153 Zimmerman Street

The House at 153 Zimmerman Street

By Betty Jean Barbour Olson

The house at 153 Zimmerman Street had been more than just a roof over my head for over half a century. It holds securely the memories of living done by five generations of my family: the Barbour’s, Grandmother Melville, the Bert Olsons, and the Clark Olsons.

Robert and Anne M. Barbour raised four daughters, Betty, Lorna, Marydale, and Sandra Anne Barbour’s mother was Jean Melville. Bert and Betty Barbour Olson raised Clark and Jean at the Zimmerman Street address; and Clark with his wife Elizabeth lived thre with their son, Tom, after returning from Army service in Germany for three years.

The structure itself is not an architectural masterpiece; it is a simple working class house made into a comfortable home by the people who occupied it. It started existence as a four room cottage, 18 feet by 24 feet with a natural foundation in the 1870’s. Marks on the back wall indicate that it had a lean to shed attached at one time.

Before 1900, owners Joseph and Arvila Rumbold Hyland added a two story larger addition to the front. It was the reverse floor plan of houses at 143 and 189 Zimmerman

Street. This addition included a parlor, living room, a bedroom, and extension to the dining room, an ell-shaped porch downstairs, and a three room apartment upstairs with an outside staircase. By 1930 the porch had been enclosed to make a sun porch across the front, and the side porch had been enclosed to make an entrance hall; and the staircase to the second floor was built in.

My parents, Robert and Anne Barbour lived at 153 from 1937 until 1950. They rented to June Brown Davis for a few years before Bert Olson and I bought the house in late 1952. We moved in with baby Clark and Jean was born in January 1953. After Bert’s death in 1971, I had the upstairs remodeled and after renting it out for a few years, I moved upstairs. The downstairs had been rented a few years when Clark, Betty and their baby, Tommy, moved back to the U.S. after living in Germany. They purchased their own home in Bowmansville and I stayed on until I retired and moved to southern California. I sold to Joe Zinni, who is the present landlord.

I lived in the house at 153 Zimmerman Street from age 11 until age 62, minus two years. That’s half a century at the same address!

This article was written by Betty Jean Barbour Olson, widow of longtime former photographer for the Tonawanda News, Bert Olson, in August 2005. The photos were taken in September 2005 by Donna Zellner Neal for the Museum’s collection.