The house that Harold built

I sent off the signed documents for sale of Harold and Annanelle's house in Miles City last week.  Closing of the sale will be this week.  So today I am remembering that house.  I am sure there will be many more pictures of the house and area in slides that I get to later.  For now I have a couple of construction snapshots and recent pictures only.

A few years after moving to Miles City they purchased a group of lots on the corner of Fort Street and S. Custer Avenue, diagonally from Lincoln School and half a block north of the home of my grandmother Hattie Nunn.  Since I was in grade school, I don't know many details.  But the sale of our first house, on Stower Street, must have been a part of the process because we moved into the upstairs of Hattie's house temporarily.  Here is a view south from the property, across a small school playground area to one of three houses since removed to expand the playground.  Hattie's was the middle of the three, just past the one you see.  It was moved and still stands out in the Yellowstone valley northeast of Miles City.  South Custer was open though this block until these houses were removed.

First, on the corner, Harold built a six unit apartment house.  I remember only that there were a few complications regarding FHA financing and the design by an architect from Billings.  Construction was done in 1953-4.

When it was completed we moved into a two bedroom apartment on the middle floor, south (right) end.  We used a part of the apartment below as a recreation room.  A multiple car garage was built to the east and another apartment added above that by a later owner.

The house was built just to the north (left) while we lived in the apartment.  It was completed in 1957.

This was one of the first split-level houses in Miles City, so generated some questions and discussion by watchers during construction.  There are actually four levels, including a full basement under the left half.  Harold included several "ahead of his time" innovations including full insulation, windows with built-in storm windows, and double pane glass in the large picture window and the sliding glass door onto the back patio.  There was an automatic garage door opener, again one of the first in town.  And switching of all lighting in the house uses low-voltage relays so multiple switches can easily control a single light.  On the other hand he insisted on actual plaster walls even though dry-wall had become a standard method.  For the fireplace wall on the north he did not want a frame wall with brick veneer.  Instead it is a, three or four brick thick, structural wall.  He hired a German immigrant bricklayer who worked for the hospital during the night running their mechanical system.  Another employee, possibly an electrician, was a refugee from the 1950s attempted Hungarian revolution.  Tim and I 'helped' with the construction and both remember mixing and carrying mortar for the wall.  I did get a very clear understanding of how wood frame construction is done by helping/watching the project.

Harold lived in this house until his death in 1990.  Annanelle continued to live here, with her second husband, Harold's cousin Armin, until she passed away in 2009.  Although the house is over 50 years old it has always seemed current to me since it has never had another owner until now.