2016 Kane

This brick-clad house was originally built in about 1879 as a Fourth Ward North cottage with an applied porch and wooden siding by George Stephan, a German immigrant and machinist in the H. & T. C. shops.  He owned 2 lots on the corner, which were purchased in 1895 by William H. Lighthouse.  For a decade his family lived in the small wood-frame cottage until 1906, when he built the grand Classical Revival house on the corner lot.  In 1906 he was a collector and salesman for the Butler Brick Works.  In the 1920's he was the manager of the A. T. Lucas Brick Works and the Houston Brick Works, and in the last years of his life in the 1930's he was the owner of his own brick works.

At some point before 1924 Lighthouse clad 2016 Kane in brick, thus converting it into a brick-veneer house.  It is one of only two in the neighborhood.  In about 1887 William Lighthouse had married Clara Roemer, whose family lived at 1910 Kane.  After 1906 her parents lived in the big house.  The other house on the Lighthouse property, 2016 Kane, was also occupied by family.  From 1915 until 1972 Clara Lighthouse's younger brother Oscar G. Roemer lived there.  He worked for a newspaper as a linotype operator.  He and his wife had two children.  He died in 1972 and she died in 1974.

For additional historical details click here.