Monday, January 23, 2017

Home of Lee Ross Christensen and wife Eva Lenora Parke ~ Researched and Compiled by Tudy Barentsen Standlee ~ Comments by son (Lee R. Christensen)



KATHY:  We started construction on the house we latter called “the white house” mid Spring 1934 and hoped to be in by school starting time or mid-September.  Construction was delayed during the summer when our two carpenters, Charles Jacobsen and Ferry Peterson took time away from our job to help build the CCC camp.   The Wright family did the cement work. Oscar Amundsen and Charles Christensen (Minnie Rutishauser’s father) did the brick work and the Bohne’s the plumbing and electrical.   And we moved in just before Thanksgiving 1934.
   Our architect was a Mr. Young from Salt Lake City and rumored within the family as a major architect on a number of LDS temples.  He was unhappy with what he considered three major mistakes by our builders.  The outside brick wall was to have been constructed with “weeping mortar” giving it a very rough look. While the mortaring is thicker than usual it is not weeping.    The exterior 2nd floor walls went into the roof line by about 8 inches and had been curved up to meet the roof.  That curving was to have been carried out thru out the 2nd floor on the interior walls even though they did not need it to meet the roof. And the roof shingling was to have been given a wavy effect (I never knew how). 
   Our family lived here for 10 happy years with these artistic mistakes until we sold in 1945 to the incoming Superintend of Schools.     lee

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