BY TERI FINNEMAN AND DEAN LAHTI
Stephanie Jones would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about that old yellow house.
The one some referred to as spooky. The one some thought was haunted.
But she couldn’t get it out of her mind. So in 2016, she and her husband Nolan bought that charming historic house at 545 W. 20th St. when they moved to Eudora.
This summer, they officially added their home – known as the John Brender House – to the Register of Historic Kansas Places, the state’s official list of properties deemed significant in the state’s past.
“It was important to me because of just everything that this man John Brender went through to get to Eudora, and I wanted to honor that so much,” Stephanie Jones said.
Jones, who is active with the Eudora Area Historical Society and is also working to restore and preserve the city’s Southwest Cemetery, first fell in love with the home’s 19th century architecture.
“This is such a rare piece of architecture for farmland in Kansas,” she said. “It’s like a little mini castle in the middle of the prairie surrounded by farmland.”
She’s now become fascinated with solving the mysteries of finding out more about John Brender and the history of the house and property.
At 14, Brender apprenticed as a blacksmith in Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1851 when he was 21, eventually making stops in New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois before settling in Eudora in 1857, according to eudorakshistory.com.
He worked as a blacksmith in Eudora and settled into his new life in the United States, but his love for his home country is evident in the European architecture of the home, Jones said. She remains amazed at the amount of labor required to build the house at the time with its hand chiseled markings and limestone.
“I just think what an amazing man,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure that I respected John Brender and what he went through to build this home and make a new life for himself in this country.”
Ben Terwilliger, executive director of the Eudora Community Museum, said the Brender House is one of the most impressive homes in the town. When he started his position in 2011, only the Pilla House at 614 Elm St. was included on the state and national registers of historic places.
“One of my first priorities upon starting my job was to promote the benefits of the state/national register, and to encourage people to get their properties listed on the registers,” Terwilliger said.
There are now five Eudora properties on the state register and two on the National Register of Historic Places, he said. Besides the Pilla and Brender houses, the others on the state register are the B'nai Israel Jewish Cemetery, the former Eudora State Bank building at 707 Main St. and the Eudora Community Museum at 720 Main St.
The Pilla House and B'nai Israel Jewish Cemetery are on the national register, Terwilliger said.
Jamee Fiore, the national register coordinator at the Kansas Historical Society, said the registration process is extensive for a home’s addition to the register. The place must be associated with significant historical events, individuals and/or yield important historical information.
Stephanie Jones said she and her husband are working to get the Brender House on the national register, as well, so they continue to research the history of Brender, the home and the property.
This isn’t always easy, Nolan Jones said, since many Eudora records involving Brender are written in German. Besides knowing he was a blacksmith, Stephanie Jones said they know he was a wagon maker and sold farm tools and “was definitely someone that helped establish Eudora.”
“It’s been a fun thing to research, challenging at times,” she said. “You hit so many just brick walls.”
The couple often discovers new historical finds just walking along their property, such as the foundation for a blacksmith shop, rusty farm tools and unique rocks.
As for the home itself, Nolan Jones said there are many projects required to maintain it. This includes fixing a sinking living room floor and digging trenches to prevent water damage on the property. Now that their home is on the state register, the couple qualifies for tax credits to help with rehabilitation of historic properties.
“It’s a very lovely home and one that is very cherished,” Nolan Jones said. “We want to make sure that it’s around 100 years from now in much the same condition.”
Stephanie Jones said she knows there is public curiosity about the house, and they are open to working with organizations to host events.
“I would love to be able to open it up to other people,” she said. “I know this is a mystery house to a lot of people who’ve grown up in the area. They’ve always wondered.”
So is it haunted? Jones said she hasn’t seen any ghosts, but there have been times she’s gone into the laundry room and noticed a scent of old perfume. She’s not too worried about possible spirits, however.
“I think they know how much we love the property, and we’re respecting it so much,” she said.
Reach editor Teri Finneman at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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