Wayne Stennet Family Home

built 1869

Comments by

Mrs. Margaret  (Newell) Laire

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This photo is a blown-up copy and part of an article taken from, "A History Of The County Of Montgomery From The Earlier Days To 1906", by Merritt.

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"When the house was first built it had a flat roof of gravel and tar paper, which was reached through a large trap door.  When Wayne's boys, Frank and Wayne had other boys come to visit the boys considered it to be great sport to play on the roof.  The heavy iron dinner bell which was mounted on sturdy wooden framework near the back porch could be heard from miles calling in heavy melodic tones, for the men in the fields to come home for meals. A 50 foot rock-walled well was conveniently inside this porch. It was equipped with the then well known "oaken buckets" that came zooming up from the cool depths of the rock walled well.

   In 1928 a cyclonic wind blew the old bell to the ground.  It was later given to the Stennett Consolidated School.  The well beneath the porch went dry in the early 1920's and so was abandoned."

NOTE: 

Norman and Barbara Hansen owned the Stennett Rock House at the time the Atlantic Farm Monthly article was written.  In the second to last paragraph of the article (right) it tells about the roof of the house being flat when first built.  This verifies earlier writings about the house's flat roof.  Mrs. Barbara Hansen is the sister of Mrs. Margaret [Newell] Laire.  

Wayne Stennett Family Home, 1969

Atlantic Farm Monthly

November 22, 1969 Issue

Stennett's Limestone House is 100 Years Old

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  One of the most interesting  is a 100 year old limestone dwelling in the small community of  Stennett seven miles northeast of Red Oak.

   It has 12 large rooms, six upstairs and six downstairs and the basement walls are 18 inches thick, while the walls above ground are 12 inches thick.

   Mr. and Mrs. Norman E. Hansen owned the house and the adjoining 230-acre farmland for the last eight years. The house was built by Wayne Stennett whose father, Daniel, was the first settler in the township in 1853.

   The house builder was known as Uncle Wayne according to old records and for many years his name "W. Stennett" was inscribed in a glass pane above the front door of his home. The pane has since been replaced. 

School Property   

  Mrs. Hansen said an interesting bit of history connected with the property appears in their abstract. Mr. Stennett gave land for a schoolhouse, but provided that if any alcoholic beverages were sold on the property the land automatically reverted to the house property.

  The huge house was a showplace in its day, although a far cry from houses of today.  There are huge wooden beams above each outside doorway and window. The window sills are 12 inches deep.

   Mrs. Hansen says there are 23 windows and each window contains 12 panes of glass.

   "I hate window cleaning time," she laughed. "It takes me a whole week."

   The house has a rather interesting stairway leading from near the front door to the second floor.  The stairway is adjacent to a long hallway leading from the main entrance to the kitchen and dining room at the rear.

Painted Stairway    

   The stairway was painted white a number of years ago and Mrs. Hansen hopes to restore it to it's natural wood color some day.

   The only closet is located off the bathroom that connects to the main bedroom on the first floor.  The lack of closet space was a common thing in houses built at that time.  Mrs. Hansen says it should at least have two closets and more would be better.

   Most of the rooms are quite large.  The dining room has part of the wall covered with wood paneling, extending 30 inches above the floor.  The roof was formerly a flat design, but was formerly a flat design, but was later changed to gable construction.

   Part of a large cattle barn near the house and a smaller building in the house yard are also built of native limestone.