Bringing new life to McCarty Street home

Tony and Jenny Smith win first Golden Hammer award in 2016

Jenny and Tony Smith have renovated this Jefferson City house at 612 E. McCarty, and the work has been recognized with the first Golden Hammer Award of 2016.
Jenny and Tony Smith have renovated this Jefferson City house at 612 E. McCarty, and the work has been recognized with the first Golden Hammer Award of 2016.

The first Historic City of Jefferson Golden Hammer award recipient for 2016 is 612 E. McCarty St.

"This home is in an area full of historical and architectural character, which helps us to look back to our heritage and provide us a sense of place," said selection committee Chairman Laura Ward.

Current owners Tony and Jenny Smith have restored the home, which is now occupied by a young family.

"It is very gratifying to take on a deteriorating house, one that everyone has given up on, and with hard work and vision, bring it back to life," Ward said. "Tony and Jenny have accomplished just this.

"Their commitment to the importance of restoring our historical resources will help to stabilize and revitalize this neighborhood."

The home at 612 E. McCarty St. likely was built in 1908 by Chester Crandall, a tailor and merchant, said researcher Deborah Goldammer. But he sold it soon after to Junious Murray.

Murray, who worked at the shoe factory as a potman, and his family - wife Kathleen and children Josephine, George and Francis - lived there about four years.

Annie Zimmerman bought it about 1912 and sold to Asa Hutson, a reporter for the Globe Democrat, in 1916.

Hutson with his wife, Edna, and son, Jack, lived there until about 1925, when they rented it until Hutson returned in 1931.

Other renters who called the house home included a construction engineer for the highway department, a Secretary of State employee, Tribune Printing Company employee, a Missouri State Penitentiary guard, a prison pharmacist and a stenographer for the driver's license bureau.

Hutson died in 1933, and his family sold the home in 1936 to Missouri Pacific Railroad machinist Maniel Balhorn and his wife, Billie.

George Rehagen, manager of the laundry at the Missouri Hotel, and his wife, Pauline, owned the property before Lawrence and Clementine Hake. Lawrence Hake was a cook at the Manhattan Cafe.

The Hakes sold to Allen and Rose Enloe, who sold to James Lindsey, a Missouri Pacific Railroad conductor, and wife, Sarah, in 1945.

The Lindseys lived there until 1960, when Foster and Lela Mae Wheatley bought it. He was a Jefferson City municipal judge from 1935-46 and was Cole County magistrate.

Eight years later, Wheatley sold to David and Elizabeth Agniel, who sold to Theodore and Madonna Agniel in 1978.

In 1993, the home was sold to B&M partnership and in 2003 to Go Property LLC.

Current owners Tony and Jenny Smith bought it 2011 from Carrie Armstrong and Matt Walston.