Siblings childhood home shares limestone DNA with Cuba Cash
By Cynthia Scheer Telescope News
www.thebellevilletelescope.com
Bob Trecek and his sister, Joan Holmberg, don’t know when their family home was built. Much of the early history surrounding the two-story, flat-roofed stone home is a mystery, the pair said.
The Treceks do know that the house was built by George Traver, who received the deed for the property in the 1880s, and the stones for the house, which is located about a mile south of Cuba, were quarried from the pasture north of the house.
The stones for Cuba Cash Store are also said to have been quarried from the same location as the house, Trecek said. The rest of the home’s history prior to 1939 is unknown. Trecek and Holmberg’s parents, Joe and Louise Trecek, rented the home in 1939 and purchased it in 1944. The house has deep window sills, Holmberg said, and the upstairs was one large room before her parents divided it into three. Her parents also added on a wooden porch addition to the east side in the early 1950s.
The house was built with a full stone basement, Holmberg said, but a tornado that swept through the farm in 1958 and took the barn inspired her parents to built a cellar near the house out of fear that the rock house would collapse during a tornado and crush anyone in the basement. Holmberg said she remembers the house being cold in the winter.
The siblings still care for the home, which has been empty since their father died in 1997, but they said they don’t know the home’s future. They keep the house heated and frequently do costly roof repairs to maintain the flat roof, but they don’t who, if anyone, will be willing to take on the stone home when they are gone.
