Fairy Tale/Hansel and Gretel House for sale

The house at 121 West Boulevard North is up for sale. It features a log cabin inside and while it looks tiny, it’s not.

Listed at $140,000, the house is packed inside with three bedrooms, two baths, a dining room and more. But don’t look at the pictures on the realtor.com site. These photos don’t show the house to its best advantage.

Photos of 121 West Blvd. North, published 2013 in Missouri Life magazine
Photos of 121 West Blvd. North, published 2013 in Missouri Life magazine

To see what it really is under the overgrown bushes, see the photos that accompanied see these photographs that were published in 2013 in Missouri Life magazine, along with an article I wrote about the history of this 1911/1935 home.

So what happened? I’ve been in touch via Facebook with the owner and she said she just can’t keep up with the house and the yard.

These images show what it could look like with some tough love, garden gloves and a lot of muscle. The realtor Mark Sieber marks@marksieber.com said there is an offer on it now, and it needs about $17,000 worth of work.

The house has been called the Gingerbread House or the Fairy Tale House. You may recall it as the Herb and Betty Brown house. The couple owned it from 1957-2010.

But the gardens were planted by Nadine Coleman who lived in it from 1941-1957. The house was modified into the sweet cottage you see today by Blanche and Arch McHarg sometime around 1935.

When I wrote the piece in 2013, it was owned by Kristin and Adam Kaiser and the plan was to use it as a specialty rental.

The house started out as a log cabin in 1911 and in 2004 it was named to Columbia’s Notable Properties list.

Today, at more than 100 years old, it’s needing some TLC, but whoever buys it will own a unique home. The house is listed at $140,000, but the history it embodies is priceless.

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