The Disappearing Corner Lots

“Other than dreams of immortality nerve many a pioneer to make the fight for his rival site for the seat of government of a state, or of a county, or for a railroad station. It is a dream of corner lots, of speculation, of bonds and mortgages, and deeds and commissions, and sudden wealth.”

C.H. Gere (1886)

 

With the above words Mr. Charles H. Gere opened his January 12, 1886 presentation to the Nebraska State Historical Society entitled “The Capital Question in Nebraska, and the Location of the Seat of Government in Lincoln”. He plainly stated the real estate advantages of winning such a competition, but he also acknowledged the symbolism of the corner lot in those days.

One “fight” for a county seat that wasn’t successful was Elvia in Merrick County. The county and it’s would be seat of government was named in honor of the wife of Henry De Pay, the Speaker of the Nebraska House of Representatives. Her maiden name was Elvira Merrick. No one is quite sure of the pro[osed location of the town, but it was reported to be “beautifully located upon a paper in the office of Dr. Henry, of Omaha, and supposed by the fortunate possessor of corner lots, to be about two miles southwest of the present town of Clark's, the old military road.”  

There wasn’t a fight for the seat of York County government. Dispassionately located at the geographical center of the county, the town was platted with uniform lots surrounded by streets running at right angles. The plat was recorded at the courthouse in Seward and soon the selling of corner lots had begun.

In 1878 William Knapp bought a double corner lot at the corner of 6^th and Iowa, legally lots 4 and 5 of Block 53, from the South Platte Land Company for $90. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad had used the South Platte Land Company to build towns along their right of way. As was usual in the early history of prairie towns, Mr. Knapp used the lots as an investment rather than as a building site. The Knapp family resold the lots three years later at a 650% mark up.

Artemus and Edith Ward built the first house on the property in about 1885. Mr. Ward was assistant cashier at Nebraska National Bank. The Ward’s new address was 419 E. 6^th. The house had a wraparound porch which faced the neighborhood that climbed East Hill. By 1899 there was a 1 ½ storey stable and three other out buildings behind house. While it was probably a modest home it was enhanced by sitting back on a large corner lot.

The Ward house was replaced in 1900 by Andrew and Vesta Wilkens. The new house was a one storey Victorian cottage. Again the house set back on the corner lot with a two storey stable on the alley behind the house. A rounded porch looked up East Hill. The porch was mimicked by a large rounded window near the front entrance. The front entrance was under a square tower. Those three features were complimented by other Victorian ornamentation.  This information is knowable because the house still exists. If you are thinking there is no Victorian cottage at the corner on 6^th and Iowa read further.

Charles and May Schrandt were the last to live on this large corner lot. Mr. Schrandt was Vice-President of the Farmers National Bank, but by 1915 their family had relocated to Long Beach, California. In 1916 they sold the property to George Shreck who was the York Postmaster and the President of York Gas and Electric Company. He didn’t buy the house at 419 E. 6^th as a home, he bought it as an investment. He had earlier been in the business of real estate, loans and insurance.  Like early town builders his dream of corner lots were “of speculation, of bonds and mortgages, and deeds and commissions, and sudden wealth.” Well, probably not sudden wealth, but rather a good profit on his investment.

George Shreck subdivided the two lots creating three small and irregular building sites. He moved the Victorian cottage back away from the corner. Its address became 609 Iowa. With the move the rounded porch was replaced by one which was square, but the other Victorian features survived. Shreck was then able to sell two building sites that faced 6^th Street.

In 1917 George Shreck sold the building site closest to the alley for $1500. To allow the new owner to build a garage behind the proposed house, Shreck sold a parcel with the following very convoluted legal description.

                A part of lots Nos. Four (4) and Five (5) in Block No. Fifty three (53) in the

original town, now city of York. More particularly described as follows…

                                Beginning at the southwest corner of said Lot No, Five (5) and

running thence north along  the west line of said lots Ninety feet; thence

east parallel with the north line of said Lot No. Four (4) forty feet, thence

south parallel with the west line of said lot twenty feet; thence east parallel

with the north line of said lot fifteen feet; thence south parallel with the

west line of said lots seventy feet to the south line of said Lot No. Five (5),

thence west along said south line fifty five feet to the southwest corner of

said Lot No. Five (5) and place of beginning.

