“Fella” from Garner (sort of) interested in buying Early Mansion

During those times when the Planning and Zoning board have no business owners or private landowners to harass, it becomes social hour.

Basically, the facts of this conversation are:

1. There is a person from Garner who sits on the Terrace Hill Board that is interested in buying the Early Mansion.

2. Before doing so he wants to bring in his own contractors to look at the place.

3. The early Mansion was not designed by the same architect as Terrace hill and does not follow the same architectural pattern.

4. The interested party also would like a copy of the architectural plans and/or a picture of the north side of the building as he is concerned with the room over the kitchen.

The rest of the conversation reads like that script that is occasionally broken out for Chautauqua Days or specifically for the Tribute to Ron Nelson this summer.

The following is a transcript. In all cases where you see “…” it means that I replaced stammering to make it more readable. In all cases where you see “-“ it means the person was cut off either by someone else or themselves. “[UNINTELLIGIBLE] means that something was said, but the audio quality of the recording equipment was too low to be make out the words. All instances of ALL CAPS have been added by the editor to convey a physical action or to otherwise help clarify some piece of information.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
Katie Youberg : What’s happened with the Early Mansion
Shirley Phillips : …The fellow that came and looked at it is bringing back his own …contractors to look at it before he makes an offer, is what he told me, and he was looking for a set of floor plans, and he thought that we should have the original set of floor plans and I have no idea. I did find-
Sharon Mayo : Well, I don’t-
Shirley Phillips : [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Sharon Mayo : When we bought that, I don’t think that we had any.
Shirley Phillips : I don’t think anybody has them. He tried to tell me that is was not the architect that built Terrace Hill, and it was not, and it is not the same architecture as Terrace Hill and …he needed a set of the original architectural plans, and I went, [MAKES “DON’T KNOW” GESTURE WITH HANDS] I did find him an Early descendant and sent him her email and phone number and everything and said, “Here you go, try this.” So.
Steve Gerry : There was a set when my family was involved with it.
Shirley Phillips : Really?
Steve Gerry : When the [PRONOUNCED “SLOSHICS”] owned that.
Shirley Phillips : Really? So you have one.
Steve Gerry : Because my- No, because my grandmother was the administrator of that estate …and I remember there was a set of plans-
Katie Youberg : What was her name? Gerry?
Steve Gerry : Yes, uh-huh. May Gerry.
Shirley Phillips : So, what do you think ever happened to them?
Steve Gerry : [SHAKES HEAD] See, that would have went to the Carlsons after that.
Shirley Phillips : I wonder of the Carlsons have-
Sharon Mayo : Oh boy. Not many of those left, is there.
Shirley Phillips : John and Maryland right
Steve Gerry : John and Maryland that’s it. [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Barb Powell : What does he going to do with [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Shirley Phillips : It’s just extremely important to him to have the architectural plans and I’m like, I’m sorry, I can find a lot of things, but not that.
Sharon Mayo : Well, I suppose for the value of …that
Shirley Phillips : he …asked me if anybody had a picture of the mansion on the north side, and I said, “Not that I know of, why?” Well, he was concerned about the …room above the kitchen.
Sharon Mayo : Yep, yep
Barb Powell : It had been built on.
Shirley Phillips : I think it has been too.
Barb Powell : [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Shirley Phillips : I can’t imagine why anybody would take a picture of that, but there was a carriage house behind it at one time because I founda picture of a horse and carriage out in front of it and it showed the carriage house that sat-
Katie Youberg : In back?
Shirley Phillips : Yeah-
Steve Gerry : A person to talk to-
Sharon Mayo : What …could you get ahold of, what’s her name In Storm Lake? John, or uh-
Katie Youberg : Laura?
Sharon Mayo : Yeah, Laura.
Katie Youberg : Oh, that’s right, I forgot about her.
