CONNER’S CORNER HISTORY

This grand mansion was built by Judge James Perry Conner in 1893 for $7,000.  Conner was born in Indiana and moved with his family to Black Hawk County, Iowa, when he was five years old.  He attended Upper Iowa University, and then returned home to teach for a short while before enrolling in the University of Iowa to study law.  He was admitted to the bar in 1873, and settled in Denison, Iowa, to establish a private practice.  Conner married his wife Allie in 1875.  In 1880, he became district attorney, and four years later, was elected to circuit court judge. In 1886, with support from both the Republican and Democratic parties, he was elected district judge of the 16th judicial district.  He was elected to Congress in 1900, and was re-elected four times, serving five consecutive terms (1900 - 1910).  The Conners had one adopted son, Raymond, who grew up in the house.

The house was divided into apartments throughout the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and was bought by Dave and Kathy Macumber in 1991.  The Macumbers lovingly restored the home inside and out and opened it as a bed and breakfast in 1993.  Traci Comstock and Kyle Heyen bought Conner’s Corner from the Macumbers in 1999 and continued to run it as a B&B until 2003, when they sold it to the current owner, Sylvia Bachmann, a Denison native.