Editor’s note: Silverton South Third Street neighbors recently held a barbeque to celebrate the five homes built in 1910 and the couple that are even older. They made their celebration a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity as a way of saying thanks for good homes and assisting others to enjoy the same. Resident Rick Williams contributed this account of 411 South Third St. to help mark the occasion.
By Rick Williams
A front, a back and two sides… we call it home.
The stories from within the walls of any home are an amazing glance into history. Such is the case for 411 South Third St. in Silverton. It was late June 2010 when I returned a call to a number on our caller ID.
After giving my name and saying that “You called this number this morning,” the immediate reply came “Oh, if you step out your front door, walk across your porch, down your steps and to the end of the sidewalk, pull back the grass, look down… Those are my feet.”
To which I said, “And where are you?”
“411 South Third Street.”
“In Silverton?”
“Yes!”
“And you are?”
“Oh, I guess that would help. I’m Dorothy Bennett Buckingham Mutschler.”
I must admit, at first I thought I might be talking to a nut. But no, it was Dorothy Bennett; she lived in my house, then Solomon and Minnie Bennett’s home, from her birth in 1925 until 1931.
Two days later Dorothy and a friend visited her “first home” and she provided us with an interesting afternoon of memories of 411 South Third Street.
For the past year or two I’ve had in mind to giving the ol’ girl (the house, not Dorothy) a facelift, knowing that in 2010 she would be 100 years old. Now a complete sanding of the siding and then paint, new windows, a new roof, gutters and several miscellaneous items have brought a refreshed look to the old gal.
As my wife Karen and I sit on the back deck enjoying a late afternoon snack it is hard to imagine anyone else ever living in our home of 24 years, though I know that one day such will be the case. Until then we shall enjoy ol’ blue.
One of the first things that Dorothy noticed as she walked into the home was that the piano was in the wrong place. I wondered what beautiful music must have played on their piano some 85 years ago. What meals did they enjoy around the kitchen table? What games did they play on a cold winter’s night? How did the children play in the back yard and onto the hill? She showed a picture of her brothers’ fort dug into the hill and surrounded by shrubbery, much like our sons’ some 60 years later.
Dorothy is not the only person we have known to have lived at 411 S. Third. No, there would be the Gawlowski crew, Bill just happened to be the manager of our Silverton Red Sox baseball team that we played on together. Then there were Ross and John Gerhards who spent a couple years here as pre- and early teens. They, too, were members of that Red Sox team. And there would be LeRoy and Cindy Metzger from whom we purchased our home in 1987. What an amazing experience that was, as over nine months we shared not only the process of buying and selling a home, but also our lives.
There are more beautiful homes, there are greater locations, but as we sit again on the deck in the backyard, we can’t imagine a better home nor a better town to call home.
So thank you to all who have lived in this house over the years. Thank you for making her a home.
