Cary Stelmachowicz Remembers

Those Seward days were always the coolest memories of my [Cary's] youth. They certainly beat the scarier memories of junior high in the streets of Detroit.

By the way the Stelmachowicz clan numbers five kids (my youngest sister Corrie was born when we moved to Detroit). Four of us would remember many of the stories told in this Seward Faculty Kids Nostalgia Ride. Sisters Candy and Cheryl probably more than I.

I loved the Sylwester family cause they had almost all boys and supplied me with the brothers I never had. The nonstop baseball games (I remember the bat with the nail in it Steve!) in the backyard were what I lived for -- then there was the golf, football, army games, baseball card collecting, riding our bikes around the CTC campus, trips to Hand grocery store, Plum Creek, walking on some railroad track. School is hardly in my memory banks, but all the days in the back yards are -- especially after the BIG MOVE.

I do have some memories of Faculty Lane -- running through the DDT, my sisters putting on endless plays in the garage. The Hackmans and Becks I sort of remember, and the Schwicks -- Robbie was my age, I believe. We use to run against each other in track meets -- the big St. John's meet.

I've always credited Werner Klammer for getting me started loving the game of golf -- he was always out back hitting golf balls.

Nobody has talked abouot catching grasshoppers and mutilating them every which way -- maybe that was just Larry and me. Hey, we were younger and didn't understand we might be contributing to global warming.

Is Tricia still with us???? She was in my class I think.

(Mike Sylwester:) Tricia always has had a major crush on you, Cary. She has her computer programed to Google for your name and images once a week.

I'm getting sisters Candy and Cheryl in on these -- they will add the female perspective and then some.

Jim Hardt teaches and lives nearby -- I play golf with him once or twice a year.

Seward was indeed an Idyllic place to grow up. I tried to create the same atmosphere for my kids here. That is why we live in a small town, Fredonia WI on aboout a 2 acre lot.

Candy says a reuninon should be in the works -- interesting idea.

I could go on and on -- but will stop for now. Keep the stories rolling, and for your reading pleasure check out a poem called "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas. I think he wrote it thinking about our days in Seward.

The Relocation of Houses in 1964

[The following was written by Robert Sylwester.]

In 1964 Concordia decided to build the new Music Building on the site of the three east Faculty Lane homes (Sylwester, Klammer, Stelmachowicz). This would have meant that the three families (of 7, 4, and 3 children) would have had to move into large faculty homes elsewhere -- and none of appropriate size were available.

Tom Langevin was Concordia's president, and Werner Klammer was sufficiently imaginative to suggest to us and Tom that if Concordia would give us the houses, we would move them to a five acre lot about a half mile north on Columbia that the three families would purchase. Concordia would thus not have to pay to demolish the houses, and it would also solve the thorny problem of relocating the three families.

Werner Klammer was the key to our 1964 move from Faculty Lane to Columbia Avenue. Neither Mike Stelmachowicz nor I had the imagination and practical smarts to negotiate the move of the three houses with Concordia, the property owner, the city, the movers, the builders, and whoever else was involved. It was Werner all the way, and Mike and I just went along with whatever he suggested.

President Tom Langevin was also instrumental in expediting the complexities -- and probably breathed a huge sigh of relief that Concordia no longer had to provide housing for three large faculty families. In retrospect, it was a wonderful beautifully orchestrated idea that has left an enduring historical community legacy, and it sparked the fine housing development that occurred north of the 1960's Seward.

When local builders determined that the houses were still in excellent condition (2X6 studs that ran from the base through the second floor) and could be moved without damage to the houses and streets, we settled on paying Concordia $200 for each of the houses (because the college couldn't legally give them away). We divided the 5 acres into three lots of 1.5+ acres plus a street easement -- and a street now separates the former Sylwester/Stelmachowicz houses.

This project wouldn't have been possible without Werner Klammer's knowledge of building, and his wheeler/dealer skills. Neither Mike Stelmachowicz or I would have been able to do all the background work with Concordia, the city, and the owner of the land to pull off what was a very good deal for everyone involved.

Our late 19th Century house (we think 1896) had historic status. It was known simply as The House At The End Of The Lane. It had been the home of Concordia's first president, and later the long time residence of Concordia's most famous and beloved professor, Henry Koenig (a bachelor). We thus decided to renovate it as an historical site. We fortuitously discovered the original plans for the house in Concordia's archives, and hired a Lincoln architect who specialized in renovations to return the house to its original plan. It had been frequently (and inappropriately) remodeled over the years. Our house was placed in the middle of the three houses, and the architect turned it sideways (the kitchen and entry facing Columbia) to increase its visibility, and the general attractiveness of the project. The entire project cost us about $25,000.

When we moved to Eugene, Oregon, we sold our home to the family of Concordia prof Bill Heinicke, and they later sold it to the family of Marvin and Shirley Bergman (two Concordia profs), who continue to live in it -- and absolutely love it. They have maintained its historical integrity, and it's always the star of any local charity tour of decorated homes. The house is now about 113 years old and still in good structural shape. The Bergmans have also developed a large beautiful yard that built on what we began -- and have not sold off any of the 1.5 acre lot (as have the owners of the other two houses). The trees we planted are still there, as are the vegetable garden plots we established. The back of the house facing the beautiful garden/orchard area has a lot of grass.

We feel that we three families did a wonderful thing for Concordia and the community by moving the houses out to an area that was simply farmland at the time. What we did by this was to spark a later housing development in that area, and since our houses were so striking in their development, the area is now an upscale housing area.

Whenever Seward has some kind of parade of homes to raise money for something, they now always include our house in it, and it's the biggest draw. At Christmas last year, 500 people toured the house.

So we left a nice little bit of ourselves in Seward and Concordia when we moved to Eugene and the University of Oregon.

Sports at Remote Columbia Avenue

[Steve Sylwester wrote:]

After we moved the three houses out into the country, we had a great baseball field in the Sylwester backyard with a deep outfield that extended into the Stelmachowicz backyard. Each house was located on 1.5 acres as I recall, with approximately one acre being backyard. East of the east property line was farmland, and there was no fence separating our backyards from the farmland.

In the far back northeast corner of the Sylwester property, we built a two-story treehouse without a tree, and home plate was immediately south of the "treehouse" with the third base line approximately five yards inside the property line.

I recall that Mark Klammer was a powerhouse hitter because he had the strength to swing some of those big bats.

We used to play the football punting game 5-step-kick across the Sylwester backyard north-south. We played either touch or flag football across the Klammer backyard east-west.

We golfed real golf balls with irons north-south back-and-forth between the Klammer backyard and the Stelmachowicz backyard. We played home run derby with wiffle balls and baseball bats hitting from close to the southside of the Klammer house toward the Sylwester garage (it was a home run if you could hit the wiffle ball onto the garage roof). We played golf with golf wiffle balls on a four-hole course around the Sylwester house with a tree in each corner of the house yard being the hole (hitting the trunk of the tree with the golf wiffle ball was the equivalent of hitting a golf ball into a cup). And we played kick-the-can with the run around being the Sylwester house and home being just beyond the back patio porch.

A whole lot of the Faculty Lane sports-game-playing culture moved out into the country when the three houses were moved.

One of the dumbest thing I have ever witnessed in my life occurred one day when my brother Tim and Joel Klammer — both of whom had archery sets with steel-tipped arrows — stood close together in the Klammer backyard while both of them simultaneously shot an arrow straight up. What were they thinking?! I think that same startled thought occurred to them immediately after they shot the arrows. Fortunately, no one was hurt — and they never did it again.