Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 061-1 - January 2007 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-03-12 08:36:32 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:02 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:02

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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-—, City of Grass Valley Heritage Home Awards for 2005 C OMMENCING IN 1998, THE CITY OF GRASS VALLEY annually presents bronze Historic Resource plaques to the owners of five houses within the city’s 1872 corporate limits. The winners for 2005 included Paul and Sandy Varacalli, Gerald and Judith Neumann, Curtis Romander and Cheryl Wicks, Gregory and Dolores Bulanti, and Edward and Libby Kiernan. These awards were given in recognition of their efforts to maintain and/or restore historic Grass Valley homes. ¢ Heritage Home 36 at 203 Pleasant Street Home of Paul and Sandra Varacalli LIKE SO MANY OF THE QUEEN ANNE style houses in Grass Valley, this two-story home has a cross-gable roof, and the dominant front-facing gable is decorated with patterned wood shingles and lacelike gingerbread ornamentation. The front porch wraps to a side entry and has delicate spindlework porch supports and balustrades. The doublehung windows are trimmed with decorative casings. The front entry shows off a carved wooden door, complete with transom and decorative crown. This “painted lady” is beautifully finished with coordinated colors. The house sits on what once was two acres of land bordering on Neal and Pleasant streets. The land was owned by Elizabeth Muncey in 1872, and she sold it to Joel and Mary Jenkin Rowe in the late 1800s. First they built a house on it for themselves, and later, when their daughter Syndie married W. H. Rowe, the newlyweds were invited to build a second house on the same land, next door. Similarly, when Syndie’s brother, James Jenkin Rowe, married Alberta Pe~ (— ) Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin VOLUME 6! NUMBER . JANUARY 2007 Ne ters in 1900, they built a third house on the original two acres. James Rowe and his friend and neighbor, James Sampson, did all the work themselves. (It so happens that Sampson’s house, at 315 Pleasant Street, also is a Heritage Home, honored in 2003.) The Rowe family’s history is well documented in Highly Respectable Families, by Shirley Ewart. James Jenkin Rowe was born in St. Allen, Cornwall, England, and came to Grass Valley with his parents at the age of ten months. As a young man he worked as an electrician for many of the local mines. In 1918 he opened the J. J. Rowe grocery store at Main and Auburn streets, which he operated until his retirement in 1943. His wife Alberta was born in this country, but her parents were from Cornwall. Alberta’s mother, Clara Mayne Peters, was ambitious for her children and expected them to rise in the world. She took in washing so her daughters could take piano lessons and go to high school. James and Alberta’s first child, Kenneth Rose, was born in the Pleasant Street house in 1901, and daughter Winnifred was born in 1908. Their third child, Delbert, died at the age of 2! in 1920. James Rowe died at the age of 90 in 1963 and is buried at Grass Valley in the Masonic Cemetery. Alberta died two years later. This home remained in the Rowe family until about 1977. After that it was owned and lived in by several families, and in 2001 it was purchased by Paul and Sandra Varacalli, who spent two years rehabilitating the property. Sandra served on the Grass Valley Historical Commission for approximately three years, and she and her husband Paul divide their time between Grass Valley and the Island of Hawaii. James J. Rowe and his bride, Alberta Peters, in 1900.