The women who toured Mrs. A. F. Ballah’s house in 1927 expected to see a home “designed to make housekeeping easier in this modern day.”
They were members of the Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs. According to a Norfolk Daily News article from the time, they and their counterparts around the state were on a campaign to “free the housewife and make her a homekeeper.” One would assume that meant they wanted to spend less time keeping house and more time with their family.
To that end, they surveyed local and area houses in search of the perfect homekeeper’s house.
No doubt, they were pleased with the Ballah house. After all, it was fitted with built-in vacuum system and a laundry chute that went from the second floor clear to the basement. It also had plenty of closets, a feature often omitted from home plans at the time.
It’s not known if Arthur Stubbs — who had the house built — asked architect James Stitt to include the amenities or if Stitt just assumed that Mrs. Stubbs would want the luxuries.
Either way, the house was — and still is — impressive.
SO IMPRESSIVE that it was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sponsored by the National Parks Service, the National Register is “the official list of the nation’s places that are worth preserving.”
But it takes more than a built-in vacuum system and a laundry shoot to make a building worth preserving.
“J.C. Still practiced in Norfolk for 60 years and was the city’s most prolific architect. He shaped the landscape of the city with many of its most important buildings, including business buildings, institutional buildings, churches, and public buildings. His design for the Ballah house is arguably his finest residential work in the city,” said Bob Puschendorf, preservation officer with the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln.
According to the National Register nomination, the stately brick, “Colonial Revival” structure “commands a prominent site” on the northwest corner of Prospect Avenue and 10th Street.
THE HOUSE is faced with brickwork in the Flemish bond pattern and trimmed in stone. Inside, it still has its original wood floors and trim. An open staircase is oriented to the west side of the first floor instead of in the center of the house. The main floor features a small study, living room, formal dining room, kitchen and sun room, which has a beamed ceiling. The kitchen has been updated, and a former back porch has been converted to an eating area.
Four bedrooms are located on the second floor, and the basement has been finished and is now a family room.
Arthur E. Stubbs, the original owner, established the A. E. Stubbs Land Company in 1900 in Tilden, and in 1901, he married Lu Ova Briggs. The couple moved to Norfolk in 1916, and in 1922 they moved to a ranch in Rock County. At that time, Stubbs sold the house to his sister and brother-in-law, Asa and Luella Ballah.
The Ballahs lived in a number of Nebraska towns before they settled in Norfolk. Here, Ballah operated a land company and sold insurance. He died in 1940, and his wife lived in the house until 1943.
Architect J.C. (James Carey) Stitt was born in 1866 in Medusa, N.Y., to Ransom and Elvira Stitt. He attended elementary and high school in New York and learned architecture by studying with his father and grandfathers, who were also architects and builders. Stitt arrived in Norfolk in 1889 intending to spend just a few days visiting his parents who had relocated here.
By then, Norfolk was a “boom town” and Stitt was persuaded to draw up plans for the Hillside Terrace development. One job led to another, and soon he gave up the notion of leaving Norfolk. That decision was also influenced by the fact that on Oct. 20, 1890, he married Cora May Holt, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Holt. The couple lived at 410 South Eighth Street for 56 years.
Through the years, Stitt designed many of Norfolk’s most notable buildings and houses, including St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, the original Norfolk Public Library, Sacred Heart Church, the Norfolk City Auditorium, the Rainbolt house at 1104 Koenigstein Avenue, the Verges house at 906 Prospect and many more.
HE WAS also active in military and civic life, including the Norfolk Home Guards and the U.S. Public Service Reserve. The couple had four children, Marian, James, Roger, Kathryn. Stitt died Jan.10, 1949.
The current owners of the home, Kyle and Jennifer Fuchtman, had their eye on the house since they moved to town in 2008.
“We’d drive by and say, ‘If that house is ever for sale, we’re going to buy it,’ ” said Kyle, who is with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Jennifer is the director of recruitment for the company.
The couple are drawn to the character and style of historic homes, they said, and appreciate the fact that the house still has the original French doors, fireplace, chandelier and woodwork.
“Grandest of the elements is the large fireplace in the sunroom,” Puschendorf said.
Another impressive feature is the open staircase leading to the second floor, where the four bedrooms are located. Stairs from that floor lead to the wide-open, unfinished attic, which the couple hope to turn into a master bedroom.
And although the kitchen has been updated, it still has “an old feel,” Jennifer said.
“We’re not missing anything,” Kyle added. He thought for a second before adding, “Well, maybe an attached garage.”
THE LOWER level offers the couple and their 4-year-old twin daughters — Haydin and Hadley — the typical family room, with comfortable seating, big-screen TV, and a pool table. The room where the pool table is located features another fireplace. This one has a bin that collects ashes that are pushed down through a chute from the fireplace on the main floor.
While some people might think older homes are inefficient, this one is just the opposite. The walls, Kyle said, are three-bricks thick, making them 12 to 18 inches deep.
Beyond painting the girls’ room, the couple have done little work on the house since moving there in August of 2012.
No doubt, the Stubbs, Ballahs and J.C. Stitt — as well as the members of the Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs — would bepleased that the house maintains its original glory.