344 Main Street: The Edward Berry house
efore 1898 this lot was part of the one to the south. In that year Edward Berry bought part of Jeptha Potter's huge lot and built the house that stands here today.
In the hundred years or so since it was built, the house has lost some of its ornamentation, but its character with the unusual square tower persists.
The house originally had balustrades above the east (front) porch and over the bay window above it. The flat rooftop also had a matching balustrade, and the spaces between the posts at the corners of the tower. The enclosed porch on the west side is also a later addition.
As mentioned above, the lot was sold to Berry by Jeptha A. Potter. Potter had a barn and some sheds on this part of his lot, and he reserved the right to remove these, along with the foundations under them, which was perhaps unusual. He also retained the right to all the manure on the lot, so apparently he used it for pasture.
The Berrys lived in the house until the 1920s, when Edward Berry's widow Lena sold it to Jerome D. Rogers and his wife. Rogers was a partner in the Roenke & Rogers department store downtown on the east side of Main Street.
Plots
People related to this lot and structure:
Abraham Wagener
Related sites:
Related history:
Above right: 344 Main Street, a house built in 1898 on part of the land originally associated with 342 Main Street next door. The house was built in the prevailing Queen Anne style of the time, but with a square tower instead of the usual round one. When first built it had a balustrade across the porch and between the corners on the tower.
