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The center section of this home was originally built in 1875 as a simple timber-framed farmhouse with vernacular details. It was expanded in 1939 with a design by prominent Cleveland architect, Charles Bacon Rowley. That design completely altered the old farmhouse by adding two significant wings, one for a living room and the other for larger bedrooms. In the late 20th century, the house was again remodeled, this time adding a corrugated translucent fiberglass front porch roof and a large dormer on the roof of the original farmhouse.
By the time the current owners took ownership, the overall design of the house lacked order and spaciousness. The new owners wanted to downsize from their home in Shaker Heights but first, the old servant’s kitchen and bedrooms and the highly compartmentalized plan needed to be fixed. Some of the old additions were removed and a new mud room, family room and dine-in kitchen were added that allow the owners to live a more modern lifestyle. Architectural antiques from an old family home, including a room of knotty pine paneling, stair railings and cabinet doors were incorporated into the work. New Greek Revival-style details that built upon the original Western Reserve-style vernacular architecture were used on the new sections of the house, while fluted Greek Doric columns replaced the 4×4 posts of the old front porch.
Gardens that had become legendary in the property’s past but that had all but disappeared were renewed and replanted, and terraces and walkways were rebuilt. A simple pole-building garage was replaced by a new barn, which incorporates car, tractor and equipment storage, tool shed and workshop in addition to a large storage area on the second floor.