 

With that the concept of uniform lots came to an end at the corner of 6^th and Iowa. The irregular lot was sold to a William Collett who was involved in real estate. He never lived in the house, but rather built a house and a detached garage with the intention of selling it. The first occupant of the home at 421 E. 6^th was a widow named Ella Gross.  When Mrs. Gross bought the house in the spring of 1918 someone in the County Clerk office had to again hand copy the above real estate description into a deed record book.

The now much smaller corner lot was sold to Earl Dean. Of the two lots facing 6^th Street, Mr.  Dean paid $600 more for his smaller lot indicating that corner lots still had a certain appeal. On May 9, 1918 the York Daily News-Times reported that Dean had begun the construction of “a modern bungalow”. It was described as having “some decidedly modern features with sleeping rooms on the roof of the building.” The sleeping rooms were under what is called a monitor roof, which is a raised structure running along the ridge of a house, with its own roof running parallel to the main roof. The rooms were probably intended to serve the same purpose as the sleeping porches described previously in this series.

 

                                                 

                                         Earl Dean house at the corner of 6th and Iowa

 

 

The following year Mr. Schrenck sold the Victorian cottage that he had relocated to Ed St. Martin. With that sale Schrenck completed his redevelopment project at the corner of 6^th and Iowa. He had resold the property for $3000 more than he had originally paid. That is $47,175 when adjusted for inflation. Even subtracting the cost of moving the Victorian cottage, plus interest and paperwork costs it is likely that George Shrenck “speculation” paid off.

 

 

Victorian Cottage which formerly sat at the corner of 6th and Iowa



In 1919 the other three corners of the intersection of 6^th and Iowa still had homes on double corner lots. Today only the northeast corner would be described as a grand corner lot. One lot off of 6^th Street on the other two corners now sit circa 1930 Tutor style homes.

                                                                        

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At the corner of 4^th and East, near St. Joseph’s Catholic Church the same type of redevelopment also occurred. A double corner lot with one house was replaced by four houses. But here the story is best told when it highlights the career of a York builder whose work can be seen all over York. That man is Ora Clark.

 

The home at 408 East Avenue was in decline by 1919. The house had sold for $3,900 in 1889, but by 1919 sold for just $1,800 when purchased by Ora Clark. The house was razed and eventually replaced by four new houses. The first house built was a bungalow on the corner and numbered 403 East Avenue. That house was purchased from Ora Clark in March of 1921. It was followed by the construction of two smaller bungalows built on the adjacent lot. Those houses sold in 1923 and 1924 and were numbered 409 and 413 East Avenue. Eventually a one and a half storey house was built facing 4^th Street and numbered 517 4^th Street. The bungalows represent some of Ora Clark’s earliest work in York.

 

Ora Clark was the son of a contractor working in the Taylor and Burwell, Nebraska area. At the age of eighteen he began working for his father. Ora relocated to York in 1918. With that he continued to build on a career that lasted 65 years.   Mr. Clark went from redeveloping a corner lot in 1919 to platting new subdivisions during the post-World War II building boom.

 

Ora Clark as a Young Man

 

A 1951 York Daily News-Times profile said that “a Sunday afternoon drive around the city of York is like flipping through an itemized account of [Ora’s] major undertakings.” At that time he had already built 125 homes in York. That number continued to grow over the next fourteen years, with his Arbor Heights, Arbor Court and Country Club Heights developments.

If you live in a 20’s bungalow, a 30’s Tudor or a midcentury modern, a “Sunday afternoon drive” probably won’t be necessary. A check of your abstract will very likely reveal that you are living in an Ora Clark home. The early deeds will also carry the name of his wife Nolah. Those deeds provide a form of the immortality that C.H. Gere said fuel the dreams of pioneer town builders.

 

Ora and Nolah Clark

 

The use of double corner lots by more than one redeveloper probably had to do with access to existing infrastructure. That is illustrated by a caveat included in selling the Victorian cottage which once dominate the northwest corner of 6^th and Iowa. The legal record stated “this deed is made subject to sanitary sewer right of way as now located.” One would think that being moved from the front and center location of a corner lot to the back yard that once housed the privy would be insult enough.