The Butler Home

In October 2013, I purchased the "Lang Home" in Lead, South Dakota. People ask me often "what made you buy this house?" To be honest, I really don't know. I drove past this house while visiting Tim and Laurel, and when I saw it, I said, "I am buying that house." I made an offer within the week, and the first time I walked into that house was two months later. I remember asking the home inspector, "what do you think?" He said, "I called up my wife and said...honey, I'm inspecting a house that you would even like."

The house had been in the possession of the Lang family for over 70 years. Outside of that, I didn't know anything about the history of the house. It was originally listed by the realtor as a 'Victorian home', but this was incorrect. It is actually an American Foursquare, and looking at the guest house roof structures along with the roofline of the attached garage, it is likely that the "big house" was originally a craftsman home. The house was well maintained by the Lang family, but was in need of renovation. The kitchen, for example, was the original kitchen installed in 1909. This step began early in 2014.

Currently, I am in the final phase of renovation; and as I tell people, "I am living in a new house enclosed within a 110 year old exterior." As this house was supposedly built in 1909, I wanted to learn more about the people that lived in the house prior to 2013. After you read through this brief history, I will tell you why I was interested in learning more about its past residents.

According to the historical registries, this house is known as "the Butler House." William Butler either built this house or moved this house to its present location in 1909. The newspapers wrote about the improvements happening at 101 S. Galena St., and interstingly noted that the house "fell into the basement while being moved." This fall apparently broke dishes and glassware inside the house." William and his wife had one daughter, affectionately known as Tootsie, whom had contracted menengitis in 1911. While Tootsie survived this disease, it must have played a heavy toll on the family, as the Butler's divorced prior to 1915. In 1916, William remarried, and he along with his new wife, Maude, lived in this home for only a few more years. William became wealthy while living in Lead...starting with an ice delivery business, evolving to a delivery and dray service, and eventually moving into road construction. The road through Spearfish Canyon was one that his company built before 1915. While living in the house, the Butlers had several maids and cooks...and some of them were physically living in the house. Additionally, Butler had used the upstairs front room for some of his teamsters to stay while working in Lead. The maids and cooks also serviced the boarders who lived in this residence, as we know that at least two rooms were used for this purpose.

The next long-term resident was the Victor Sarich family. They lived in this house for at least 10 years. Victor was a well known butcher and grocer, and he had a shop adjacent to his house on Julius Street. This explains why I see windows and doors going into the building next door from inside my garage. He died in 1938 and had been in poor health for several years. His wife, who loved to garden and maintain her flower beds, eventually could not hold onto this house. To make ends meet, she took in boarders; and was also home to several businesses. The garage was also rented, and brought in an additional $5 a month to the household. One of the long-term businesses was W. M. LeSueur, who used the upstairs front room for his massage business, starting in 1930 (or earlier) and continuing through 1939. Eventually Mrs. Sarich sold off most of her furniture to pay bills, but this would not be enough to keep her home. In 1940 the bank foreclosed on the property.

The Langs moved into this house by 1941, and would own the house until 2013.

The Langs were well known in the community, especially Phyllis who was the most recent owner. Phyllis had two brothers - twin brothers for that matter - and maybe one sister. Phyllis also owned small poodles. Several years ago I was outside working in the yard, and a woman stopped to introduce herself. As we talked, she said the girls in the city hall offices have a question. The question was, "did the poodles come with the house?" The poodles she referenced were my dogs - Colette and Robert - of course, I had to laugh...

In 1951, the newspaper noted that there were four pairs of twins living on Galena Street which they believed to be a 'world record.' Ms. Gertrude Lang's sons were among this group of twins who lived on this street. Mrs. Lang's daughter, Phyllis, was an independent woman, and several people remembered her strong personality. She was active in city affairs, keenly interested in the city's direction, and owned a jewelry store on Lead's main street.

She regularly had her hair done on Saturday mornings, and one Saturday morning in 2013 she failed to show for her hair appointment. As this was so unlike her, the hairstylist called 911 and they found her unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. They took her to the Lead Deadwood hospital, where she remained until her death several weeks later. The next owner would be myself.

The pictures below were taken by the realtory in 2013. They give you an idea what the house looked like.

Renovation

I am only showing a few of the rooms done during this renovation. The concept going into this project was to maintain its original design and charm. There was no desire to create "an open concept" or replace floors with laminate or pull out a bedroom to create "an on suite bathroom." This home design was very practical, and unlike other homes I have lived in over the years, I "touch" or enter every room almost daily.

One of the decision points was to combine the pantry with the kitchen space. Certainly it would make the kitchen bigger; but after working multiple design options, it became clear that we would lose wall space. And this loss of wall space would not allow us to put in an upstairs "washer-dryer" room.

