The Brass Door Knocker

 Dear Kristina,

 Thank you for offering the door knocker from your grandparents' home at 1243 43rd St. in Des Moines. It is a delightful story and a tribute to your grandmother in designing the home. It is a lovely colonial revival brick house. I almost feel it belongs back on the front door of the home. Have you contacted the owners of the home?

 

Leo Landis, Curator

State Historical Museum of Iowa

July 2021

 

            Over 100 years ago, Blythe and Harlan Cory, built a house for their family which included two children, Mac and Mary Blythe. They bought a piece of land on 43^rd street in Des Moines, Iowa.  The property had an old barn on it where Harlan would keep a saddle horse.  It was 1918, and in those days this property was on the edge of town. Blythe, who was an artist but no architect, designed the red brick house at #1242, that was unlike any other house on this suburban Des Moines Street. 

            The house had a name, Coral Cote, on its brass door knocker and on Blythe’s stationary.  “Coral” was for the new pink brick, “Cote” for cottage. 

 The Brass Door Knocker

 

            Blythe and Harlan Cory were my grandparents, my mother’s parents.  My mother, Virginia  Cory was born in 1919 in the library, a little room on the first floor of the new house.  The story my mother often repeated, was that Blythe had designed the house with only her two children in mind.  

            “Then I came along, a mistake, and the house was always too small. They always told me this with an arm around me and a reassuring hug,”  she told us. 

            When Blythe’s mother-in-law came to see the house, she said, “Blythe has a very pretty house, but there’s no place to eat or sleep in it.” 

            Mother remembered how they all would laugh at this but it never diminshed the love they had for this house. She always spoke of Coral Cote as being special and took that house in her mind wherever she went all over the world for the rest of her life.

                                                                            Coral Cote

            

            My grandparents lived at Coral Cote for 44 years until the summer of 1962 when Blythe had a stroke and died.  Harlan could not face living there without her and moved to Florida. Coral Cote was sold. My mother and her sister Mary Blythe, spent that summer clearing out their childhood home where it seemed that nothing inside had ever been discarded.  Someone thought to unscrew the brass door knocker from the front door and it ended up with my Mother.  She put it away and from time to time would get it out and tell us stories of Coral Cote.  When my Mother died in 2014, I took the brass door knocker, carefully put it away in a drawer wrapped in flannel as if it were a baby. Somehow it felt sacred.

 

            This summer as I was clearing out a chest of drawers I came across the handsome door knocker that is now 103 years old.  I like holding it in my hand.  It’s heavy and it made me think of all the people through many decades that had used it on the front door of Coral Cote. I felt that now it was my responsibility to decide what to do with it so that it would be kept and its history preserved.

 

            Recently in July, I applied to the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines to see if they would take it as an artifact.  When Mr. Landis, Curator, suggested I contact the owner of the house he sent me the link to the Polk County Assessor’s website with the name of the current owner, Christina Muell.

 

            Little did I know this would begin a flurry of emails back and forth between Asheville and Des Moines.  Christina Muell Yaeger told me about herself and her family and two children. I described a little about the history of the house she now was living in and my connection to it.  I mailed her several descriptions, stories, and the history that Virginia Cory, my mother had written for our family.  In the second email I described and sent a photo of the Coral Cote brass door knocker with the date 1918 engraved on it. Not knowing if they would want the door knocker I told her that the Curator of the Iowa Historical Museum had suggested I contact her first.  

            That was when she wrote back, “We would be honored to put the door knocker back on the original door! We will continue to share the stories and keep the memory alive!  It would be great to have you and your family visit sometime!”

 

            Had fate intervened to make this all happen?  My worries vanished as Christina Yaeger and I exchanged a few more emails about each other. I was certain that the door knocker would be cherished by this young family because it was going back to where it had come from 103 years ago.  I thought about how delighted my Mother would have been to know the door knocker she carefully saved for over 50 years is on its way home again.

                                The Yaeger family - Christina, LaMar, Jakobe (10) and Currence (3)

Present owners of 1242 43rd Street, Des Moines, Iowa

 

Kristina,

I'm pleased to hear that worked out for getting the door knocker back to the house. I live not too far southeast of the home and will have to ride by on my bicycle.

 

If you have not had a chance, we have an online database that shows the Blythe Cory wedding dress. If you do make it to Des Moines and can give us 72 hours notice we should be able to show it to you in person.*

 

Leo Landis, Curator

August 2021

 

(*In 2012, I donated my grandmother’s 108 year old Victorian wedding dress and wrote the story about it. It now belongs to the State Museum Historical Museum of Iowa.)