House History

We are the home's third owners. It was owned by the Smith family and was sold to us by their children when their father, Maurice Smith, passed on at the age of 96. He died in our house, as did the other former owner George Remington.

We found out about the first owners, George and his wife Maude, by looking up records in the library. Once we found out their names we were also able to track down both of their obituaries. Georges’ obituary says that he died in the family home of a sudden heart attack on May 25th, 1931 and even lists our address as being THAT home. Spooky! His wife Maude died about 10 years after that. We are not sure if she died in our house or not, but all those who did seem to be peacefully at rest because as far as we can tell we don’t have any ghosts.

George was born in 1856 in Massachusetts, but settled in Nebraska where he was active in the Masons and served as master in “The Blue Lodge” They came to California in 1920 from Nebraska presumably to retire.

Maude is described as being very active in the Methodist church and she served as president of the W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Society) and was a president for seven years of “The Order of the Eastern Star.”

When we first found out about the Mason connection we were amused because we had previously placed a Mason ashtray with the Eastern star symbol on it on the front porch. We found it at a yard sale and thought it looked neat. Serendipity? But then again, I doubt that Maude would of have approved of smoking.