Sturdivant-Sawyer House
707 Drake Ave., Centerville, IAThe Sturdivant-Sawyer House (c. 1903) represents the application of Colonial Revival stylistic elements to a large Italian-villa type plan. This well-preserved house is unmatched in Centerville and constitutes a major visual landmark on a primarily residential street. The house employs an early date tile roof and boasts interior features of outstanding quality and integrity.
Francic M. Drake (1830-1903), noted military veteran, lawyer, merchant, state governor (1896-98), and founder of Drake University in Des Moines (1881), resided in Centerville following the Civil War and acquired a homestead known as Block 18, in what became Drake's 4th Addition. Drake constructed the subject house as a gift for his daughter Mary Drake Sturdivant. The contractor was possibly C. E. Eastman of Des Moines. The exact construction date is elusive, the property having been transferred at the time of the daughter's wedding in 1901, and again in early 1903, and the house being placed on the tax rolls in 1904. The Sturdivant family owned the house until 1908, and briefly from 1914-17.
J. L. Sawyers, who married another Drake daughter, owned the house after 1907, and used it as a medical clinic while living in the Drake house. He served as president of Centerville National Bank until his death in 1914. Frank S. Payne (1869-1933) was the next and the longest occupant of the house. Payne, an Iowa-born lawyer, located in Centerville in 1894, served two terms in the state legislature, as president of Iowa Southern Utilities Company, and president of the Centerville National Bank, and purchased this house in 1917. Mrs. Grace Dickinson Payne, his wife, was locally noted for her leadership in various women's social organizations. It was during the Payne occupancy that the garage was added and a maid was employed. The house was most recently owned by the Norris family (to 1952), and the Beck family (until 1982)
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.