Main Page
In July of 1898, Jennie V. Longenecker purchased the eastern 5 rods of the George Vermilya property, creating the lot on which this house was built later that year. This was the third house Jennie and her husband built (and sold) on other properties on this block on the north side of East State Street after 1885. In 1900, they sold this property also.
In 1903, James McGhee, a widower, bought the house for himself and his three children, after serving several years as sheriff of Allamakee County. In 1917, his daughter, Ruth, bought the house from him, having married a young bank clerk named Harold Bull who had been living across the street with his family at what is now 697 East State Street.
Harold and Ruth McGhee Bull lived at 718 East State Street until 1933 when they moved to Mankato, where Harold became president of National Citizen's Bank. For several years, the home was rented out and its tenants included Stuart and Helene Grummon. Stuart Grummon was a member of the Iowa National Guard and served in WWII starting with the rank of Captain and ending the war as a Lt. Colonel.
In 1949, Ralph and Dorothea Wallace bought the home and Ralph lived there until his death in the 1990s. (Ralph and Dorotothea divorced in the 1970s.) His second wife, Muriel "Queenie" Wallace, a nurse, ran "Parents United" out of the home for many years until she died in 2015.
The Longenecker House has clearly been well-loved and well-taken-care-of during most of it's existence. A new chapter has begun.
