LaFavor House

On July 9, 2009, we took this photo of the LaFavor house on Stevens Street on the West Side of St. Paul. We were on our way to visit cousin Rhea Burns (geb. LaFavor), age 82, youngest of the three LaFavor girls, who was born in this house and lived here until she married Jack Burns.

More significant is the fact that Grandpa Charles Fischer built this house in 1922 without power tools for his daughter, Catherine and son-in-law, Louis LaFavor, who were married at St. Matthew Church in 1921. Until the house was completed, Catherine and Louis lived in an apartment a few blocks away. Once they moved in, Catherine and Louis lived here for the rest of their life. For most of these years, the house was painted white.

For me, this house was a favorite stopping off place where I always got a smile and a warm welcome -- sometimes a cookie and a glass of milk. This house was on the route to and from school; I lived in another Fischer house one block away. Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s we all walked the mile or so to school (1.5 km) -- we never rode a school bus. I loved to stop here because Aunt Catherine and Uncle Louis were so friendly and they always had time to visit with me.

One time, when I was in third or fourh grade, I stopped after school to show Aunt Catherine my report card and she said, “You should show that to your mother.”

I said, “OK, let’s call her.”

We called and I tried to show my mother the report card over the telephone. I remember Aunt Catherine laughed and laughed about that. It’s funny how a little happy incident like this is remembered for the rest of one’s life.