Grandma Jespersen's House on Swan Street

This was the only part of our field trip that Tracy and I had been to before, and it was a bit of a shock to see Grandma's house so many years later.  The owner of the house is a very nice lady who had recently remarried.  It happened to be her birthday, and the family was busy packing the car for a camping trip, but she was gracious enough to take us inside and show us the changes she'd made.  It was clear that she really liked the house, and it was well taken care of, which made us feel good.

Grandma's House on Swan Street. That's Gladys Moon's
house to the left; her daughter Delores lives there now.

The kitchen looks completely different!

Another view of the kitchen, with our kind homeowner to the
left and Shannon to the right.

Here's the living room.  It looks different without Grandma's
recliner, sofa and TV.

Here's the room in the basement; it's the master bedroom now.

The backyard is missing some trees.  They became diseased
and had to be cut down.

After the homeowner showed us through the house, she mentioned that Dee, who lived next door, grew up on the street and might remember our dad.  We went next door and knocked and it turned out that Dee was Delores Moon, and she remembered our family very well.  We spent the next hour with her listening to stories about Grandpa Jespersen, Grandma and Dad. It was awesome to hear how much she loved our family.  Tracy wrote down all the stories as we made our way back to Sandy.  I'll start posting them in the next blog.

The Hansen Homestead in Warren, UT

Tracy and I took the kids out to see the house where Grandma Williams (Luella Hansen) grew up. We called Uncle Ed and Aunt Jean to get directions, plugged it into the GPS and away we went.

Grandma described the house in her life sketch: "It was a big two-story house with no basement, with a large kitchen and a pantry, a large living room, two bedrooms and two walk-in closets. One of them had shelves and hooks all around for clothes, etc. There were double doors between the living room and front bedroom so that when it wasn't needed as a bedroom, the doors were opened so as to make a larger or double living room. The upstairs was one large room until I was about 10 or 11 years old. Then partitions were put in to make 4 rooms and two more clothes closets.  My brother Levi and my mother did most of the work on it."

The Hansen House in Warren

Tracy, Shannon and I looked around the front and backyard, after getting permission from the lady living there. It looked like a great place to run and play in, and I can see why Grandma had such great memories of growing up there.

The Hansen Family around 1924
Back row: Ed, Louis, Sarah, Reuben, Walter, Alma, Levi
Front row: Ruby, Orvel, Luella, Melvin and Clarence

The same shot of the house, with me and Tracy in front

The view looking west from the house. It was so peaceful here.