Lee Davidson, 85, peered behind the curtain of a window inside the historic Borst Home in Centralia. He wanted to see if the ding in the window sill was still where he remembered seeing it thirty-some years ago while he lived at the Borst House.
“That was there, and that was there,” Davidson said, pointing to some fixtures against the wall. But the nick in the window was nowhere to be found.
“My pea brain doesn’t hold stuff like that anymore,” he joked.
Davidson used to work for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. He lived in the Borst Home for 13 years during the 1960s and 70s. In exchange for doing gardening and other maintenance work, he stayed at the home, rent free. Davidson and his wife, 80-year-old Irene Davidson, were one of many people who lived and maintained the home for many years until the city decided to restore the home in the 1980s.
No one lives at the home now, but it has become a favorite attraction for tourists and locals alike. Dozens of local volunteers give private tours of the home throughout the year. The home will open its doors for a special event in honor of its 150th anniversary next week as part of the Dickens of a Christmas Home Tour, presented by the Visiting Nurses Foundation. The home tour takes place between the hours of 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11. Eight area homes are on the tour.
All About the Borst Home
In 1854, 16-year-old Mary Adeline Roundtree married one of Centralia’s earliest settlers, Joseph Borst, according to historical files of the Centralia Parks and Recreation Department. Roundtree’s family had come from Illinois to settle in the Pacific Northwest. Mary and Joseph started their life together in a small cabin on Joseph’s farm. When a war broke out in 1855 with some American Indians, the Borsts and many other settlers moved into quarters in the stockade at Fort Henness near Grand Mound, a fort that has since been destroyed.
After the war, the Borsts returned to their land and moved into a blockhouse built during the war. Around 1860, Joseph started construction on a home for him and Mary. Reasons Joseph built the home vary, according to the files. Some say Joseph built it as a permanent residence because Mary’s family had to move several times. Others say the home was a requirement for Joseph to get Mary’s hand in marriage.
Lumber for the home was hauled by horse-drawn wagons from Tumwater. The casings and hardware was shipped from San Francisco. The lumber was dried for about a year. It was later dipped in white lead in order to harden the wood and make the joints waterproof, according to Sharon Winningham, a retired school teacher who now leads tours of the home.
Old and New
The white house with green trim has an eclectic mix of old and new items. Most of the original structure is still there. The upstairs balcony Mary Borst likely walked out on to gaze at the nearby river used to stretch across the entire length of the side of the house, but a portion of it was removed due to deterioration, Winningham said.
The original house was next to a barn large enough to hold a wagon team. However, the 1962 Columbus Day windstorm destroyed the barn. A garden now sits outside the home where the barn once stood. The garden is now used as a demonstration garden for the local WSU Master Gardeners.
Inside the house, artifacts from the Borst Home are on display. Most of the artifacts were removed when Mary moved to a house in Centralia. After volunteers launched the restoration project in the 1980s, artifacts began resurfacing, according to Winningham. Many of them came from Mary’s and Joseph’s descendents.
Several wooden chairs are in the kitchen, parlor and hallways. The Borst family Bible sits on a table near a downstairs window. An upstairs display case has a tarnished, yellow hand-dipped candle once owned by Joseph Borst. A glass-covered cabinet has white china platters decorated with intricate gray flowers. Inside a box is a beaver skin hat Joseph Borst often wore outside. A portion of the pantry wall is visible with brown lath and plaster. Fine strands of horsehair mixed with sand and limestone can be seen. According to Winningham, horsehair added strength to the overall structure.
Some artifacts have no connection to the Borst family, but add to the home’s quirky charm. A 100-year-old toilet in the wash room was removed from an old home in Centralia, though the Borst family used an outhouse. The tank is elevated about five or six feet above the floor, and instead of a flusher, people pulled a chain to drain the toilet.
“I stayed in a hotel when I was 4 years old with a toilet just like it and I was always afraid that tank would fall on top of me,” Winningham said with a laugh.
Living at the Borst Home
Though Davidson couldn’t remember which window had the ding, he remembers a few encounters with some colorful characters while he was living at the Borst Home.
He said the toughest thing about living at the home wasn’t the yard work or making sure all the appliances were functioning, but “keeping the drunks out.” Davidson said he was awakened one night by an intoxicated man who was wandering around the property.
“I told him I was going to call the cops and he got out of there,” Davidson said. “I changed his mind.”
Another time, a family member was staying at the home while he and Irene were out of town. He said a couple of boys brought some sticks of dynamite to the nearby Chehalis River and decided to light them. The blast from the dynamite was so strong it shattered all of the windows on the south side of the house, according to Davidson.
“Glass was all over, and we had to clean it up,” he said.
Irene said some of her favorite memories about living at the Borst Home were meeting people who came to tour it because they were intrigued by its architecture.
“It was always fun to talk to them,” she said, “I liked following them around.”
Since the Davidsons moved out, they’ve visited a few times, including holding a family reunion.
“It was always an interesting place to live,” she said.
•••
Rachel Thomson: (360) 807-8245
