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Litter on Center Avenue
1905 photo courtesy of Tom Anderson

Orrie Anderson (left) and his friends enjoy a litter of puppies close to the Anderson home on Center Avenue.

Andrew and Nellie Anderson, ca. late 1920s

Orrie's parents, Andrew and Nellie, first lived in a little house on Kellogg south of Lincoln Way where Andrew had a tailor shop.  The Andersons later moved to their two story home at 204 Center Avenue and raised four children, Glenn, Guy, Orrie, and Naomi.  Andrew later became a railroad brakeman until he lost his right thumb in a coupler between two cars.

The Ames Solid Waste Recovery Plant has replaced several houses on the east side of Center Avenue.  And although the coal pile to the north now shortens the street to one block, Center Avenue originally extended two and one half blocks north from Lincoln Way, ending at the Chicago and North Western tracks.  Like many streets in early Ames, Center Avenue was surfaced with cinders from the nearby coal-burning municipal power plant.

Orrie Anderson grew up with asthma, so his father bought him a pony to make up for his not being able to keep up with the other kids.  By the time he was 14 he was working with Shetland ponies in Nevada for Guy Welty, the man who first brought these small ponies to this country from the Shetland Islands in the North Sea.  This photo shows Orrie during his first trip to the State Fair.

Naomi plays the accordian as her mom, Nellie Anderson, watches from the doorway of her home at 204 Center.  Some Ames residents will remember Naomi Anderson performing on the organ at Hostetter's Solar Inn.

In this photo from about 1948, Orrie drives the Shetland, Wild Child, while seated in a viceroy buggy just south of the ISC Cemetery.  The owner of the Shetland and rig was Chuck Ostrich, a Maxwell and Chrysler Dealer in Des Moines.