From at least 1884 to 1925 when the present home, 419 S. Walnut St. was built, another home stood on this spot. The 1884 Appleton city directory lists this as a boarding house with the occupants being moulder George A. Chatfield; Mrs. Olive Franklin, George W. Stoddard, who apparently owned the boarding house and his wife, Eunice, a dressmaker; laborer Ephraim H. Stoddard; printer William W. Stoddard. By 1887 Eunice was a widow and she and William still occupied the home.
By 1896 a building on this spot, possibly the same building, was occupied by James V. Canavan, a physician. He lived here from 1896 through at least 1905. Also living in the home were Katie Hetzer, a domestic (1896) and Mathilda Schumacher, also a domestic (1899).
In 1906 Frank Joseph Schreiter. who built the present home, was living on this property.
Some time in the 1890s a barn was relocted to the back of this house. The dismaltling of this barn was associated with a rather colorful incident (the following account was taken from the Wednesday, May 23, 1923 Appleton Post-Crescent):
An uncanny feeling crept over Theodore Albrecht, Fairview-st. when he entered the barn at the rear of the Frank Schreiter home at Sixth and Walnut-sts. which he had purchased recently to dismantle.
What foul deed had been committed here in years past? Or what ghoulish fancy had unearthed the remains of what once had been a human being. Scattered about the barn on the ground floor and up in the hay loft he found the mouldering bones of a human skeleton.
Albrecht wanted the lumber in the barn. He had no use for the bones. Besides, he believed this was a matter for the police and the coroner. Chief George T. Prim and Dr. H. E. Ellsworth, coroner, when informed of the discovery paid a visit to the "haunted" barn more out of formality than out of suspicion. The belief of Dr. Ellsworth was confirmed. The bones had evidently been used for medical study. Some of the dissevered members bore numbers and other marks of description.
It was remembered that the barn was once the property of Dr. J. V. Canavan former mayor of Appleton and county clerk "Any physician who leaves the medical school, brings along a few bones," said Dr. Ellsworth. "I suppose if someone found human bones on my property, they would want an investigation. The bones were used by Dr. Canavan. I remember when he had them."
The barn is probably one of the oldest buildings in Appleton. It is a relic of the days when Kentucky thoroughbred horses were kept here. It was formerly the Goff barn on Prospect-st and had been moved over to Walnut-st about 25 years ago. "It was an old barn 35 years ago." said Peter Hoeffel, who remembers its location on Prospect-st.
