John C. Anderson purchased three lots, 16-19 in Block A of the Town  of Monrovia Subdivision from the Monrovia Land and Water Company in  1888.  At this time, these lots on Lime Avenue were the northern  boundary of the Town of Monrovia.

Anderson, a contractor, built  this six-room house for his wife and sons.  One of the sons, George,  spent almost his entire life of 87 years in the house, and his mother  stayed on in the house,  after her husband died, until she died.   George's brother and sister-in-law lived in the house several years  until around 1924 they moved to 343 N. Ivy Avenue.

The California  Water and Telephone Company attempted to acquire the property for use as  a parking lot during the 1960's, but George Anderson would not sell.

On  George Anderson's death in 1974, the property was left to a charitable  trust.  When the old family home could not be sold due to many years of  deferred maintenance, funds were given by the trust to the Friends of  the Monrovia Library to purchase the home and restore it as a project in  connection with the celebration of our country's bicentennial.  After  the restoration was completed under the leadership of the late Brice  Tulloss, title to the house was given to the newly organized Monrovia  Historical Society.  The house today is furnished as it would have  appeared when the Andersons lived in it.

215 E. Lime is a Queen  Anne style house with some Stick-Eastlake detailing.  The asymmetrical  plan, decorative scroll work, and hip roof with front facing gable are  Queen Anne elements, while the frieze of vertical siding and square  chamfered porch posts are Stick-Eastlake characteristics.  The stairs to  the porch are flanked by solid wooden balustrades, and the original  scroll work porch railing has been replaced by one of simple square  posts.  The house was enlarged around the turn of the last century by  the addition of a bathroom, screen porch, and bedroom to the rear of the  house.

The interior of the house has twelve foot ceilings in each  of the original rooms and a broad central hallway.  The parlor,  furnished with an Eastlake parlor suite, is connected to the dining room  by massive pocket doors. An interesting feature of the dining room is  the service window into the pantry.  The only items of original  furniture in the house are in the dining room:  a settee with  stick-and-ball design and two side chairs which were returned by the  Moore sisters and have been refurbished.  The kitchen is dominated by a  wood burning range.  The front bedroom has been turned into an office,  while the middle bedroom features a bedroom site of birds-eye maple.   The rear bedroom, furnished as a children's room, has a four poster bed  with canopy.

A portion of the original barn remains at the rear  of the property, while two oak trees, planted long ago by John Anderson  to support a hammock, now provide ample shade for the rear yard.