Entrepreneurs of 19th century Pinckney residence captivated to its character, heritage | Information, Athletics, Careers

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picture by: Mike Yoder

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The residence of Mark Stotler and Carl Edwards, at 504 Louisiana, was constructed in 1869. The unique home is in brick.

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Even though Carl Edwards experienced normally admired the residence he and his husband now have, he did not like the way its then-green paint concealed the building amongst the trees in the entrance yard.

“The house just sunk back again into the darkness,” he reported. But now, the brick house with its blue paint, pink shutters and wood porch chairs has a vivid, welcoming come to feel in the historic Pinckney Community.

Edwards and his spouse, Mark Stotler, have owned 504 Louisiana since 2005, and in addition to switching the exterior paint, the couple have also renovated the bogs, refinished the initial wood floors upstairs and up to date the interior wall paint, among other positions.

“Old houses are not meant for every person,” Stotler said. “You have to really like them, and you know that you are like a caretaker of that household for a particular amount of yrs, nonetheless lengthy you stay in it.”

photograph by: Mike Yoder

In a former dining space, the entrepreneurs have a 1946 Moeller dwelling organ. They were being inventory versions for use in homes, college or university observe rooms, and compact churches. It has a few sets (ranks) of pipes — 195 pipes whole. Stotler, seated at organ, is the assistant organist at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas Metropolis, Mo. Edwards, at proper, is an lawyer for the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals.

The 1869 People Victorian home originally had two rooms downstairs and a few bedrooms upstairs. A brick addition was later on additional, as perfectly as wooden additions to the east and north sides of the residence — in the 1920s or 1930s, Stotler and Edwards imagine. The few listened to extra about the picket additions when Jean Murray-Jones, a previous resident of the home, arrived back again to pay a visit to someday between 2008 and 2010 for a large faculty reunion. Murray-Jones’ father, Joseph Murray, was controlling editor of the Journal-Earth in the 1920s, according to historic district information and facts from the Town of Lawrence.

“When Jean arrived to stop by, what did she convey to you, Carl?” Stotler requested Edwards while standing in the sleeping porch on the second floor.

“Well, she said ‘I slept in this article, my brother slept there,’” Edwards remembered. The sleeping porch, which has windows on three sides and now serves as Edwards’ workplace, after delivered a cooler reprieve from hotter areas of the residence on summer months evenings. The sleeping porch is component of the wood additions, as properly as a kitchen area, examine and an upstairs bed room.

The entrance of 504 Louisiana opens to the stairway and residing area, which, like a lot of the rest of the household, Stotler and Edwards have decorated with artwork by Kansas artists, spiritual artwork and framed photographs of their ancestors.

photograph by: Mike Yoder

South and west struggling with windows enable in loads of light in the dwelling area. When Stotler and Edwards acquired the house they added new storm home windows as double panes over the unique home windows.

Powering the residing place on the very first floor is the couple’s former eating space, which considering that 2011 has served as Stotler’s organ place. A 1946 Moeller dwelling organ stands in one corner of the area and, throughout from it, a inexperienced china cupboard that holds parts passed down from Stotler’s and Edwards’ people. Stotler is the assistant organist at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, Mo. Edwards is an attorney for the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals, and will develop into a deacon in the Episcopal church this spring or summer time, “God keen,” he said.

picture by: Mike Yoder

Found in the exact place as the organ is a china cabinet with items handed down from both equally Stotler and Edwards’s family members.

Off the organ space is a tiny examine with a piano. Stotler uses this place as an office. It’s his preferred area in the dwelling, he explained, since he likes the cozy space and its historical past. The space applied to serve as Murray’s business office.

“I like this due to the fact I’ve sat in this article and — I’m a KU graduate — published numerous papers in this room,” Stotler said. “And also, Jean, the woman who died, she played the piano. And so it is like you just form of believe about the traditions and that form of things.”

Stotler keeps the obituary of Murray-Jones, who frequented them over 10 a long time ago and died in March of 2020, in a journal in his office.

picture by: Mike Yoder

Throughout the pandemic yr, Stotler loved paying out time in a modest research in the household with a at ease chair, a piano and north facing window light.

A steep and slim stairwell prospects to the next flooring, which consists of a spare bedroom, Stotler and Edwards’ bedroom, a bathroom, a den and the sleeping porch. Edwards remembered that to get their bed’s headboard into the 2nd floor, they experienced to choose the second floor bathroom window out to convey it in, since it wouldn’t match up the stairs.

photograph by: Mike Yoder

A smaller, brightly lit spare bed room is found on the second-flooring.

Outside, the pair have a massive front porch with 3 wood rocking chairs. Edwards said they are living on their front porch all summer, as their neighbors do on theirs. Each Stotler and Edwards appreciate the friendliness of the Pinckney Community, as nicely as its proximity to downtown Lawrence.

photograph by: Mike Yoder

A large front porch delivers views to the south and west, in the Pinckney community.

Edwards and Stotler satisfied in an on the web chat place in the early 2000s. Stotler was dwelling in West Virginia at the time. After getting married, the couple decided to stay in Lawrence, in which Edwards experienced lived considering the fact that 1982.

“I favored Lawrence because there were being some hills below, and it form of reminded me of again property,” Stotler reported.

Edwards reported he was drawn to the character of the property, its size and reasonable rate. Stotler explained that he has often been fascinated in houses and record given that his childhood and that this was his 1st time possessing a historic house.

The few hired Dennis Brown, president of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, for the portray do the job and other house improvements. When achieved by cellphone Friday morning, Brown reported the couple’s love of the house was obvious.

“They’ve definitely been very good caretakers of that dwelling,” he said. “I consider it is since they adore it so significantly.”

photograph by: Mike Yoder

A photograph of Edwards’s wonderful-grandfather hangs over the steep and slender set of stairs leading from the entrance doorway to the 2nd ground.

image by: Mike Yoder

When Edwards and Stotler bought the household, they taken off all second-floor carpeting and then restored the wood flooring found beneath.

picture by: Mike Yoder

Wooden window shutters accent the initial part of the 1869 residence. Edwards and Stotler stated they uncovered that the unique second ground window shutter configuration at the front of the household, with two window shutters open and a single closed, is deemed a “wink.” The closed shutter, at remaining, is outside a closet, exactly where no window is situated.