AMemories
are the worn and fingered coins with which we strive
to buy back the joys of yesteryear@
The house was built around 1907 by
E.L. Carpenter, the General Manager of Dawson, Colfax County, New Mexico. He
purchased the land from the Alamogordo Improvement Company. According to local
folklore, Mr. Carpenter=s
wife died before he could finish building the house. He then sold it to Mr.
and Mrs. C.E. Mitchell.
The Mitchells lived in this home for quite
some time. Mr. Mitchell was
president of a local bank and owned the home until 1944. During the
Depression, the bank went broke. Mr.
Mitchell, a man of high integrity, paid
back the depositors with his own money. This took his entire savings, and they
became impoverished like most people were during these hard times. He died
later still in poverty. Mrs. Mitchell lost the home because of back taxes and
worked diligently to regain her property.
From 1944 until 1976, the home was
owned by the daughters of Oliver Lee. It was originally purchased by Mona Lee
Lake, who in turn sold it to her sister, Alma Lee Stevens, who lived here from
1953 until 1976 with her husband Robert.
I once heard of a humorous experience
with Alma Lee Stevens. A neighbor of theirs at the time
received an emergency phone call from her one day. It seems her glass
eye had fallen out and rolled down the sink drain! The neighbor was kind
enough to grab his plumbing tools and come to the rescue. All was found, and
put back in place.
There have been nine additional owners
since the Aeye
incident@
with Ms. Coble being the present owner.
Many of the original architectural features
are still in place in the house. A unique fireplace comes from the
Netherlands. The image of a Dutch boy and girl are painted on the side panels,
another macabre carved face is at the center top.
One of Alamogordo=s
experts in antiquities inspected the carved face. He said
it was carved by the people of one of the many Shetland Islands. The
unique quality about their carvings is that they have inbred for many
generations and developed distorted facial features, just as the carving
depicts.
The wainscot in the dining room and on the
staircase are all made from Brazilian Oak, as are the solid wood floors.
Notice the ceiling in the dining room, the northwest corner of the ground
floor. It has a cross-hatched beamed ceiling, exactly like the ceiling in the
famous painting of the Lord=s
Last Supper. The globes on the light fixtures are all from the original gas
lights. There is a small shed in the backyard along the south property line,
consisting of two tiny rooms. This is the little home provided for the maid in
the early days of the occupancy of the home. There used to be an ice
requirement sign hanging from the maid=s
home. It was originally used by placing it in the front door window to inform
the ice man how many pounds of ice were needed that day for the ice box.
The beautiful iron fence in the front was
actually rented by Disney Productions to be used in the Disney movie AScandalous
John@.
The movie was filmed at the old Oliver Lee place in Dog Canyon. Disney paid
Bob and Alma Stevens $100.00 to rent the fence, removed it, took it to Dog
Canyon, placed it around a small cemetery, filmed a 12 second sequence, dug it
back up, relocated it to 1223 New York and set it on a permanent concrete
base. It seems a lot of trouble, but adds to a fun history to read about.
Several different types of business have
been housed here in the past few years. Everything from a beauty salon to
antique shops. Presently it is Memories=s
a perfect name for a perfect place.
So come in! Relax! Enjoy Good Food, Good Friends, and make
ASweet Memories@!