1.  The Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation moved to these offices on Webster Street on December 9, 1979. Here one finds a gift and book shop, with an art gallery displaying the paintings of John Blake Bergers, which illustrate scenes from Willa Cather's writings. The work of local and regional artists also is exhibited here from time-to-time.

Leave the Foundation Building and walk south [left] to the end of the block. Stop. Look west across the street at the Food Mart.

2.  Miner Brothers' General Store, 1883, was erected on this site by J. L. Miner (the prototype for Mr. Harling in My Ántonia). Cather describes this building in "Two Friends" and mentions the high windows on the south side of the building over what was then a wide wooden sidewalk.

Notice the building one door north.

3.  Charles Cather's Real Estate Office was located upstairs over the north side of the Food Mart. Mr. Cather made farm loans, wrote abstracts, and sold insurance from this office. It was here that Willa Cather had her laboratory for dissecting cats and dogs.

Cross Webster Street and walk west one block to the corner of 3rd Avenue and Cedar Street.

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4.   Willa Cather's Childhood Home (1884-1904) is described in The Song of the Lark:

"They turned into another street and saw before them lighted windows; a low story- and-a-half house, with a wing built on at the right and a kitchen addition at the back, everything a little on the slant -- roofs, windows, and doors."

Willa Cather's room was upstairs on the north. The wallpaper of red and brown roses, put on the walls by Willa herself, is still there. The Cather children called this room "The Rose Bower." This house and each room can be found not only in The Song of the Lark, but also in "Old Mrs. Harris," and "The Best Years."

Walk west one block to the corner of 3rd Avenue and Seward Street.5.  The Harling Home in My Ántonia was actually the home of the J. L. Miner family. In the book, this was the house where Ántonia lived when she worked for the Harlings. As a child, Willa Cather used to look for Mr. Miner's shadow on the window, even as Jim Burden did in My Ántonia.

Look east across the street and one door south.

6.   The Rosen House of "Old Mrs. Harris" was the home of Willa Cather's neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Weiner. Cather's knowledge of French literature began with her association with the Weiners. A Jewish couple, they both spoke German and French, Mrs. Weiner told Willa about French novels, reading them to her and translating as she went along. During Cather's childhood, Mrs. Weiner's kitchen overlooked the Cather's backyard.

Walk north two blocks to the corner of 5th Avenue and Seward Street.

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7.   The Baptist Church was attended by the Cather family during Willa's childhood.

Walk north one block to the corner of 6th Avenue and Seward Street.

8.   The Cather Family Home (1904-1931) was the last residence of Willa's parents, Charles and Virginia Cather, who lived here until their deaths (father 1928, mother 1931).

Walk north across the street.

9.   The Methodist Church building described in My Ántonia, now serves as a Masonic Lodge. Cather tells how, during the winter, the children were starved for color and how they stood in the cold and looked at the stained glass windows:

"When I got as far as the Methodist Church, I was about halfway home. I can remember how glad I was when there happened to be a light in the church, and the painted glass window shone out at us as we came along the frozen street. In the winter bleakness a hunger for color came over people, like the Laplander's craving for fats and sugar. Without knowing why, we used to linger on the sidewalk outside the church when the lamps were lighted early for choir practice or prayer-meeting, shivering and talking until our feet were like lumps of ice. The crude reds and greens and blues of that colored glass held us there."

Walk east across the street.

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10.  The Webster County Court House is the setting, described in One of Ours, of the trials of German immigrants during World War I.

Continue east to the corner of 6th Avenue and Cedar Street.

11.  Grace Episcopal Church is the church in which Willa Cather and her parents were confirmed on December 27, 1922. The Cather family was dedicated to this church and Willa Cather remained a loyal member until she died. On the north side are two windows given by Cather in memory of her parents. She chose The Good Shepherd for her father because she had happy memories of him as a sheep rancher back in Virginia. The walnut altar rail was given in memory of her brother, Douglas Cather. This church held a memorial service for Willa Cather following her death in 1947. A mass is offered annually at Cather Spring Festival, and also on Cather's birthday, December 7th.

Walk east of the church one block to Webster Street.

12.  The Auld Public Library, 1917-1918, is a gift of William Thomas Auld, uncle of Jessica Cather Auld's husband, J. W. (Bill) Auld. Jessica was one of Willa's younger sisters. He gave the city of Red Cloud $20,000 in early April, 1917. On April 9th, Dr. Robert Damerell, then Mayor of Red Cloud, selected nine individuals to serve as members of the first Library Board and charged them with the responsibility of selecting and purchasing a site, choosing an architect, erecting a building, and purchasing fixtures and books for a new library. Prominent among that group of citizens was Charles Cather, father of Willa. The building was constructed at a cost of $15,000 and formally opened on March 8, 1918. Later that same year Willa Cather's My Ántonia was published in October and World War I ended in November.

Walk south of the library and cross 5th Avenue. Turn east [left] and cross Webster Street. Proceed south toward 4th Avenue. Stop at the next-to-the-last building.

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13.   Dr. Cook's City Pharmacy was located in this building. When Willa Cather was in high school, she worked for Dr. Cook, taking her pay in books, a magic lantern, and the rose wallpaper for her room in the home at 3rd and Cedar.

Look west across the street.

14.   The Red Cloud Opera House, 1885, is located on the second floor above what used to be the hardware store. Here Blind Boone played, William Jennings Bryan spoke, and Willa Cather was graduated from high school in 1890. One can still read the name of Willa's brother, Douglas, and others scrawled on the stage walls.

Look at the buildings just north [right] of the Opera House.

15.   The Moon Block, 1885-1886, is the long brick building just north of the Opera House and was built by Senator Moon of Michigan. Red Cloud and the Moon Block appear in The Song of the Lark under other names: the Moon Block becomes the Duke Block, and Red Cloud becomes Moonstone.

Look now at the corner building to the left of the Opera House.

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16.   The State Bank Building, 1883, with its entrance on the diagonal, is made of native brick, was one of the first brick buildings in Red Cloud.

Cross 4th Avenue and proceed to the second door on your left.

17.   The Farmers' and Merchants' Bank building, 1889, was erected by Silas Garber, the founder of Red Cloud (1871), the fourth governor of Nebraska (1875-1879), and the prototype for Captain Forrester in A Lost Lady. The former bank now houses the Willa Cather State Historic Site and is owned by Nebraska State Historical Society. Cather archival materials are located in this building. The building was restored in the late 1950s by the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. No doubt the "lost lady" herself many times visited this building!

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