The Bayler House

The Bayler house was a home across from Torry Gym at Washington High School. The address was 721 West Jefferson Street.

Built in the late 1800’s, the home was adjacent to the Jersey Lawn Stock Farm, where George Bayler bought and sold horses until his death in 1913.  His sons then took over the business and ran it until the 1920’s.

From the 1920’s until 2011, the house enjoyed a quiet life as a private residence.  In May 2011, owners Chad & Jonna Luelling approached the Washington High School Board regarding the purchase of the property.

WCHS had already had plans to build a large maintenance building at the north end of their parking lot, and had just barely begun the process of constructing that building.  The Luelling property adjacent to the parking lot and future maintenance building already had a garage, slightly smaller than the one planned by WCHS.

At a June 13, 2011 board meeting the board unanimously agreed to purchase the 3.3 acre property for $348,000, including the residence and maintenance building.

Ten days later, at the June 23 WCHS school board meeting, Washington resident Tom Gross spoke for a group of residents concerned about the potential demolition of the 120+ year-old residence on the property. 

What followed was a back-and-forth between concerned citizens (including the Washington Historical Society) and the school board regarding the fate of the Victorian-Style house.  Supporters of saving the house gave the Board several potential educational uses for it, and the Historical Society also expressed interest in purchasing the home from the school.

The school board greatly appreciated those suggestions, but in the end deemed them not feasible for their needs and during the October 11, 2011 board meeting, voted 6-1 to demolish the home.  The property became a much-needed parking lot for the school.

The Historical Society saved 13 sets of doorknobs from the home before it was demolished and auctioned those off as sets of bookends built by John Schultz and Jim Smith.