The land on which this house now sits, on the northeast corner of Pennington Avenue and Adams Street, was home to the Reynolds Brothers Can Manufacturing Company in the late 1800s. The factory became one of several can manufacturers (including that of S.J. Silver) that were consolidated into the American Can Company in 1901. That is the year that the company sold this property along with the manufactory and fixtures to Robert K. Vanneman (1853-1912) of Havre de Grace. He had come to Havre de Grace in 1883 from Cecil County, became Cashier for the First National Bank, and served as Mayor from 1895 to 1901.

In 1902, the Burns Carriage Factory (located immediately north of this house at North Adams and Green Streets) suffered a major fire and the nearby Reynolds Brothers Can Factory and warehouse on this land, containing 2,000,000 tin cans in storage, were destroyed. Robert and Laura Vanneman sold the five lots of land to Wesly Reynolds of Baltimore. When Wesley died in 1927 he left the five lots to his two daughters, Maude Reynolds and May Reynolds, of New Jersey. They sold all the land that same year to May A. Deibert, who most likely built this house and lived here until 1956 when she died.

May Deibert’s only son and heir, E. Roy Deibert and his wife, Ruth, of Cecil County sold all five lots of the property in 1963 to Charles L. Johnson and Hazel E. Jones (1920-2004). Hazel Jones was the widow of Melvin Jones with whom she bought a home on the south side of Girard Street in 1946. In 1972, Charles Johnson and Hazel Jones together deeded both of the properties (these five lots as well as the property on Girard Street) to Hazel Jones and her daughter, B. Rosita Gunter (1938-1990).

In 1998, her daughter Rosita having died, Hazel Jones deeded these two properties to her grandson, Michael D. Gunter (Rosita’s son born in 1957) if he survived her, and reserved a life estate for herself. The deed provided that if Michael didn’t survive her then the properties would go to another grandson, Jesse Artis. And Hazel Jones continued to live in this house by herself.

Sadly, on March 21, 2004, the 83-year-old Hazel Jones was found dead in her house. See a Baltimore Sun article published on March 23, 2004, “Death of Harford woman investigated as homicide.” Her murderer still walks free. On December 20, 2017, the Police Chief wrote, “Several years ago, we did look into additional information which we felt would lead us to solve the homicide. Unfortunately, this did not come to fruition.” The large corner property is still titled in Hazel Jones’s name and appears to remain unoccupied.

County Records
Built 1940. 1342 sq ft, 2 baths, 2 stories, 15,000 sq ft lot.