Heirloom Home

Robert and Catherine Seibert House

 

In the 1880s, Stillwater transformed itself from a rough frontier town into an established city. It was in the 1880s that rudimentary zoning of land began, a health department was established to clean up the city, house numbers were first assigned, street signs were posted, and building permits were required. One of the earliest applications for a city building permit, #9, was taken out in April of 1886, to erect a house at 915 South Second Street. The builder and first occupants were Robert Siebert, a local carpenter, and his wife, Catherine.

His was to be a “modern” house, 22 feet by 32 feet, 2 stories high, with a one story 15 foot by 20 foot kitchen addition on the rear, and a 4½ foot by 16 foot bump out on the north side. The basement was 15 feet by 17 feet with a 7½ foot ceiling. There were to be two chimneys: one for use by the stoves in the main part of the house, and one chimney for the kitchen stove at the rear of the house. The ceiling in the living room is 10 feet high; in the kitchen it is 9 feet high, and upstairs in the bedrooms, the ceiling is 8 feet high. The value of the house was listed at $1800.

However, the Sieberts did not reside in the house for long, and in 1908, Fritz Ziegler, proprietor of the Germania Saloon on Main Street, moved into the house. Accompanying him was his daughter, 19 year old Elvena Wilimina, who was employed as a bookkeeper at the Simonet Furniture Company. After her parents died, “Venie” as she was known, continued to live in the house until her death in 1987 at the age of 97. “Venie” had her 15 minutes of fame when she was featured in the National Enquirer (the only house in Stillwater to have a resident featured in that publication) because she worked 82 years as a bookkeeper for the same employer.

The house was sold to Elvena’s grand nephew, David Stepan and his wife, Christine, who have carefully maintained the remarkable historic integrity of this home. If you wish to see what a typical late 1880s Stillwater middle class house—unchanged from its original construction—looked like, this is an excellent example.

Source(s): Information complied by Donald Empson, Empson Archives on 12/15/2008. City of Stillwater building permit application #9; and the Stillwater City Directories give some history of the house. David Stepan, the current owner, has a wealth of knowledge about the house. For more information about the neighborhood, see A History of the Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter’s Residential Area by Donald Empson, 2003.

Washington County Parcel Identification Number (PIN): 3303020110123

Common Property Name: Robert and Catherine Seibert House

Neighborhood: East Half of the Churchill, Nelson, Slaughter Addition

State Historic Preservation Office Inventory Number: WA-SWC-1423

Construction Date: 1886

Builder:

Architect:

Architectural Style: Vernacular