The Cracker Box Home on Hendley Street

Jack and Alice were about to embark on a life journey together, “for better or for worse,” with no idea of what better or worse would be. What happened next propelled them into a dream they didn’t even know they had.[1]

Alice’s attractive face and slim frame in modestly stylish clothes made her a shoo-in for a job at Kress’s cosmetics counter. The manager of the five and dime hired her at twelve dollars a week. Good money for a young woman of twenty about to be married.

Jack and a partner traveled the roads of Sonoma County to unload and place new furniture in a home or make minor adjustments to a stove or refrigerator. Being on the road appealed to Jack, who knew Santa Rosa by heart from his youthful newspaper route. A raise from twenty-five to thirty-five cents an hour plus overtime brought in a reasonable income. He and Alice would start married life on a good financial footing.

Jack and his 1941 Pontiac
on their honeymoon

Jack had to ask his boss Dana Poulsen for time off so he could take Alice on a honeymoon. He admired and respected Dana, who owned Poulsen’s Furniture Store, Poulsen’s Appliances, and Jobbers Electric Company.[2] Dana worked long, hard hours, devoting his life to his business, a strong role model for Jack.[3]

I went to Dana Poulsen to ask him for a week off so that we could have a honeymoon. He didn’t answer me yes or no. Instead he said,

—Well, where’re you gonna live?

—Well, I really don’t know. I imagine we’ll live in Alice’s apartment on Third Street.

—Whoa, whoa, whoa! You’re not gonna do that. You have to buy a house!

—Jeez, Dana, I don’t have any money. I can’t buy a house. I owe about $600 on the ’41 Pontiac, so I can’t buy a house. I don’t have any money.

—Well, you don’t need any money.

Dana Poulsen knew what he was talking about. By age thirty-six he owned a successful furniture business.[4] By forty-six he had bought his own home in downtown Santa Rosa. He valued it at $15,000, three times most of his neighbors’ homes.[5] At one time or another he employed Jack, all his siblings, and even his father.[6] He was a man to listen to. Jack’s head must have been spinning when he left Dana’s office.

Dana told me how to get ahold of a realtor and start looking at homes, which we did. The fellow’s name was Chapman, and we knew him through the Methodist Church. He started showing us new homes for $2950 to $3450.

—You’re wasting your time. We don’t have any money like that. We can’t afford anything like that.

—Well, I’ve got an old cracker box over on Hendley Street. I’ll show you that.

304 Hendley Street, Santa Rosa, California, 1942

He showed Jack and Alice a small, single-story home that was already pretty old. The owner, Mr. Dewar, wanted $2050 for it. Jack began negotiating.

—How much of a down payment would you want?

—Well, I should have a hundred and fifty dollars.

—We don’t have a hundred and fifty dollars.

Mr. Dewar had already bought a new home, so he was anxious to sell 304 Hendley Street. He countered.

—If I let you move in, do you think you’d have the down payment in three months’ time?

Jack and Alice put their heads together. With what she was making and what he was making, they decided yes, they could do that.

—OK. Go ahead and move in.

So he wrote up a little contract. He wanted twenty dollars a month payments at six percent interest. That meant that out of twenty dollars we were paying about twelve dollars interest, but still paying something toward the principal.

The contract for sale of 304 Hendley Street

On Wednesday 1 April 1942 James and Jean Dewar drew up the contract for the sale of 304 Hendley Street, and on Friday 3 April they and Jack notarized the sale agreement.[7] Two days later Jack and Alice were married.[8]

In one week, at just twenty-one years old, Jack and Alice became homeowners and newlyweds. The strength of their marriage commitment would be the center of their life together, their emotional anchor. Their home would be its physical anchor, and this modest beginning taught them an investment lesson they would build on throughout their lives. They took time off from work, honeymooned, and then moved into their little “cracker box.”

More men were called to register for the draft, older men and now men as young as eighteen.[9] On the day Mr. Dewer drew up the sale agreement, the local paper reported the induction of eighteen more Santa Rosans into military service.[10] Married now, Jack’s chances of being called up were diminished, but that was about to change.

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[1] Unless otherwise noted, the events in this post are inspired by or transcribed directly from Jack’s telling. Jack J. Kellar, interview by Judy Kellar Fox, December 1993; cassette tape recording and transcription held by the author.

[2] Betty (Kellar) Lowdermilk (Goleta, California), interview with Judy Kellar Fox 18 October 2017. Betty, Jack’s sister, worked briefly for Dana as well.

[3] 1940 U.S. Census, Sonoma County, California, population schedule, Santa Rosa, ED 49-40, sheet 13B, visitation 351, Dana Poulsen; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 September 2017); from NARA microfilm T627, roll 350.

[4] 1930 U.S. Census, Sonoma County, California, population schedule, Santa Rosa, ED 45, sheet 11B, visitation 298, Dana C. Poulsen household; digital image, Ancestry; from NARA microfilm T626, roll 222; FHL microfilm 2,339,957.

[5] 1940 U.S. Census, Sonoma County, California, population schedule, Santa Rosa, ED 49-40, sheet 13B, visitation 351, Dana Poulsen, and others on sheet 13B; digital image, Ancestry; from NARA microfilm T627, roll 350.

[6] John M. Kellar, Mary Idella (Muth) Kellar, and Herald Kellar interview by Betty (Kellar) (Grimes) Lowdermilk and Al Grimes at Betty’s home in Modesto, California, 26 October 1963; digital copy held by the author.

[7] Jean Dewar and James Dewar agreement 1 April 1942 on price and terms of sale and Jean Dewar, James Dewar, and Jack J. Kellar, Agreement for Sale of Real Estate, notarized 3 April 1942; Kellar family collection in possession of Judy Kellar Fox. The sale was recorded the day after Jack and Alice were married, perhaps then establishing it as community property rather than Jack's separate property. For California’s community property law, see W. W. Smithers, “Matrimonial Property Rights under Modern Spanish and American Law,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register 70 (May 1922): 260, 261, and 262, “Matrimonial Community Property”; digital image Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/jstor-3314134 : accessed 29 December 2017).
[8] Sonoma County, California, Marriage Licenses 38: 221, no. 5305, Jack J. Kellar and Alice M. Streeter (1942); Office of the County Recorder, Santa Rosa.

[9] “Youths 18-20 Will Sign for Draft Today; Three Million More Will Be Registered by U. S. to Complete Age Groups 18 to 65,” The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), 30 June 1942, p. 1, col. 3.

[10] “On the Home Front,” The Press Democrat, 1 April 1942, p. 1, col. 1.