Willis Boatman, one of the earliest white settlers in Pierce County, called the home he built in the 1850s “a comfortable house to live in.”
Capt. John Ainsworth, a prominent pioneer businessman, entertained the famed Civil War generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses Grant there in the 1880s.
Nearly a century later, the three Gunter sisters grew up at the Boatman-Ainsworth House – catching tadpoles in the nearby creek, baking and canning with their mother, and hearing cheers from football games played across the street at Clover Park High School.
Now another chapter in the house’s long history is coming to an end. A sale is pending and is scheduled to close later this month; it would be the first city landmark to change hands in Lakewood’s 15-year history.
The Boatman-Ainsworth House was built before Pierce County became a county and predates the city of Lakewood by almost 140 years. But for Craig and Margaret Gunter and their three daughters, it was the beating heart of their family life for four decades.
“Even talking about it brings tears to my eyes,” said Jeannie Gunter, who now lives in Colorado, her voice catching. “That home is really something very, very special.”
The three sisters, who all live outside Pierce County, decided to part with the house after their mother died last year; their father died in 2005.
Karen Abbey, the Seattle-based real estate agent representing the prospective buyer, declined to identify her because the sale isn’t final. She confirmed the buyer lives in New Jersey and owns other historic properties around the country.
That news is heartening to the sisters. They first offered to sell the house to the city or the Lakewood Historical Society for use as a museum, but the agencies responded they didn’t have the money, said Suzanne Coit, the eldest sister who lives in Olympia.
“I just hope someone will appreciate it as much as we did,” she said.
City Councilman Walter Neary, who serves on the historical society’s board, said it discussed buying the house as a museum. It decided against it because museums inside homes are challenging to operate. Neary still holds out hope that the house will be a museum someday, and he was thrilled to learn the prospective buyer is interested in history.
The story began when Boatman arrived in the region on the Oregon Trail from Illinois, then settled on a 160-acre homestead following the Indian War of 1855. The home has been expanded over the decades; the original structure holds its present-day kitchen and dining room.
Boatman sold the property to Ainsworth in 1878. A riverboat captain, Ainsworth went to California during the gold rush but struck out and amassed his fortune as a founder of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The home passed to two more owners, including Walter Thompson, a Tacoma banker who donated some property for the Clover Park High School athletic field named in his honor.
The Gunters purchased it in 1971. Craig Gunter drove by the colonial home on 112th Street Southwest and told his wife, “I want that house,” Coit recalled.
Coit said one of her father’s favorite hobbies was collecting antiques, and he filled the home with furniture. The couple went to great lengths to preserve the historic look of the place, Coit said. They successfully listed it on the state historic registry in 1974 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
“We just love it,” Margaret Gunter told The News Tribune in 2003 after the home became one of the first listed on the city registry of historic properties. “We try to think about how it would have looked a long time ago whenever we paint or do anything to the house.”
The sisters’ most vivid memories were of spending 40 Christmases at the home. It was lovingly decorated in candles and lights, and Coit said her husband once remarked it “looked like a Norman Rockwell postcard.” The family would gather in the sitting room and gaze at the tree that nearly brushed the 12-foot ceiling. On the tree were pine cones the couple collected as newlyweds and Margaret painted gold because they couldn’t afford other ornaments.
Neary said most residents driving by the house, screened by trees, don’t realize they’re passing a property with ties to the Oregon Trail.
“There is a part of the Gunters still alive in the building, just as there is Willis Boatman,” he said. “There is a lot of stories and heart baked into the wood.”
Jennifer Schreck, an adviser to the city’s landmarks board, said the house is another example of the rich history located in the young city. Other examples include Western State Hospital, built in 1871.
“That’s a big chunk of history for our state and our whole region,” she said.
Christian Hill: 253-274-7390
christian.hill@thenewstribune.com
Twitter: @TNTchill
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