The small hipped roof cottage to the rear of the lot predates the more elaborate brick residence that stands closest to the street. Built after 1891, the rear residence was home to carpenter Tolman Barnhart in 1898. Saloon keeper and Irish immigrant Stephen Parker lived in and owned the simple one-story house with his wife Annie by 1900. The Parkers, who lived here until 1906, may have constructed the larger, but still affordable brick-veneered residence that now dominates the lot. Built between 1900 and 1916, the home features a polygonal bay window and fish-scale shingles in the gable end. Both reflected the Queen Anne style’s influence. A wrought-iron fence separates the residence from the street, symbolically reflecting the notion that a dwelling should be a sanctuary from the larger world. In 1920, grocery manager Edwin Mitchell and his wife Mary rented the main house, while widow Elizabeth Lewis lived in the rear house with her two young grandchildren.
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