Katherine Reiss residence at 124 Robbins Avenue.

My Grandmother’s House at 124 Robbins.
– Sarah White Infante May 2023.

These are pictures of my grandmother’s houses at 124 Robbins Avenue. There is a front view as well as a side view of the big house where my mother’s family lived. My grandfather was a contractor and he built these houses. The houses were sold when they wanted to build the overpass for the B&O railroad tracks.

1934 map showing three residences and B&O railroad tracks, yard and freight station. Note that Robbins Avenue connects with Church Street.

Rose Building on Robbins Avenue.

My recollection and under- standing was that the three houses sat pretty much where the Rose Building is today. Again, if my memory is correct, there was a lumber yard behind the houses

There used to be two sets of tracks, one of which is the overpass, the houses were between the two sets of tracks on the north side of Robbins Avenue. They were pretty much where State Street dead–ends into Robbins Avenue today. There were also three additional houses between my grandmother’s house and North Main Street.

My grandfather was hit and killed right by the main house when my mother was five years old. My grandmother raised and supported seven children as a dressmaker after my grandfather’s death. My mother was born in the main house in 1912, so it would seem that the house was built prior to 1912.

I have a very vague memory of the big house, mainly the kitchen, as I was very young when there. I have a picture of me roller skating in front of the house when I was maybe four years old in 1952.

Katherine Reiss is my grandmother and Eugene Dugan was my uncle married to my aunt, Margaret Dugan. My mother’s name was also Katherine Reiss.

My uncle was co–owner with Frank DeJute of the Chrysler–Plymouth dealership on North Main Street directly across the street from Stiver Chevrolet.

(L) The DeJute Building at 236 North Main Street was built in 1928. A Desoto-Plymouth dealership was then located here. Later, C.H. Stiver sold Chevrolets at this location, then moved across the street.