The Lesher House

This house stood at 903 West Second Street, at the southwest corner of Second and Clark Street. The house appears to be a one-story house, but there was an upstairs bedroom nestled under the roof at the rear. Note the Victorian touch of the cupola projecting from the roof over the front entrance. The cupola has a crest of decorative cast iron. This cupola was not just for decoration. It was part of a primitive air conditioning system. The shutters on the sides of the cupola are vented, and there's a small scuttle in the ceiling under the cupola, just inside the front door. When the back door of the house was opened, fresh air entered and circulated throughout the house. The rising hot air of the interior, traveling through door transoms, was forced up through the scuttle, when open, and out through the vented cupola.
Another interesting feature of the house is a dumbwaiter, located inside the wall separating the dining room and kitchen. It was once used to raise or lower perishable foods, such as milk, butter and eggs, into a cool, cellar.
Now referred to as the Lesher House, this structure was originally built for Francis Wolfe "Frank" Talmadge and his wife, Armida Jane "Jennie" (nee Alvord). The house was constructed in 1883. Frank Talmadge was a carpenter and building contractor in Grand Island, therefore it is probable that he was highly involved in the construction of his home. By July of 1887, Talmadge was already adding on to his home, expanding to the east, as reported in the Grand Island Independent. This may have been required due to the arrival of a son, Byron Alvord Talmadge in 1886. By the beginning of 1889, the Talmadges had sold their home to Derinda Chapman, and had moved to Seattle, Washington, where he continued his work as a contractor.
Derinda Chapman lived in the house for a short time, and her heirs sold the house in July of 1905 to James B. Lesher for $3200 (an equivalent to $57,500 in 1999 dollars). Indeed, the house would be associated with the Lesher family for almost 60 years. According to a daughter, Rosa, her father bought the house because he liked its fancy woodwork. Lesher and his wife, Hattie, were natives of Pennsylvania who moved west in 1887 and settled in Hall County, where he became a farmer, and a major shipper of cattle and hogs. By 1900, Lesher had more than 500 acres of Hall County land, the largest chunk south of the village of Abbott in the southwest corner of Prairie Creek Township (north west Hall County). Lesher also developed extensive land holdings in Colorado and Washington.
Lesher (1853-1939) became a stockholder and director of the Commercial State Bank, a director of the YMCA, and a trustee of old Grand Island Baptist College. In addition to Rosa, the other Lesher children were Gertrude, Carl A., and Pearl, who lived only one year. Rosa, known as Rosie, became the wife of the late Elias F. Starr, prominent Grand Island school administrator. An elementary school is today named in honor of Starr, principal of Barr Junior High, 1925-1947. The Starrs were married in 1907 at the Lesher House, and made their home with her parents for about one year. The son, Carl, a World War I aviator, farmed in Colorado on land that his father had obtained. Gertrude, a nurse, came into possession of the house after her father, following the death in 1921 of Hattie, remarried, and established residence on North Lafayette Avenue. Gertrude, who died in 1970, retained the house and used it as a rental or for storage while living in another house just a couple doors down. On the 29th of October, 1968 the house and property were deeded by Gertrude to Edgar Reynolds for the sum of $1, who in turn deeded it to Graf Motors, who planned to construct a new business on that corner. The house was donated and moved to the museum in 1962 by Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Graf. The house was actually moved twice - first to the original site of the museum on the corner of Stuhr Road and Seedling Mile Road, east of Grand Island, then finally to its present site on the museum grounds.

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