Corps of Discovery By Janet Clark
The first thing a visitor notices when approaching Patty Glisar's Sioux City home might be the profusion of blooming plants that surround the house all throughout the growing season. Or it might be the inviting wraparound porch where Glisar's friends and family like to gather and sit on the white wicker furniture, sipping wine or iced tea and visiting. It might even be the hitching posts in the front parking, original to this 1899 brick house. Less visible but noteworthy is just how solid this structure is.
"It's solid brick," Patty Glisar said. "The house is 12 inches thick. There's no insulation in the walls - it's just solid brick."
The house's sound craftsmanship pays tribute to its original owner, Julius Oversen. A bricklayer by trade, Oversen was part of the team of builders that constructed the Sergeant Floyd Monument. The monument was built to honor Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition that died during the expedition. Mainly because of the house's tie to the Sergeant Floyd Monument, Glisar was able to get her house on the National Register of Historic Places. Getting a structure on the National Register isn't easy, and once a house is registered, the homeowner is restricted as to what changes can be made to the structure. That doesn't bother Glisar, though.
"I like keeping the character and the history of the house," she said. "It's important to me."
The house is located in Morningside, which is the southeast section of Sioux City. While most of Sioux City's retail and residential growth is here in Morningside, this section of town also contains many older neighborhoods as well. Glisar and her family moved into their house 30 years ago. Previously they had lived in a ranch-style home, but she was intrigued by this graceful old structure. She's never regretted her decision, although it took a lot of elbow grease to get the house to its present state of simple beauty.
"Everything was wallpapered," Glisar said. Over the course of several years, she peeled off the old wallpaper and painted the walls white, a pleasant background for her antique wood furniture and many collections. The light fixtures, original to the house, had been painted, so Glisar stripped the paint, revealing the brass beneath, which Glisar polished and restored. The original light fixtures remain in the front entry, front and rear parlors, and upstairs. The kitchen had tile up the walls, metal cupboards and linoleum on the floor. When she tore up the linoleum floor, she discovered wood floors underneath, which were also painstakingly refinished. All the wiring had to be replaced. The kitchen remodel alone took two years to complete.
The result of all this hard work is a gracious, restful retreat. When guests enter the home, they pass through the house's original front door with its red transom still intact, and come into the hallway that leads to either the front parlor or the dining room. In the parlor is a cupboard with a display of antique cast iron toys, which Glisar discovered in the carriage house when they first moved in. Tractors, trains, planes, cars and trucks, well worn from years of play out in the elements, interspersed with old children's books that Glisar picked up on one of her many antiquing expeditions, fill the cupboard and bring to mind the many children who have played here over the years. Colorful quilts line the shelves of another display case; Glisar favors the old, hand-stitched variety over the newer machine-made models.
The front parlor leads into the rear parlor, less formal, but equally cozy, with a fireplace which was not original to the house, but since it's built of brick, it fits nicely with the house's character. The two story bay window graces this room as well as Glisar's bedroom. From the rear parlor, it's just a few steps to the dining room, where a blue quilt covers the old table. In the corner cupboard are Glisar's first set of dishes, a blue willow pattern that compliment the table covering. She displays her granite ware in a stepback cupboard which she stripped and restored. And yet another cupboard harbors Glisar's milk glass collection, made at the Sioux City Crockery Co., which was a fixture of downtown Sioux City for many years. Glisar and her sister exchanged pieces from the crockery's West Moreland collection as Christmas gifts when they were young marrieds, and Glisar became the sole proprietor of the collection when her sister decided to downsize and sold Glisar her set.
The dining room opens into the carefully restored kitchen, which includes the original pantry with its floor-to-ceiling cabinet and tilt-out flour bins. Glisar enjoys baking cookies there: since she is now alone, she prepares the cookie dough and wraps in into sections just big enough to make about a dozen cookies at a time. In the kitchen is an old pie safe with tin sides which Glisar uses to display her ironstone.
The sun porch, just off the kitchen, is not original to the house, but was added on a long time ago, Glisar said. It's one of her favorite rooms. Decorated in a restful blue and white color scheme, Glisar likes to sit on the wicker couch when the afternoon sun streams through the windows, reading one of her many gardening books or cookbooks. Atop of an old icebox sits a collection of Edgeworth tobacco tins, all in a pretty shade of blue. Old postcards, also found in the carriage house, hang in a rack on the wall. One of the postcards shows a picture of Mount Rushmore with only one president, George Washington, carved into the mountainside. The cards required one penny for postage.
Off the kitchen on the other side is the back entry, where Glisar ripped out the tiles and found the original wood flooring beneath. Next to the back entry is the laundry room, which serves both as a work room and a perfect spot to show off her collection of antique washing memorabilia, reminders of the day when washday meant hard manual labor: washboards, rug beaters, stretchers to shape stockings back into their proper fit, and old irons, as well as fun stuff: old P&G soap containers, antique soap savers, and drying racks where Glisar displays her old linens.
The back stairway, another one of Glisar's favorite features, leads to the upstairs hallway, where an original wall light fixture illuminates the way. Two of the bedroom doors have the original transom windows. And, in the spacious bathroom is the original claw foot tub.
As Glisar said, staying true to the house's character and history is important to her. Getting her house listed on the National Register was a long, grueling process, greatly facilitated by Glenda Castleberry, who works for the Sioux City Economic Development Corporation and serves as chairperson of SiouxLandmark, known as "Siouxland's only historic preservation non-profit." When Castleberry and Glisar sought to get the house on the Register, Castleberry noted the home's style: brick Italianate. Italianate homes are characterized by tall, arched windows and a low-pitched roof with decorative brackets built to support the overhanging eaves.
"In Sioux City, brick Italianate houses are rare, so this one is important to Sioux City's overall historic portfolio," Castleberry said. In an article about the house which Castleberry wrote for the Sioux City Journal, she noted that "the wrap-around porch, while not typical of Italianate houses, is sometimes found on some of the more elaborate homes," adding that these Queen Anne style porches were very popular at the turn of the century when the house was built.
The main reason the house made it to the level of the National Register, however, was its tie to the Sergeant Floyd Monument.
"The largest challenge we had with this particular property was with tying it to a particular 'context,'" Castleberry said. "You may choose any context, but it must be the best in that context. The tie to the Sergeant Floyd Monument was an easier context because it was the only house tied to the Monument. The other contexts we tried were hard to do, such as 'best Italianate architectural style.' In order to be the best Italianate house, the State wanted us to survey all the others in Sioux City, which would have taken a lot of volunteer time. Once we made it through the State (Historical Society), we had no problems at all."
But it was a time-consuming process, three years from start to finish. Glisar gives the credit to Castleberry.
"She was so persistent in the process," Glisar said.
One of the most significant features of this house, Castleberry believes, is the fact that the carriage house is built with the lumber used to build the scaffolding of the Sergeant Floyd Monument. Also significant it the fact that very few changes have been made to the house or the lot it sits on.
"I gauge all historic houses this way: Could the original owner walk down that street today and recognize the house easily? In this case, he would!" Castleberry said.
From The Iowan, July/August 2008