Dr. Levinus Daems built or purchased the home on the right (West) soon after his arrival in Virginia City in 1863. Born in Belgium, Levinus Daems studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Paris. While in Paris, he likely met his future wife and nursing student Marie Valstin. Levinus sailed to New York with the Valstin family in 1856. They traveled west to St. Louis, where Marie and Levinus married in 1860. After stopping in Colorado, Dr. Daems arrived in Bannack, Montana in 1863, where he stayed only briefly before coming to Virginia City. Marie joined him from Colorado in 1864. Dr. Daems operated the City Drug Store on Wallace Street just east of the present day Masonic Temple. Active in local politics and the Masonic Lodge, Dr. Daems died in 1874, Marie in 1904, and many of their descendants still live in the area.
Separated by mere inches, windows in the Daems side look directly to the exterior walls in the Corbett side of the home; providing no view whatsoever. Logic dictates that the homes were completed when further apart because current locations make exterior construction impossible. Research into the property titles gives little insight into the mysterious placement of the houses. It would appear that the present locations are somehow connected to the construction of the Methodist Church next door in
1875. Perhaps the Daems family moved their home to accommodate the church? The definitive answer remains a mystery but the two homes are now connected by an interior doorway and function as a single unit. The Daems family sold the property to Charlie Bovey in 1952.
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