Purchase Price $134,000
2 bed · 2 bath · 2,000 sqft
Contact: Lisa Rock at Re/Max Professionals
Call: (816) 262-8462
House History and Gallery
The J. Waldo Beach House at 1209 Sylvanie was built in about 1887 by Jesse Waldo Beach and his wife Hattie M. Beach. Jesse was a cashier at the Hansen Coal and Ice Company at the time the house was constructed. He later worked at National Creamery. Jesse was born in St. Charles, IL and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. It was after the war ended that he came to St. Joseph. In 1924 he died of heart disease at the house and is buried at Ashland Cemetery. Harriet was born in Wheaton, IL. She married Jesse in 1879 and the couple had no children. She was active in civic betterment causes in St. Joseph. After Jesse’s death, she remained in the house for about a year before she moved to Crystal Lake, IL where she died in 1928. It appears that building this substantial brick home was a bit of a financial stretch for the Beaches; they took in boarders to help cover costs. According to the 1900 census, Emily C. Sheldon – a 28-year-old New York born school teacher – was living in the home. A decade later, 30-year-old Rena M. Bretz, both boarded at the house and operated her dressmaking business out of the house.
After Hattie left St. Joseph, the house was rented by a series of relatively short-term tenants.
For about a year in 1928 it was occupied by Ada Dennis and her son Guy. It appears that Ada lived a difficult life; she divorced her husband Geary Dennis in 1910 stating that he was “an habitual drunkard and would not support her and the four children and that she had to work at the washtub to earn their way.” The City Directories show that she tended to change residences nearly every year after her divorce.
In 1930, local attorney Samuel S. Shull and his wife Iva rented the home. Like the Beaches, the Shulls took in boarders. According to the 1930 census Alan Bell (age 19) and Jefferson D. Caruthers (age 24), both office workers, were living with the Shulls.
Genevieve DeGroat and her young daughters Dorothy and Betty rented the home in 1934/35. Genevieve was a recent widow, her husband Fred had died the previous year. Fred died at age 42 in a Kansas City hospital of tuberculosis.
In the early 1940s, Arden and Loyal Newcom moved into the home when they left Cameron so that Arden could take a job as a salesman with the Samuel Richardson Co. Homer D. and Pearl Farmer lived in the home for two years between 1941 and 1943. Homer worked for the Heaton- BeGole & Bowman Funeral Home.
This charming residence is a contributing structure in the Museum Hill Historic District. This means that it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its structural integrity is safeguarded by the Landmark Commission of the City of St. Joseph.
