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Building History

Edgar Leonidas Brown (born 08/31/1878-d. 05/20/1948 in Grand Island, NE), President of the Brown Wholesale Fruit Company in Grand Island, NE, and his wife, Kathleen Erskine Brown, (born 07/11/1880 in MN -d. 03/20/1954 in NE), commissioned the Los Angeles architect Ray J. Kieffer (1889-1945) to make a design for his residence in the city of Grand Island. Brown saw information on Kieffer's Cravens House in La Cañada-Flintridge, CA, published in an issue of Architectural Digest,and had Kieffer design a residence in its spirit. (Thank you to Kathy Karnes who pointed out the existence of the Brown House in Grand Island to the author in emails of 08/22/2018 and 08/25/2018.)

According to Ms. Karnes, Brown sold his residence to a physician in the 1930s. She wrote: "E.L. Brown ran into hard times in the 1930s and rented the home briefly to an unknown family while taking up residence along with his wife in the Maid's Quarters, located on the first floor of the residence. He sold the home shortly afterward to the second owner, Dr. [Earl E.] Farnsworth ..., who lived in the home for several years until selling it (possibly in the mid-1950s) to the third owners, Mr. & Mrs. Jake and Molly Grasmick, owners of the Grand Island Baking Company They lived there with their daughter, Kathy (who still lives in Grand Island, who married and became Kathy Patton) and is now widowed. They sold around 1968 to the fourth and present owners, B.J. "Jim" and Norma Cunningham, and his widow still resides there today." (See email from Ms. Karnes to the author, 08/25/2018.Thank you again to her for this valuable information.)

Earl Edwin Farnsworth (born 05/24/1881 in Middlebury, VT-d. 12/31/1956 in Grand Island, NE) was a Harvard-trained doctor, who specialized in the diseases of women and children. He married Jessie Elfrieda Kistle (born 11/29/1890 in LeMars, IA-d. 07/17/1973 in Grand Island, NE) in LeMars IA, on 06/27/1912, and settled in Grand Island, NE, where his elder brother, Dr. Albert Henry Farnsworth (1875-1928), already had a medical practice.

PCAD id: 22292