The PB Harris House
Ken and Diane McNamara
506 Townsend Street
Percy Benjamin ("PB") Harris was born on a ranch in Surprise Valley. As a young contractor working on the
new high school building in Cedarville, he met a pretty young Home Economics teacher named Julia. They married on
December 27, 1927 and soon began constructing a home next to the lumberyard he owned on High Street.
The result, a spacious bungalow with a distinctive log exterior, has been known locally as the
"PB Harris House" ever since.
As soon as the basement was finished, the
newlyweds left their nearby rental and moved in, completing
the upper two floors between 1931- 32. The home has three
upstairs bedrooms off a common landing and two, including
what was the "master bedroom", on the ground floor. The overly large entryway area was used by PB as an office.
The pre-manufactured logs Harris ordered
from out of the area were notched on the ends, and fit
together without the use of nails. Their inside surface
was smooth, allowing the interior walls to later be stuccoed.
Over the years the Harris family grew as PB
and Julia welcomed daughters Joyce, Lucille, Patricia ("Tatsy") and son Ben.
In later years, Ben crafted the stained glass insert that still greets visitors at the home's front door.
(He also made the stained glass windows in the SV Community Church as a tribute to his parents and to his uncle and aunt, Edgar and Ruby Harris.)
In its early years, the yellow pine logs
were simply varnished. Later, Harris painted the house
white. Daughter Joyce remembers him adding "awful" blue shutters with star cutouts, and she believes
the home may also have had a red roof at one time. However, a photo has surfaced proving that once the logs
were painted red and white, substantiating memories of it being the
"red, white, and blue house".
During the 40s, Harris bought his first sawmill
on Adin Mountain so he could keep his customers and lumberyard
supplied despite the deprivations of WWII. The lumberyard
later shared the lot with a dealership featuring DeSoto
and Chrysler automobiles. Neighbors recall a popular promotion
the always entrepreneurial Harris offered his customers: "buy a car and get a new pair of cowboy boots!"
PB and Julia eventually owned three sawmills
(adding an operation near Alturas and one close to Montgomery
Creek), the lumberyard, car dealership, and a ranch south
of Cedarville. Julia stopped teaching after she married,
though she is remembered by many as a lovely woman who
attended the Surprise Valley Community Church and helped
generations of young 4-H students with their sewing and
cooking projects.
Today the home is owned by Ken and Diane
McNamara who bought it in 2002 when they moved to Cedarville
from Middleton, California. Ken owned a trucking business
and served as fire chief in Pollack Pines while Diane is
an accomplished painter and artist who owned a gift shop
and gallery. "About 90%" of the home's artwork and most of the unique embellished furniture pieces and accessories were created by her.
Though they have painted, insulated and extensively renovated the home, the McNamaras have managed to enhance
its charms while retaining many original features. When they removed carpeting, they discovered and refinished the
original hardwood floors. All of the windows and kitchen cabinets are original. Diane has added tile and in-floor
mosaics in both bathrooms and around the original fireplace.
The living room features an antique Morris
chair, a collection of yelloware, a unique chess set (look
closely!), and a mantle arrangement featuring some of the
rocks and fossils the couple have collected during their
lifelong love affair with the desert.
Those venturing upstairs will first notice a raised design Diane added to the pitched ceiling of the landing. In the
"Sewing Room", one can't miss the antique trunk Diane acquired in New York. It must have seen a lot of miles in its 150+ years! The beadboard and painted wood flooring in this room are original.
The home is remembered by previous occupants
for its tiny closets. The two downstairs rooms actually
have connecting closets with sliding doors, and a wall
of cabinets and three large drawers were also built by
PB as places for his children to stow their belongings.
Joyce Harris Grove, who lives in Indiana with her husband Louis, remembers the upstairs was swelteringly hot in the summer and frigid in the winter.
"We had no heat upstairs so my sisters and I would sleep under a dozen blankets then rush downstairs to get dressed in front of the fireplace!" One summer it was so hot,
"I pulled an old twin bed outdoors and slept there under the
trees."
It is still obvious Harris took pride in
his outdoor gardens, especially an area to the west of
the house. There he planted a variety of evergreens, including
a big cedar and a rare sequoia he nursed for years before
it succumbed to beetle infestation. "The children all called it
"The Garden Forest"", remembers neighbor Mary Bunyard who loved playing in the shady shelter of its trees.
PB died in 1983 at 87 and Julia followed
in 1986 at 99 years old. Both are buried in the Cedarville
Cemetery.
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Page modified:
08 Dec 2022 13:26:11 -0800
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