood had transformed into one of rental properties with attendant safety issues. And, like other ministerial families, the Buchholzes wanted to own their own home and thereby have the ability to gain equity in it for time of retirement. Fortunately, Reverend Buchholz was on the board of the Evangelical Emmaus Home for developmentally disabled people at Marthasville and saw the opportunity to convert the parsonage into an Emmaus group home. Central Emmaus Home opened in the former parsonage in 1991. It became the home for five or six developmentally disabled men and was a mission of the church. The residents participated in congregational life.
Central Emmaus Home closed around 2010, and a short while later the congregation leased the parsonage to Calvary’s Gifts, a resale shop for the benefit of Calvary Lutheran High School. But Calvary’s Gifts outgrew the parsonage’s space and moved a block away to 722 Jefferson Street in 2014. The venerable parsonage building has been vacant since, awaiting its new fate.
