House for sale in Lawrence has hoops history: James Naismith lived and died there
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- James Naismith died at the house in 1939, months after moving in with his new bride.
- The 2‑story, 5‑bedroom Italianate house was built in 1872 and housed several families.
- The Andersons are selling the house privately; 2026 appraisal lists value at $931,000.
As a proud graduate of the University of Kansas and avid KU basketball fan, Jan-Eric Anderson knew he stood in a special place nearly 10 years ago when he and his wife, Amy, stepped inside the house at 1515 University Drive near the Lawrence campus.
It was the last house James Naismith, the father of basketball, called home before he died there in 1939, just months after moving in with his new bride.
The house was for sale.
Built in the popular late Victorian Italianate architecture of its day, the two-story, five-bedroom, three-bathroom house was built in 1872. The Andersons bought it, becoming one of the handful of families to call it home.
They spent a decade sharing the house and the story of its historical ties to Lawrence and KU, graciously hosting parties for friends, friends of friends and people associated with the university.
They opened the home, for instance, to former KU basketball star Jalen Wilson, now in his third season with the Brooklyn Nets, for his graduation party three years ago.
Ready now to start the next chapter of their life closer to family in the Kansas City area, the Andersons put the home up for sale this week. They’re selling it themselves, relying for now on social media posts and word of mouth.
They’ve already been asked: does the furniture come with the house? One photo on Instagram shows the large living room decked out like a magazine spread for Christmas.
“That’s negotiable,” said Anderson, 52. “We anticipate that the buyer of this home, this probably won’t be their primary residence. It’s probably a secondary home used for visits to Lawrence.
“It’s probably a KU fan who wants to have this available when they’re in town for games or events, or they have kids coming to KU.”
The Andersons knew as they drove up the first time that they wanted the house, which sits near the corner of Naismith Drive and University Drive next to campus.
“When we started to pull up it really was, aesthetically, the kind of thing that we would be interested in. And honestly, we didn’t know a ton about the history of the home,” Anderson said.
“But when we walked in we loved the layout. It’s an old farmhouse and that’s just kind of our style. And after we got in there, once we started looking seriously at the house, is when we realized what the strong historical context is for the home.
“And so we were pretty much immediately said ... this is a place where we want to be.
“We bought it and kind of committed to ourselves that we wanted to share the story of the home ... and make it known.”
The first improvement they made became a metaphor for how they lived there. They had a tall, overgrown hedge at the front of the property trimmed back so the house, previously hidden from view, could be seen from the street.
“We take a lot of pride in that because we’ve opened the house back up to make it viewable, a little more accessible, even to someone walking by,” said Anderson. “We’re restoring it back to kind of how it looked in the past.”
KU, Lawrence history lives there
The Oregon trail ran right through the home’s living room, Anderson said.
When the house was built, one year before KU’s first commencement, “there literally was nothing out here,” he said. “You had the town downtown, KU on the hill. It was all unsettled country outside of that and the house was out here on the western part of campus.”
In addition to Naismith, the home is connected to two other notable men associated with KU and Lawrence history, according to the 2008 application to get the home placed on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places.
The land where the house sits was originally claimed by pioneer James S. Emery, one of the early settlers of Lawrence and a passionate free-stater.
“The property at 1515 University Drive is possibly most significant for its association with Dr. Frank Strong,” according to the Historic Places application.
Strong was KU’s chancellor from 1902 to 1919, and lived in the house from 1919 until he died in 1934. It’s the only residence associated with Strong still existing. Strong Hall on KU’s campus bears his name.
The home is listed on historical registers as the Fernand-Strong House, named after the family that built it and KU’s chancellor.
Naismith is the most famous name associated with the house, “but there’s so much more to it than him. He’s just like a really quick snippet in the history of the home itself,” said Anderson.
It was a very quick snippet.
Naismith bought the property in March 1939 and moved in with his second wife, and died in the home in November of that year.
“He lived in multiple homes in Lawrence. This just happened to be the one he happened to be in the shortest amount of time,” Anderson said.
“But it was also the one that was at the end of his life. And then there’s the whole thing with him dying in the house in the bathtub and all that.”
Naismith died in the clawfoot bathtub that still stands in the downstairs bathroom, where the Andersons hung a small sign letting visitors know they are doing their business in a historic spot.
Some people have even asked to have their picture taken in the tub.