Sharon Mayo : Get a hold of Laura [SOUNDS LIKE “THIN”] and maybe she could guide you to the right place, anyway.
Steve Gerry : Steve Oliver has a lot of-
Katie Youberg : She’s Laura Peirce now?
Steve Gerry : … historic pictures of Sac City
Shirley Phillips : [TURNING TO Katie Youberg] …She’s married to Dr, Peirce, isn’t she?
Katie Youberg : Not Doctor, insurance person.
Shirley Phillips : Insurance, OK.
Steve Gerry : [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Sharon Mayo : I have pictures of it, but not close up, you know there of the whole town and it sticks up.
Katie Youberg : Tim, I think his name is.
Steve Gerry : Why don’t we check with Steve Oliver too.
Shirley Phillips : to see what …if he had the plans?
Steve Gerry : …I don’t think he has plans, but I bet you he has pictures.
Terry Duffy : He’s a real history buff.
ALL : [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Steve Gerry : Yeah, I’ll talk to him.
Katie Youberg : Well Bruce Perry is too.
Steve Gerry : Yeah.
Katie Youberg : At least in post cards, but I don’t know
Shirley Phillips : Dale [EDITOR OF THE SAC SUN], could you put something in the paper? If anybody has, if anybody knows the whereabouts of any of the architectural plans for the Early Mansion, could you please- They could drop ‘em off at our office, I guess, it’s easy to get to and …we’ll make sure that the fella, well that the bank- that the rightful owners gets them anyway.
Sharon Mayo : [TURNING TO Steve Gerry] Can you ask [UNINTELLIGIBLE] if he can do it-
Steve Gerry : He can do it yeah, [LAUGHS] he would.
Shirley Phillips : OK I’ll see if I can call Laura I didn’t think about that, cause I was thinking-
Sharon Mayo : Well-
Shirley Phillips : …about John and I-
Sharon Mayo : …she may tell you if she remembers anything about it, who might
Steve Gerry : I just know there was a set but-
Shirley Phillips : [SHAKING FINGER AT Steve Gerry] And that Marilyn married a guy that used to be my teachers, Bruce-
Sharon Mayo : [ASKING Steve Gerry] Bob Carlson had ‘em at one time you think?
Steve Gerry : I’m not gonna say that, I’m not gonna say that, but they were the next owners after the [PRONOUNCED “SLOSHICS”]
Shirley Phillips : [ASKING Steve Gerry] Can you go back in your family and see if anybody-
Shirley Phillips : I have nobody left
Shirley Phillips : Oh, you have nobody left to ask. That doesn’t help, does it.
Steve Gerry : No. [LAUGHS]
Shirley Phillips : Are you friends with anybody-
Katie Youberg : Is Marilyn the one that would come out in the summertime?
Shirley Phillips : Yeah, Yeah.
Katie Youberg : And work here?
Steve Gerry : Yes.
Sharon Mayo : uh-huh.
Shirley Phillips : and She used to be married to a guy that was a science teacher-
Katie Youberg : oh, really?
Shirley Phillips : Yeah, his name [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Sharon Mayo : [Shirley PhillipsSEAKING TO Chris Hammerschmidt] Are you getting all this Chris?. [Chris Hammerschmidt IS THE SECRETARY OF THE BOARD]
Shirley Phillips : Curtis! It was Curtis.
ALL : [LAUGH]
Chris Hammerschmidt : Gave up a long time ago. [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Shirley Phillips : It’s like the Big Tree Corner [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Sharon Mayo : yap, yap.
Shirley Phillips : We could, you know, Google it, them or something and see if we can find any of them, so. OK, …I don’t know who else to ask.
Chris Hammerschmidt : They don’t have to be on file at the courthouse anymore? I guess not, do they.
Shirley Phillips : hmm-mmm
Chris Hammerschmidt : No.
Sharon Mayo : No, not the plans.
Chris Hammerschmidt : Is it on the national … Register?
Steve Gerry : No, it’s not.
Shirley Phillips : We had the application, we gave him that, what Chris and [UNINTELLIGIBLE] put together for the application so we were able to provide him with that, but. And I went through our planning and preservation stuff-
Sharon Mayo : [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Steve Gerry and Shirley Phillips : Pierce
Shirley Phillips : Went through our planning for preservation brief that we had done by the Tall Grass Historians back in 1997 and there was no mention of plans there either so.
Steve Gerry : See this would have been in the very early 60’s
Shirley Phillips : OK. That was the first time that I’d heard that Judy, that anybody knew about ‘em so.
