The lot on which this house was built was bought in 1865 by Clemence F. Weber (1816-1887) from Mortimer and Susan O’Connor. Clemence had immigrated from France in 1828, first arriving in Philadelphia and then coming to Havre de Grace where for several years he was a shoemaker. He then became the owner of a large shoe store and invested in real property. At the time of his death (in 1887 at the home of his daughter in Philadelphia) he owned 30 houses in Havre de Grace and left his estate to his daughter, Josephine E. Stephens. It is not known whether there was a house on this lot at that time, but it is very possible (other nearby houses date to 1860). And the 1899 Sanborn Insurance Map appears to show a dwelling here.

Josephine Stephens died in 1929 and her executor in 1933 sold this property to Joseph Perry Hargis, Sr. (1889-1976) and his wife. This house has many characteristics of a Sears Roebuck Catalog Model Home Kit. Between 1908 and 1940 Sears sold about 75,000 homes with 370 different designs by mail order in all 48 states, several in Havre de Grace. However, a former neighbor, Robert Teller, whose Uncle John Patterson built 715 South Washington Street, says that his Uncle John once described how Joe Hargis ordered the lumber from Bel Air and ordered it cut exactly to size to save on-site carpenter hours. And when the lumber wasn’t cut as specified, Joe Hargis returned it to the lumber yard. This contrasts with the Sears practice of always shipping the needed lumber already cut to size and puts into doubt that this might have been a Sears kit home.

Joseph Hargis demolished whatever house had been here and had this house built in 1933 for his family. He and his wife, Mary “Elma” Hargis, raised a daughter, Mary Jane, and son, Joseph “Perry,” in the house, in which the couple lived for the next 47 years. As a widow, Elma Hargis sold the home to Gloria Hines Day in 1980. Gloria and her husband, Willard Day, enjoyed the home for another 37 years and were involved in supporting the nearby Havre de Grace Decoy Museum.

Gloria Day sold the property to Rocky and Katlyn Workman in 2017 who have made some visible improvements to the home that enlarged it and they have repainted the whole house and its large two-story garage in the rear.

County Records
Built 1940. 2155 sq ft, 1.5 stories with basement, fireplace, 2-story brick chimney, 2 baths, detached garage, .29-acre lot.