​Looking Back: Davis Place, Lot 9

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 
Last week I told you Aunt Ellen (Snodgrass) lived in the house on Lot 9 in the Grain Valley addition known as Davis Place. There were 19 lots in the addition with houses along both sides of North Main Street, now Front Street and along the south side of Walnut Street from Capelle west to the edge of town. In those days, the “edge of town” was a mere 250 feet away. The entire addition was 250 feet (east to west)  and 670.5 feet (north to south; or Walnut to the railroad track).

By the later 1940s until the 1990s, Lot 9 was known as the Heidelberger Home. Hazel (Kiff) and Tom Heidelberger lived there for more than 50 years. The door on the left led into the kitchen where the cookie jar was always full when I would go there with my grandmother or my (real) Aunt Opal.  Tom’s mother lived across the street in the home August and Margaret (McAlexander) Heidelberger had owned since the early 1900s. Tom’s sister Ruth Brown lived in the house next door on Lot 10.

Aunt Hazel (Kiff) came to Grain Valley from California. She was raised by her aunt; yes Ella (Mrs. Ray Frantz) really was her aunt! Tom died in 1980. Their daughter, Florence Marlow, lived with her mother for a short time before “Aunt” Hazel died in 1992. 

Like Aunt Ellen, Aunt Hazel was my Sunday School teacher in the primary class; first, second and third grades. Like Ellen Snodgrass, she was very nurturing and kind. We all loved her. I recall that she always remembered us on our birthday with a small gift, like a handkerchief or hair barrettes. She made each of us feel special on our birthday.

I am very happy that the house on Lot 9 along with others along Front Street has been or is being renovated. Most of these houses were built around the turn of the last century (late 1890s to early 1900s) and it is wonderful that they are being restored - maybe for another 100 years!

The Heidelberger House. Front Street. Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society