History of the Home
The house was built in the early 1890s by A. C. Goltz who owned one of the first lumberyards in Winside. In 1907 the house and lumberyard were sold by Mr. Goltz to Gustave A. Mittelstadt, a relative of Mr. Goltz, and his wife Minnie. The Mittelstadts owned the house until their deaths in 1949 and 1961. The Mittelstadts had two children: Paula who married James Strahan (who were married in the house) and Louis who was a dentist in Norfolk. Since the first two owners of the house also owned the lumberyard, the house had more high-end materials used in its construction. There were four bedrooms and a bath upstairs and kitchen, dining room, living room, and pantry on the main floor. The outside walls of the house were sheeted with ½-inch lumber on both the exterior and interior which was unusual. The interior finishings included oak floors, oak open staircase, beveled glass front door, French doors, and oak woodwork. Indications of a fire in the home in the 1920s were discovered during the remodeling in the early 2000s. The house had its own well before city water and two cisterns by the house along with a fish pond and heated garage with sewer. In 1963 Herman and Selma Jaeger purchased the house from the Mittelstadt estate when they moved from the farm. They put a downstairs bedroom in part of the living room and took out the pantry and put in a downstairs bathroom. They also put the cream-colored siding on the house. Herman and Selma lived in the house until their deaths in 1987 (Selma) and 2000
(Herman).
When we made this house our home
In June of 2001 we purchased the house from the Jaeger estate. After 100
years the house was in need of major updating. The basement was in bad condition so the
house was raised and a new walkout basement installed. All new heating, wiring, and plumbing
were put in the house. The north bedrooms and stairway upstairs were gutted and new drywall
installed and a sun porch was added to the west side above the old back porch. On the main
floor the stairway area, old back porch, and bathroom were gutted. The back porch became
the new bathroom and what had been the bathroom was returned to be used as a pantry
again. The wall between the kitchen and dining room was removed and an island installed. The
bedroom that Selma and Herman had installed was removed and went back to being the living
room. The old French doors were gone, so new doors were installed in the living room.