Chapter 28
216 SOUTH ELEVENTH STREET
On March 29, 1956, one month after moving in at
Oak Street, on March 29th, 1956, we bought a large lot on South Eleventh from
Milo Zimmerman. It is across an alley north of his large home. I Immediately began a larger home for us.
My sister Mabel, after
moving into the house I had built for her on New Street, had married a man from
Indiana; Mr. Emanuel G. Marner. He had enlarged her house, but some time before we
moved to 216 South Eleventh on October 2nd, 1956, they decided to buy the house we were vacating on Oak St. I had been advertising it. They sold their house on New
Street. We were out in time for them to
give possession to their buyer. Some years later, Mabel and Emanuel sold that house to Bishop Amos S. Horst.
216 S. 11th St., Akron, PA
At the beginning of the year
of 1957 I bought a two-and-one-half acre lot, with only about a sixty-foot
frontage, on the north side of Main Street. It is at the junction of Main and
Diamond Streets; just across Main Street from where I started school in the
East Akron School building. I planned to put in a cul-de-sac street and divide
it into five or six lots.
I had first taken an option
on the lot while I cleared my development plans with Borough Council. After I had
approval and had bought the lot, the neighbor just west, who had an old barn on
a long wedge of land with a lot of frontage, proposed a swap of that triangle
for some of my lot to the rear of his house. The swap would give me more
frontage on Main Street and also nicely square out his property. After a
survey, we made the swap with the added frontage, I had room for one lot
fronting on Main Street, east of the proposed street.
I built a house on this lot
while the rest of the plot was divided into five other lots and while the water
main and the cul-de-sac were put in. I sold this house to Clair Hurst on August
6th, 1957. The two lots at the rear of the plot and fronting on the circle, I
sold to Robert W. Miller and J. H. Purvis on August 15th, 1957. That left me
with three lots to build on. Through the next one and one half years I put
houses on them and sold them in this order; To Earl R. Hurst on March 4th,
1958; to Ivan H. Horning on July 29th, 1958 and to James A. Stoner on March
27th, 1959.
I named the street Circle
Drive. The project was profitable but it gave me a lot of headaches. A new
borough administration tried to change the rules in the middle of the game.
They tried to make me install an underground storm sewer and curbs along the
new street. After a year of anxiety, I received a letter from my attorney, John
L. Hammaker, that the Borough ruled that they would accept my deed of
dedication for the street as first agreed to.
In April of 1959, after all
the houses on Circle Drive wore sold and while we were still living on South
Eleventh Street, I began looking around town for another lot for a
"spec" house. I could find nothing suitable, but found a lot in
Brownstown. Halfway up the hill on West Main Street, between the square and
what was Route 222, I bought a lot from Mark Buffenmyer and his father. There I
started a brick split-level house for speculation. When it was nearly finished
I advertised it. Instead of selling at Brownstown, we sold our
"permanent" house on South Eleventh Street to A. E. Hess for his
son-in-law, Wilmer Hall. We sold on August 18th, 1959 and moved to Brownstown
on October 1, 1959. That new NEST was in another "chicken house."
The house at 216 South
Eleventh was a nice large ranch house with a garage attached by a breezeway. We had
one and one-half baths and a large rear lawn. When we moved in, we installed a
new washer and dryer.
At this place we had a
number of cats. One kitty had the peculiar habit of sucking the ear lobe of
anyone who held it. Donald M. Sensenig was greatly amused by that cat.
Ron Eisenberg who was a
little younger than Johnnie, and who lived across the street, would come
running through our front door and without stopping, out the rear door calling
to Ada, "Where's Johnnie?" He could see John in the rear lawn and it
would have been easier to circle the house. That always amused Ada.
One summer John had the job
of mowing Elmer Weaver's lawn. He was using our mower and one day he hit a
hidden steel survey pin, bending the shaft of the mower. After that I required
that John use Elmer's mower. Repairing our mower cost more than Johnnie earned
all summer.
One day Ada saw, through her
sink window, an old man lying on the alley next to our rear lawn beside a
fallen bicycle. She went out to see if he needed help. She found him crawling
out of his pants. His cuff had caught in the sprocket wheel ant he couldn't
reach it. He said that he didn't need help and she retired quickly.
I also remember of standing,
one terribly cold winter night, in the rear lawn watching for Russia's first
"Sputnik". After an hour and a-half I saw it, What a thrill that was
for an old "physicist.”
One summer we held a Landis
family reunion in our basement; i.e., the descendants of my Grandfather Elam R.
Landis. There were many families present. Later, we also had a
"come-as-you-are" party for a small group of our friends.
On March 8th, 1958, when I
had already sold the second house on Circle Drive to Earl Hurst and had only a
few days more work on it, I fell on the job and broke my left wrist. I hired
Eugene Landis, for a few days to finish the job. After the cast came off I
started the next house on Circle Drive.
While still wearing my cast,
we had on March 21st, the first day of spring, a most peculiar snowstorm; a
heavy wet twelve inch-deep snow without any wind. The temperature was an even
32 degrees and snow piled on some wires and cables to the height of six inches.
Many wires were down all over the county. We were out of electricity for
thirty-six hours. Some rural people had no current for a week or more.
For Christmas of 1956, I
bought for Ada a Boston Rocker. She used it to the end.
On October 30th, 1958 I
traded our ‘55 sedan for a 1958 Chevrolet Station Wagon. Then I began buying
much of the material I used for building from Wickes, and hauled it myself in
that wagon.
Our first grandbaby; Ellen
Sue (Jay and Mary's daughter) was born on December 4th, 1956.
Arvilla married
"Red" Langsdale of Pittsburgh on March 2, 1958. Their daughter Rae
Elizabeth (our second grand-child) was born December 23rd, 1958 at the Ephrata
Hospital. Arvilla had come to our home for the delivery. Red arrived too before
the baby was born.