Springfield’s oldest standing home hits the market
The oldest standing home in Springfield has just hit the market. After an extensive restoration, the “horse farm” where Laura Ingalls Wilder once watered her horses on the way to her homestead in Mansfield could be yours for $1.2 million.
The home, located at 1260 E. Walnut St. in the 65802 zip code, was built by E. Stine for a cost of $6,200, according to a letter from March 1869. The house also comes with its fair share of stories. According to Realtor Richard Crabtree, who compiled the research on the house, the house is mentioned in the biographies of Wilder, the famed pioneer author of “Little House on the Prairie.”
Wilder referred to the house as the “horse farm,” where she would stop to rest on the way through Jones Spring in east Springfield on the way back to Mansfield. Crabtree says the house at 1260 E. Walnut St. was the only one on the street with horse stables when Wilder was traversing through Missouri.
“And then the next day, they apparently got on their horse and made their way to Mansfield,” Crabtree said.
The house, which sits on 1.3 acres of land on East Walnut Street, was built for wealthy merchant Waldo Cornwell Booth in 1869. According to Crabtree, Booth owned a large dry goods store on the southeast corner of the square, and he went on to own the Old Coon Tobacco Company. He was also president of the school board. Booth lived in the house with his wife, Martha Thomas-Booth, and their four children.
Through the remainder of the 19th and 20th centuries, the house was owned by Springfield business elite such as Dr. William Park of Cranks Drug Store and the Kickapoo Transit