By Laurie Bryant
My double-brick Craftsman style house was built about 1924, on Salt Lake City’s east bench. The first owners, Edward and Gertrude Berg, paid $6000 for it. In 1930, another house on the block was owned by a grandson of Ebenezer Beesley, the composer of many hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Before I bought this house in 2000, it had been owned by only two families (I checked the old city directories and census records) and was passed down from one generation to the next. The second owners were Herbert and Margaret Stockman, although by 1940 they were divorced and Margaret, a musician in the symphony orchestra, was renting from Herbert. Census records show that somehow, Margaret, her two little girls, a servant, a lodger, and his wife were all living in this 3-bedroom house!
The fun thing about this house? I keep finding toys in the backyard. Maybe this was a popular place to play. The yard was pretty bare when I bought the house, so I started planting trees, shrubs, and bulbs right away. As I dug into the ground, I found rocks, of course, but also, to my surprise, toys! Old toys! One of the first was a broken pencil sharpener in the shape of a steam locomotive. And then marbles – lots of marbles. Some were made of clay and are probably quite old. Others were glass – like the ones I played with when I was a little girl 70 years ago! Buttons, too. And coins – I’ve found two coins over the years, my favorite is a 1926 Lincoln penny. Best of all, one of the Stockman boys came to visit his old house, about 2005. So I knew that the Cub Scout ring I dug up soon after that must be his. And sure enough, it was! I mailed it to his home in upstate New York – he was thrilled to get it back.
Although I didn’t mark the exact locations of each find, most of them came from along the south property line. They make me think of playing outdoors with my sister and our friends, although in the 1950’s our toys were things like tea sets, tiny dolls, and little stuffed animals. I keep the finds from this house in a jar with my address on it, in my library with my many books.
And me? I’m too fond of my “stuff” to leave it behind! I even run a big magnet over the ground when I’m finished with a project. Surprising how many nails, screws and other stuff I’ve dropped!
It is a reminder to me that so many people have come before us, and even in the smallest thing or toy, their story lives on and has more meaning if it connects to a specific place, archaeologists call that provenience or context.