We purchased this house in August of 1985, and moved up from Sacramento. After we had been here for a few months, I was contacted by a lady to clean her chimney. I was a chimney sweep, 44-Sweep Chimney Sweep, serving northern California. The lady was Mrs. Ruth Mayberry, the matriarch of the Mayberry family of Williams. Her chimney was scheduled at the end of my day, when I returned from working in Sacramento. When I finished cleaning her chimney in the late afternoon, Mrs. Mayberry asked me if I'd like to know a little bit about my old victorian house. So I sat and listened while she talked.

My house was built at the turn of the century by 2 brothers, local bankers in Williams by the name of Stoval, who owned several thousand acres of ranchland west of Williams. This lovely old house they built for their aging mother to retire in, and when Mrs. Mayberry was a young girl, she did housekeeping for Grandma Stoval.

For many years this was known as the Stoval house, and indeed, there are initials in the middle of the concrete entry walk on the north side M.E.S When Grandma Stoval passed the house was purchased and inhabited by the town constable, I believe his name was Forsythe, for 20+ years. She told me that rumor was, the constable used what is now referred to as the wine cellar to lock up the drunks in the middle of the night instead of opening up the jail. Then the house was owned by the Pennington family, I believe Mr. Pennington was the mayor of Williams for a time, and back in those days when meeting rules were not so complicated informal town council meetings were held in the livingroom. For a period of time the house was known as the Little White House, and after that, simply the Pennington House.

Then sometime in the early 70's the house was purchased by the owners prior to us whose name slips my mind at the moment. I don't know too much about them, talking to my neighbor, their son had some drug difficulties, and the local police had to take him down off the roof one evening. Evidently that caused a big fuss in the community, and the family moved to Florida and the house became a rental property.

The hot August day we toured the house, it was occupied by a local pastor and his family. I explored the place from the attic to the basement. There were major structural repairs, a bad roof, the central heat was provided by a gravity furnace with only six 4" ducts for the whole house. The master bath had been remuddled with a walled in cheap fiberglass tub shower in poor condition. The kitchen was early 40's and needed total replacement. Peeling paint everywhere, a real mess, but I loved this place the first time I saw it. We made an offer, it was accepted, and we moved in and started working.

We have done structural repairs, new roof, stairs, railings, porches, restored the original picket fence, all new electrics, new plumbing, new redwood rain gutters, finished the attic as a second story, installed a full bath upstairs, installed water softener and whole house water filter system, high efficiency central heat and air with electrostatic air filter, reglazed and restored all of the double hung windows, exterior paint, interior carpets, restored the half bath, tore out the master bath to the studs and installed new sheetrock, ventilation, lighting and plumbing, designed and built a totally new kitchen, poured concrete floor in the basement for a complete woodshop, built a kennel with outside run for my chocolate labs, insulated the entire second story, removed the old brick chimney, replaced it with a modern double wall stainess steel insulated flue, installed a wood stove in the central room with a heat collector connected directly to the central heating system, replaced concrete sidewalks and put in a stamped stained (faux mountain slate) concrete driveway.

You can see much of our work here on the site. This site, as well as the house, is a work in progress, there is always more to be done. But the direction of my life has changed. Someone else will have to continue. The remaining work is mainly cosmetic. Some interior plaster repair, painting and decoration. The master bath has new walls, the walk through door restored, new sink, lights, mirror and toilet, still in need of a new tub. I had a clawfoot with leaks and problems. Hoped to install one of the new modern clawfoot tubs, lighter in weight with modern plumbing. Landscaping to do on the outside. The pretty stuff. If you like doing this kind of thing, this should be your house next. It truly is a one of a kind property.