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Show ;.;6&TTEB!SZI!iLS jy. V-:: I ; I HISTORICAL .SOCIETY' j 'J"?w' viwwwwwwpww i tmmmmmmmmmmmmmimmm-1 wm . iiwwi i n imny inn Win ili ) ' 5 5 f ... jii --m. ; 1 i. i I u rr'1'riTir-i-Ttimiiinwinmuj nn iL , i J- - Ah r iU$ In1 " L - H ...... . . . . i ,. jtoiAs,--, , . wffrPiiiwijiMi ,-ii, .v. . . . . . , wsb ! i ! -in mwiMmtfiiwaiiiiiiWHrmMMbmwBiiwMiwiiiW j v inoii ittwi no; Bum Mini I wuiumu mi Cooms home built in 1875. By VES HARRISON Centerville took a historic step Tuesday night, Oct 17, when the city. council appointed a historic sites committee- This consists of Society President Clara Goudy, E Smith Randall, Paul TrSmith, Leon Olson and Bemie Messina, with Clifford Russell and Ronald Trump as alternates. One of the above will be named as chairman in the future. Lucille Smith Fletcher presented the history of her maternal grandparents, grand-parents, Samuel James and Ann Eliza Allen Coombs, early residents ofCenterville. . . Samuel was born in Rockyijle Kane County, Utah, Oct 19, 1863 to George and Harriet Durston Coombs, who had been called by Brigham Young to help colonize southern Utah. Ann Eliza was born in Salt Lake City Jan. 26, 1864 to , William ; Land Tuttle Allen and Mary Jane Snowball Allen, who were early converts to the LDS Church, and suffered their full share of hardships and tragedies that befell many pioneers. : Lucille's grandparents, Samuel and Ann Eliza, purchased a large rock home at what is now 252 North Nor-th 400 East, Centerville, shortly after their arrival here. This home was built by William Capener in 1 875, and is on the historic register. An interesting statement taken from this register, dated 1972, follows: I The William Capener house is significant as the most intact in-tact example of a group of .remaining .remain-ing stone vernacular residences built in Centerville, Utah between the 1850s and 1880s. Constructed by its owner, a builder, carpenter and cabinet-maker, the house was J - - owned by only two families during its first 107 years and is remarkably unaltered architecturally. ' ''Of the many rock houses once built in Centerville,: only a score : remain and nearly all of these have been significantly altered. The Capener House, however, retains its historic form, structure, plan, spaces and materials. Its room arrangement, arrange-ment, dimensions, windows and doors, walls and ceilings, floors, stairs, trim, mantles and hardware 2 remain largely as built. Because of . its integrity, it possesses the capacity capaci-ty to convey association with its historic occupants and their designs and lifestyles. These associations may brepresenlaaeoflhe broader" culture of mid-19th Centerville." Center-ville." Now, Lucille tells the family story as recorded in 1966 by herself ' and her late sister, Marian. GRANDMA AND GRANDPA COOMBS Grandma and Grandpa Coombs lived just three blocks north of our home. Close enough to run to in a few minutes and find a whole , different and wonderful world. The house was a two story rock structure, but Grandpa was a painter by trade so he covered the rocks with a beige stucco. There are five big rooms downstairs, across the front is the living room or front room, flanked by the north bedroom and the south room used as a dining room and later a bedroom. Across the back is the big kitchen which is truly a living room and the back room which doubles as summer kitchen, kit-chen, wash room and storage room. Between the ba6k rooms, a stairway stair-way goes upstairs to the one large colored glass wine or whiskey decanter in a wicker holder with the glasses hanging on it And on the kitchen mantle, precious rocks with silver and gold showing in them. Sometimes Grandpa showed us these stones and we could look through his magnifying glass which sat on the mantle too. The walls in the house are about 18 inches thick. These wide window sills made wonderful hot houses for plants, but when they weren't filled with plants, they made such good places to play. The rug in the front room was beige with big pink roses on it One of the prized possessions was the beautiful inlaid round table made by Grandma's father, William Land Nuttle Allen. He had also made the big high book case with glass doors above but closed below. This bookcase was a treasure chest in itself. It contained everything from bedroom and two attic rooms and a stairway down to the small dirt cellar where the many bottles of fruit and jars of preserves are stored away each summer to be enjoyed in the winter. There is a front porch and a south porch off the kitchen that is screened in, and always had a couch and a chair on it. This porch is where you could find Grandma and Grandpa sitting on a hot summer evening. Here you could hear the crickets, the toads croaking, croak-ing, see the fire flies and smell the scent of flowers. All of these five big rooms had something in common, a mantle piece. No fireplace but the mantle was necessary s to hold big clocks with their pendulums swinging back and forth. The quiet was deafening if one of the clocks stopped. On the mantles, besides the clocks, could be found family pictures, beautiful figurines, a children's books to early publications publica-tions of LDS Church books, a first edition of the Deseret News, early Relief Society magazines, and two big velvet covered picture albums that would lock. .. Also in the front room is the red velvet covered settee that opened out into a bed for us grandchildren when we were staying overnight. And on these nights when two or three of us would be staying, we would play the phonograph, and we would dance or march around the table, winding the machine before each record to keep it from running down. On special occasions when mother was there, we would all gather round the organ and sing. The organ was a beautiful high, carved piece that afforded more places for pictures and ornaments. The organ stool was covered with red velvet and could be whirled around to raise or lower it Grandma and Grandpa liked a rocking chair because there was always one in the kitchen and two or three in the front room. And there was one just right for little kids. Jack usually sat in this little rocker. He was a baseball player dressed in a blue uniform trimmed in red. He stood about three feet tall. Poor Jack had had his head-cracked head-cracked many a time, but grandpa did a wonderful job of plastering |