Sharon Mayo : As far as I know when we bought that place up there, there wasn’t any-
Steve Gerry : See when [PRONOUNCED “SLOSHICS”] you know, when they got that estate it was basically just, everything was gone. Everything.
Sharon Mayo : We did find a lot of-
Steve Gerry : Trash-
Sharon Mayo : We found a lot of stuff in the crawl space underneath the front entryway, but uh-
Shirley Phillips : Oh, there’s a crawl space there?
Sharon Mayo : Ya hmm. Yeah, we found some old spittoons
Shirley Phillips : Oh, if you go down in the basement-
Sharon Mayo : Yeah.
Steve Gerry : um-hmm
Shirley Phillips : back where Bob use to cut meat and-
Steve Gerry : Um-hmm
Sharon Mayo : Um hmm
Shirley Phillips : crawl, OK now I gotcha
Steve Gerry : Um-hmm
Shirley Phillips : Hope we didn’t date ourselves.
Sharon Mayo : We didn’t have to [UNINTELLIGIBLE] horses or carriages or anything
Steve Gerry : That use to be a pool room.
Shirley Phillips : Oh really? OK, but you don’t, there was nothing there, or there was who nobody would have. [ADDRESSING DALE WEGNER] But that’d be great if you put it in the paper maybe somebody will go [WHISTLES AND MIMES SNAPPING FINGERS] you know.
Steve Gerry : Yeah
Shirley Phillips : We don’t [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Sharon Mayo : [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Shirley Phillips : Well sometimes people have these-
Sharon Mayo : Yeah.
Shirley Phillips : things and they don’t remember, so we’ve checked with the museum-
Barb Powell : Put it on the website too.
Shirley Phillips : We could, yeah, down on the Sac City website.
Sharon Mayo : Yeah because somebody, can’t remember who got ahold of me from California I think it was that would write the book about Sac City and they wanted to know about the original bridge across the river which was south of where this bridge is now. Shirley Phillips : um-hmm
Terry Duffy : I remember a picture of that.
Sharon Mayo : Huh?
Terry Duffy : your neighbor has a picture of that.
Sharon Mayo : Well, and I think that was the second one even. The one that’s there now was the third or fourth bridge.
Terry Duffy : Third or fourth
Sharon Mayo : Yeah.
Terry Duffy : Larry [PRONOUNCED “ALBER”] has it.
Steve Gerry : Yeah, all kinds.
Sharon Mayo : Yeah.
Terry Duffy : Oh does he?
Steve Gerry : Yeah.
Terry Duffy : Yep, they’re on the wall in his living room. Lot of neat pictures.
Sharon Mayo : Anyway, it’s amazing who will contact ya.
Shirley Phillips : And we need a photo of the north side of the building, if anybody has that too.
Sharon Mayo and Steve Gerry :[LAUGH]
Shirley Phillips : [UNINTELLIGIBLE] is totally lost [UNINTELLIGIBLE] I’m not trying to put you on the spot, but you could write a whole story about this now, Dale.
Sharon Mayo : And sell it in the paper.
Shirley Phillips : and hunting, hunting, hunting for artifacts. OK. That’s all I know that’s happened on that so far so.
Katie Youberg : Well I’m glad something’s happening-
Shirley Phillips : well.
Katie Youberg : Hope we can save it.
Shirley Phillips : But, I hope so too that’d be great.
Chris Hammerschmidt : Where’s this guy from?
Shirley Phillips : I wish you didn’t ask me that-
Terry Duffy : Garner.
Shirley Phillips : Huh?
Terry Duffy : Garner.
Shirley Phillips : Garner, yep. …He’s an attorney, and he sits on this Terrace Hill Board, so he’s quite connected historically so.
Chris Hammerschmidt : Good.
Shirley Phillips : I have my notes someplace, he called me while I was in the vehicle, so I have notes somewhere. Anyway and …he had suggested and I hadn’t thought about this that …it was his suggestion that the Community Foundation somehow set some money aside for people to use to retain the historical integrity of some of these homes, and I wasn’t sure how he thought that was going to work but he said the next time he came he would explain it so.
Sharon Mayo : Boy, I hope he’s got his billfold-
Steve Gerry , Sharon Mayo and Katie Youberg: [LAUGHS]
Barb Powell : I certainly hope he’s got a lot of money.
Shirley Phillips : He knows it’s going to take a lot of money to fix it up, so. OK anything else?
Barb Powell : There is a lot of money out there [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
Sharon Mayo : You’re right.
Katie Youberg : Well you’d think so driving around this countryside.
Shirley Phillips : Yeah, you’d think there was.
END TRANSCRIPT