This modest home has a colorful history representative of the early days of Jefferson Park. Its first owner, George H. Montgomery, resided here from 1886 to 1893 and was likely its builder. Montgomery worked as a carpenter.
Daniel Thomas, the second owner of the house, used it as a rental property between 1910 and 1917. Thomas was a German immigrant who owned a bakery just two buildings west at the corner of West 26th Avenue and Decatur Street. Thomas and his family lived in the apartment above the bakery.
Beginning in 1917 and into the 1920s, the house was occupied by Frank Thomas, a salesman for his father’s bakery, and his wife Eleanor. Frank bought the house in 1930 and, like his father, rented it to various middle-class workers. Renters included an accountant for the railroad, a clerk for the Clason Map Company, and an employee of the Hungarian Flour Mill.