The living areas needed small renovations. The biggest thing done in these rooms was to add moulding and refurbish the floors...they needed work... I did keep the original lighting. They were beautiful works of art, and going into eBay, I could see that people were selling them for $400 apiece. I decided that they were worth keeping.

The den created some challenges. The back wall had two doors, along with a rack of pipes that delivered hot water heat to the upstairs. Because we were combining the back closet with the original downstairs bathroom, these two doors were no longer needed. We decided on a full wall shelving unit to help disguise the old doorways and pipes that traversed the back wall.

Why the Interest in the Old Inhabitants?

As the house was being renovated by my brother-in-law, he would tell me that "your house is haunted." Tom said, "when I come back to your house to work...my tools have been moved." I used to laugh and tell him that there was probably some other explanation.

But I have come to believe that...yes...there is something in that old house.

Ghosts...if that is what they are...is something we all grew up with in Eureka. When the brothers and sisters gather, we will talk about the ghosts in our home...music of the night, footsteps, cold spots, ghostly sightings, etc. It seemed that our house was the epicenter for ghostly activity in our hometown. The people who bought our house Eureka approached my sister, Ann, and asked her if "the house was haunted?" She responded that there were ghosts...but wouldn't say 'it's haunted.'

What I do know is this...there are ghosts hanging around the old Butler house. One thing that you learn about ghosts is that they do not harm people...that is something storytellers have conjured up over the years. But they can startle you...and I believe that sometimes they do this on purpose... My experiences included a desk being lifted up a few inches and dropping in front of me...or waking me up by rattling the chimes by my window (there was no draft or wind that night). But it has been awhile since they have played practical jokes with me.

They seem to be more active when new people come into the house. One of the first experiences was when my nephew and his fiance complained that someone came into their room and moved their clothes. They thought it was my sister-in-law, but I knew better. As I went into the room, I yelled at the "ghost" and said "if they continued, I would take my dogs away from the house". It was not the first time that things were moved around in that room, and based on what I initially learned, my assumption was a "child" moving stuff. In the last year, I had someone who "connects" with the departed stay upstairs...she told me that it was two children in that room...not one. They kept her awake...all night laughing, whispering and saying things like "we might wake her up", and then giggle. She said it was a little un-nerving, and she threw the blankets over her head...hoping they would stop.

There is also a residual spirit that spends time in the upstairs bathroom. I have not seen her, but it is a young woman with brown hair pulled up into a bun. She gets herself ready every evening supposedly, and as I am told "loves the bathroom." OK...my feminine side came out when I renovated the room.

I have had several people tell me that Phyllis, or some strong minded spirit, being in the house. One person saw "her" hovering over the sink several years ago...another person saw her come around the corner in the basement and told her "to get out of here." The latter scared me because this person fell unconscious to the floor. I pulled her away from the basement door and asked when she awoke, "what happened." She said that when she opened the door, a number of spirits came rushing up the steps to greet me...saying "how are you?" and statements like that. Then this powerful woman came around the corner and told her to leave. And something happened where she could not move and didn't remember anything after that. I knew something was down there before this happened. A third person who was doing work around my house was also a ghost hunter, and had finished an episode for the Travel Channel on TV about ghosts in the Black Hills. He told me that as he came up the basement steps, he could smell old perfume...something like his grandmother would have worn.

The basement door rarely stayed shut. Normally I would close the door and at some point it would open. One evening, I tried closing the door and it would not stay shut...so I slammed it...and just as forceful...it popped back open. At that point, I knew something didn't want that door shut. I have not been the only one to see it open. One afternoon, I was with one of my brothers sitting near the door, and it opened slowly...stayed open temporarily...and then closed shut. My brother looked at me, and only could say "now that was interesting." Again, we just laughed about it.

So, I became interested in knowing "who" some of these older residents might be. Interestingly, there must have been another house on this site before the Butler house was erected. It was a brown brick building, and must have been a large house as it was also used as a boarding house around the turn of the century. The family living in this large brown home in 1900 was the Cunningham family. The Cunninghams had three daughters, and while living at 101 S Galena operated a boarding house until sold to Victor Jepsen in 1905. We know that the Jepsens hired housekeepers, butit is uncertain if the Jepsens managed a boarding house. Victor originally owned an insurance company in Lead, but eventually became a leading real estate agent in Lead and Rapid City. In the "Lead Daily Call", July 08, 1908, it shows that he is packing up all his household goods. The article also tells us he rented his house, and will be moving his family to Rapid City. At this point, I don't know what happened to this brick house, or who actually lived in the house before the first reference of the Butler family appears in January 1909. Was it torn down, burned down...just don't know..

I am sure you are thinking, "is he afraid to live in that house?". The answer is "no." And nor should anyone be afraid to stay there. Keeping a light on in the hallway, seems to keep them quiet. Especially at night...