The brick front gates at the Leet Farm were also built at the same time as the house and
garage by Detlefsen and Thoms crew. Max Detlefsen (Personal communication 1997)
related that William Leet brought out a new roll of dimes while the cement was being worked
up for the caps for the gate posts and threw the roll into the mix. Interestingly, this story had
evolved through the years into gold coins rather than the actual dimes.
An inscription in the cement work of the barn indicated that it was built in 1917 by Fritz
Thoms,
and it is likely that the other tile block outbuildings were built by Thoms in
partnership with Detlefsen around the same time.
These outbuildings include the chicken house, the scale house, the hog house, and
the boar house.
The barn and these outbuildings would have been built under Fred
Hassler's guidance and direction either as owner or farm manager and were not built for
Leet. It is known that Hassler did not receive clear title to this property until January 19,
1918; therefore, the barn was built while he was the farm manager rather than the official
property owner. Closer examination of the construction of the tile block outbuildings
revealed that the blocks used in the construction of the hog house and the scale house are
identical to those used in the barn (i.e., ridged blocks with bullnose, or rounded corners).
The colors of the blocks are also similar. This strongly suggests that these three
buildings, the hog house, the scale house and the barn were built around the same time
using materials obtained from the same tile factory. The tile blocks used in the chicken
house and the boar house, on the other hand, are similar to one another and consist of a
combination of smoothed tile blocks and bricks, the latter used on the corners, which are
not rounded. This would suggest contemporaneity in the construction of the chicken house
and boar house, probably post-dating the construction of the other buildings.
