Meet the Weavers

folks you might know

John and Jill Weaver bought the house from Dr. Vic Johnston before it reached the market in 1985. John had often told Dr. Vic that if he chose to sell the house, John wanted to buy it—so he received the house offer first. Fern priced the house at what she thought was fair, so there was never an appraisal, and John accepted the deal.

Jill Weaver remembered how they came to purchase the house and move from 318 Rice Street. Jill said they had, “come up in the world and our circumstances were better, so we wanted to move.” They had first considered purchasing the elegant red brick house on Rice Street owned by Doctor Spurzem, but a bidding war occurred and they lost to another doctor. Then the rumors began about the Woodbury house going on the market, and they knew that was the place for them.

“We always loved that house,” Jill said.

Martha, the only one of the three Weaver children to live in the house, remembered how much her father wanted to live in the Woodbury house.

“My father was born and raised within the shadow of Woodbury House on nearby Rice Street,” Martha recalled. “It’s no surprise that the house captured my dad’s attention; it’s hard to miss, with its stately façade and prominent position as Anoka’s unofficial gateway. For as long as I can remember, my dad was determined to live there someday. For him, it represented the culmination of two of his great loves: the city of Anoka, and its history. I distinctly remember him saying, ‘We are going to live there someday.’ Considering how determined a person he was, I knew it would happen. Together we would often imagine what it might be like inside; he’d heard there was a ballroom. I had heard there were tunnels leading to the riverbank. Neither was true, but when it came time to move into the house, my dad never viewed himself as its owner but more as its steward and caretaker for the next generation. He opened the house up for tours and community groups whenever asked, and always took great joy in sharing the house’s history. He would be happy knowing it’s now in good hands and will be preserved and shared with generations to come.”

John lost his battle with cancer in 2004, and soon, Jill decided she didn’t want to stay in the house alone. With help from her son, Jeff, Jill listed the property with a unique easement to protect the historic view of the house. A developer expressed interest in the property, but the recession of 2007 rendered those plans useless.

No movement with the plans meant no profit, and no profit meant trouble. The house stood empty over winter, and the furnace had a problem, leading to frozen pipes and thousands of dollars in damages to the interior. The city of Anoka stepped in and helped with the restoration cost, but eventually, the property was foreclosed on and put back on the market. Buyers were still few with the economy in slow recovery, and in 2012, the city of Anoka purchased the property to protect this National Register property and local landmark.