photo by: Contributed photo by Eddie Van Vleet

This two-story home at 1700 Mississippi St. was built by James Naismith in 1923.

Just south of the University of Kansas campus, on a quiet tree-lined street where the leaves are ablaze with fall colors, stands a house James Naismith built.

Along with inventing the game of basketball and serving as director of physical education at KU, Naismith was handy with a hammer and a nail. In 1923, he put his skills to work building the house on the corner of 17th and Mississippi Street. The property was one of three contiguous lots he owned on Mississippi Street.

Today, the traditional-looking two-story home at 1700 Mississippi St. is on the market for $300,000. Its owner, Lew Llewellyn, bought the house in 1965 and is the third owner in 95 years.

Llewellyn, who is retired from decades of coaching at Haskell Indian Nations University, and his late wife, Lois, raised five children in the spacious home. Their daughter, Amy Wilson, a Realtor for Stephens Real Estate, is selling the house for her father.

photo by: Kathy Hanks

Lew Llewellyn stands in front of the house James Naismith built in 1923, at the corner of 17th and Mississippi Streets, on Tuesday, Oct.23, 2018

photo by: Kathy Hanks

Nothing has changed in the attic of the house that James Naismith built at 1700 Mississippi St, Lawrence, Ks., on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.

When you step into the four-bedroom house, complete with a full attic and basement, Naismith’s craftsmanship is still visible. It can be detected in the fireplace and mantel, the original French doors opening onto a patio, the hardwood floors, the original trim around windows and doorways, even in the exposed lath and plaster walls in the attic.

photo by: Kathy Hanks

The lath and plaster that James Naismith installed in the house he built in 1923. Photo was taken on Oct. 23, 2018.

The Llewellyns remodeled the kitchen and bathroom and pulled up the wall-to-wall carpets the second owner installed to expose the hardwood floors. They also removed the huge wood-burning stove from the basement and replaced it with central heating and air.

photo by: Kathy Hanks

A vent in the floor of an upstairs bedroom put in the home at the time of construction, photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.

Naismith lived in the house for 10 years before moving two doors away to a smaller home. Llewellyn said Naismith had someone else build that house for him. He taught at KU until 1937, then finally retired. Three years later, in November 1939, he died at 78 of a heart attack while recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage.

photo by: Contributed photo by Eddie Van Vleet

The office in the home at 1700 Mississippi St., has a tribute to James Naismith, including a peach basket on the wall.

Naismith’s grandson, Jim Naismith, has visited the house on the corner of 17th and Mississippi on a trip to Lawrence.

“We were told old family papers and canceled checks were found stuffed in the walls,” Jim Naismith said, speaking via phone from his home in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Jim Naismith wasn’t surprised that his grandfather built the house.

“He was fully able to build a house,” Jim Naismith said. “Granddad’s upbringing was on a farm, and that included building stuff. He lost his dad when he was 9 and worked in the lumber industry in Canada in his late teens. He knew how to handle tools, an ax and a saw.”

Meanwhile, Llewellyn regrets that he tossed out the papers he discovered in the attic when his family moved into the house. He found them fascinating; there was even a canceled check for a 21-cent loaf of bread.

“I had heard the Naismith family was private, so I burned the papers,” Llewellyn said. Now, he wonders if he should have kept them because they had Naismith’s signature.

Wilson said that when Llewellyn turned 90 last May, he downsized and they put the house on the market. She’s surprised the well-cared-for home hasn’t sold. But she believes it might be because there are only 1 1/2 bathrooms.

photo by: Kathy Hanks

Amy Wilson stands next to the fireplace James Naismith built for the home with the French doors behind her, on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.

Wilson was 5 years old when they moved into the house and has wonderful memories of her childhood. She and her siblings could walk to grade school, junior high, high school and eventually college from the house.

“A family could move into the house as is,” Wilson said. ” But not everyone wants an older home.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Llewellyn stood on the front porch, talking about the house’s history. He said he and Lois once went to a lecture on campus given by an architect who showed photos displaying various styles of houses. Then their house showed up on the screen. The lecturer described it as a box with a porch attached.

As Llewellyn walked to his car, “Big Tooter,” the campus steam whistle, could be heard in the distance, briefly breaking the reverie in the quiet neighborhood.