He said he and Amy sometimes take the home’s connection to Naismith for granted. But he’ll mention it to fellow basketball fans. “It’s sort of a subtle flex,” he said.
It’s a spirited house
Both Andersons wrapped up careers in advertising in 2023 to become their own bosses. For the last few years they have set up holiday-themed pop-ups in restaurants in the Kansas City area and are expanding the business.
They have found that living in a house built in the 19th century has its quirks.
“There’s a lot of modern things today that don’t fit. And I mean very literally don’t fit within door frames,” said Anderson.
He was speaking about himself.
“Our bedroom doorway,” said Amy, who is 48. “I’m short. I’m only (5-foot-4). I can walk right through it. But anyone who’s 5’6 or above is going to have to duck down. It’s a doorway that is very short.”
“I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” said her husband, who is 6-foot-3. “It took me three times to hit my head before I realized I have to kind of duck down every time I walk into our bedroom.”
They consider the lanai, the outdoor living space they added, to be the home’s best feature. It’s in the backyard, detached from the house per historical register rules, with a fireplace, complete outdoor kitchen and infrared heaters that make it usable year-round.
The home is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“It’s really designed as the ultimate tailgate and entertainment area. We have done a lot of tailgate parties,” Anderson said. “So it was designed with an eye toward hospitality and entertainment. It makes the space particularly intriguing for someone who likes to go to games, likes to entertain, likes to have groups of people over.”
Wilson and his family were among the first to have a party there.
“They have a very tight family and this was a big deal for them that Jalen was graduating and it’s hard for them to find privacy in a town like Lawrence,” said Anderson.
“We were happy to do it. They were able to have a private function in the back with their family. Man, we had a blast.
“That kind of opened our eyes to how this thing could kind of be used like that. And word started traveling and we had some inquiries.
“We don’t do all of them. We’re not professional party throwers or anything like that. But we can throw a good party.”
The lanai isn’t the only something extra the house comes with. Part of sharing the story of the house involves answering the question Anderson has been asked before: Are there ghosts?
“The answer is, I guess, kinda rooted in whether or not you believe in ghosts,” he said. “I would say that Amy and I have experienced enough things that we’re having a really hard time explaining that lead us to believe that yes, there probably is some extra spiritual activity happening in the house.
“There’s never been anything out of a movie or threatening. We’ve kind of embraced it and kinda come to appreciate it, honestly. There’s never been red hot handles on doors that slammed shut and you can’t get out.”
“We’re not levitating off the bed,” Amy laughed.
“But yes, there have definitely been some things that have happened,” said her husband. “We don’t know who it is… it could be any of a number of spirits. But yeah, there’s definitely been stuff happen.”
Nothing, though, like the sound of basketballs dribbling in the middle of the night.
“We’ve had lights on that we can’t explain. We’ve had an old alarm system what wasn’t plugged in beep at us,” said Anderson.
It all began the first night they slept there. They had only been in bed upstairs for a few minutes after a long, exhausting day of moving when they heard the sound of packing tape being ripped off a box.
The living room was full of unopened boxes.
Anderson went downstairs, flipped on the lights, “and I’m looking in a room of boxes and I don’t see anything.
“I come back up and get back into bed and about 10 minutes later we heard the alarm system. It’s an old ADT thing by the back door, but it’s not plugged in, it’s not turned on, it’s not activated.
“And I hear the thing beep downstairs, like there’s a door open or something. So I go down and look, and there it is, the system’s sitting there, it’s not on.”
Amy set up a website this week, NaismithHouse.com, where interested buyers can contact them for more information.
They are not publicly disclosing their asking price, “which is reflective not only of the appraised value but the property’s unique historical significance,” said Anderson.
Douglas County property records list 2026 appraisal of the house and land together at $931,000.
They did not do a traditional MLS listing. “This isn’t a normal house so we’re not going the normal route of selling a house,” said Anderson.
As they move down the road to Kansas City, they’ll never forget the time they’ve spent on University Drive, so close to campus they can watch KU students walking by and feel the vibe of graduation weekend — “one of the greatest weekends of the year because everyone’s so happy and families are in town. It’s just a vibe of celebration,” Anderson said.
“You can’t really replicate that, a place like this. So I know we’ll miss that. But we’re also thankful for the time we’ve been here and now somebody else will get a chance to enjoy this as well.”
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