To spot the Dresbach-Hunt-Boyer House, look for a cream-colored, two-story home with tall, narrow windows, wood siding, decorative brackets under the roof, and a fancy balustrade above its welcoming front porch at 604 2nd Street.
Now, take in this scene and let your mind wander back to the early 1870s, when Davis was still dust and dreams, and a successful merchant named William Dresbach decided to build a house that would make all his neighbors jealous. Just picture the swish of those long dresses and the sharp snap of wool suits as men and women strolled past this proud Italianate beauty-the only one of its kind still standing in Davis. The wood siding feels almost warm in the sunlight, and those ornate brackets peeking out from under the roofline seem almost as fancy as a Victorian mustache wax! Dresbach was more than just a dapper dresser; he served as the town’s very first postmaster, though luck didn’t always follow him-he lost this home to bankruptcy by 1879. The story only gets twistier as the house exchanged hands, landing firmly with the Hunt family at the turn of the century, where it picked up stories and secrets with each new resident. Mary Boyer, Frank Hunt’s niece, held onto the house well into the groovy 1970s, making sure its legacy never faded. By the way, this stately spot has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. Not bad for a home that’s witnessed over a century of hopes, hiccups, and history-without ever losing its sense of style!
