Since moving into their 1909-built Oakland home just a few months ago, Cara Katzen and her two sons have uncovered several intriguing artifacts on the property that hint at its history, including prohibition-era whiskey bottles, uranium glass, old letters and photographs, and antique model airplane parts.

“There is speculation it was once a stagecoach stop,” Katzen says of the house. “Being a history buff, I started looking into who owned it.”

The family is still researching the home’s full story with the help of a neighbor who is one of seven children raised in it. The land that the home sits on originally belonged to the Erker family, founders of the fifth-generation Erker’s Fine Eyewear company in downtown Kirkwood.

Katzen and her sons had previously been living nearby in Kirkwood in

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