JACKSONVILLE — The owners of the Jeremiah Nunan House, also known as the "Catalog Home," are offering the landmark and its rich history to a new custodian for $2.7 million, they say.
"Hopefully the next person will live in it and care for it as much as we did," says owner Connie Seus.
The two-story Queen Anne at 635 Oregon St. was built in 1892 by Jeremiah Nunan. The wealthy Jacksonville merchant ordered the home as a Christmas gift for his wife, Delia. Created from a design in architect George F. Barber's Cottage Souvenir Catalog, the plan included 14 rooms. The house cost about $7,800 to build, says George Kramer, local historic preservation consultant.
"The materials were shipped from Knoxville, Tenn., in 14 railroad boxcars and assembled in a little less than six months," says Kramer. Connie and Bob Seus bought the house in 1988 after moving to the Rogue Valley from Southern California.
Living in the historic relic has meant making themselves — and their home — available in the pages of several magazine articles and to the eyes of countless visiting tourists.
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"We upgraded the kitchen about 10 years ago," she says of the widened entrance, granite-topped island and new appliances. "But it's still the same footprint."
In the front parlor, light streams through a large stained-glass picture window. The purple, red, gold and green sunlight spills onto luxurious carpets and alights on five different types of highly polished and ornately carved wood furniture. Connie Seus created the design to complement the already existing half-moon top section of the front-facing window.
The circa 1888 Bloomfield and Otis square grand piano stays with the house, she says. Seus' numerous collections of silver and jewel-toned glassware, furniture and other personal belongings are going with her to her "new" 1929 home on the banks of the Rogue River near Agate Road, she adds.
"The house I chose has a lot of display area," says Seus. "I collect things everywhere I go."
Placing a hand on the well-worn knob at the base of the winding stairway, Seus points out the bull's-eye window on the stairway landing — and adjacent scorched spindles. The refracted light intensified some summer day in decades long past and set the spindles smoldering, she says.
"I think someone may have smelled the smoke and put it out in time," Seus says, speculating on what may have been the home's narrow escape from a fire.
The house was the first with indoor bathroom plumbing, she says.
"It was gravity fed from storage tanks in the attic," she says.
The Nunan family — the first of eight owners — experienced much sorrow before they moved to Oakland, Calif., in 1912, says Seus. Rumors persist that Delia Nunan, a seamstress, disliked the home. Seus recounts the deaths of two of Delia and Jeremiah Nunan's five children. The oldest son died from injuries sustained after a fall from his horse. Three years later, a daughter died from apparent food poisoning while at an ice cream social in San Francisco.
"That might have made it difficult for her to live here," says Seus.
Thankfully, the Seus family has had no such tragedies during their 18-year tenure. She and her husband have five children. Their daughter is well-known radio personality Leslie Haze of Beat 93. Leslie and her four brothers — Robert, Mark, Dan and Paul — own three local Hubbard's Hardware stores. The brothers manage the retail hardware, building materials, lawn mower sales and service stores. Hubbard's was founded in 1884 in Jacksonville by Fortunatus Hubbard Sr.
The four sons have produced 25 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, Connie Seus says. With such a large family, her husband's idea to add on to the carriage house was a good one, she says.
"We added a little extra room," she says.
Built in the early 1980s, the 4,500-square-foot addition boasts a game room, soda fountain and a full kitchen. The three bedrooms and four bathrooms come in handy when the main house becomes full to bursting, she adds.
The 3-acre parcel is zoned historic core commercial. When not entertaining family, Connie and her daughter operated a Christmas store out of the carriage house. Now the store is closed and the window display cases hold another of Connie Seus' collections — hundreds of dolls.
When not playing in the carriage house, the kids can spread out into two playhouses outside — designed to resemble a pint-sized lighthouse and a schoolhouse. There is also a six-car garage, an in-ground pool with dressing room, a covered eating area for the built-in barbecue, adds Windermere real estate broker Sally Bell.
The decision to move has not been easy, Connie Seus says. Although she has always wanted to live on the beach, she won't move away from family.
But the lure of living on the water still called. Seus took a year and a half to decide to sell the home she had expected to "live in forever" and move to the Rogue River, she says.
"I will miss it," she says. "I've played house with it all these years. But things change."
Reach reporter Sanne Specht at 776-4497 or at sspecht@mailtribune.com
