Without a doubt, we live in a throw-away society. We generate more garbage and
refuse than can be handled. We have lots of
“one-time use only” items, and most of us use many more paper goods, etc., than we really need to
use. Life was not always that way. People living in the 1800s to early 1900s
lived a lot more frugally than we do today.
That frugality was something practiced religiously by the E. F. Juergen family of Cypress. It can be seen from the records they kept and the stories told that they were definitely a “waste not, want not” family. Not only did they work hard to accumulate the things they needed to
survive, but they threw very little away. Clothes and shoes were recycled among
family members, and even buildings were
“recycled.” When a building was no longer needed for its original purpose, it was converted
to another use.
One such building is the little blue house seen today just east of the old
Juergen
’s Store in Cypress Top Historic Park.
The little blue house was not always blue; it was an unpainted, weathered board
building that at one point in time housed a doctor
’s office. Another time it housed a Justice of the Peace, and it also served as a
barber shop. It may have
even housed a Delco generator used by the Juergenses until regular electricity
became available. Perhaps its most notable tenant was a vaudeville actor, born
and raised in Cypress, who came back to Cypress every so often to visit, and
ended up retiring in the little blue house. Although it only measures 13
½ by15 feet inside, “Blondie Kerr” (the actor’s stage name) found retirement there comfortable enough. His personal belongings
were there, and he spent some of his time tending bar in the store and
socializing with the patrons. After the actor passed on, the little house was
used as an office for various businesses, including a small plant nursery.
Today, the little blue house that had so many purposes through the years has
been restored to the way it may have looked when the vaudeville actor lived
there. It holds a bed, a washstand with shaving paraphernalia, a trunk with
some of his memorabilia and pictures of him on the wall. It is one of the focal
points of
Cypress Top Historic Park.
The park is located at 26026 Old Hempstead Highway in Cypress. It is one of
Commissioner Steve Radack
’s Harris
