Saving history

Through a friend, I became aware of this historic 1836 house that is located just north of a beautiful New England style village green containing buildings that all date from the late 1830s to around 1840 or so. Given this house's construction date of 1836 and proximity to the village green, my guess is that, given that it is contemporary with the buildings on there, that it must in some way be connected somehow to it. Maybe it was not originally a house, maybe it was a commercial structure of some sort. I do not know, but it is currently for sale for a song and a prayer, but needing extensive repairs and renovations that are going to prove quite costly. It would take someone of considerable means to faithfully restore this old gem of a house and I do hope that the right person is able to buy and bring it back to its former glory. We're losing too much of our history each day and this house has obviously suffered from some neglect over the years. According to the County Auditor's office web site, it does not appear to be owner occupied and has probably been a rental for a good number of years, which is always sad when a house is not lived in by anyone who really cares about its history. I think that there is a story here somewhere in this house and I sure would love to know what it is. It's in a beautiful rural area that would be ideal for someone wanting to live out in the country. There isn't much land attached to the property, only a little less than three quarters of an acre, but still, enough on which to plant a small subsistence garden. I do hope that some loving buyer acquires it and restores it completely, but given the sheer cost of doing something like that, it's enough to scare off the average home buyer, so all one can do is to hope and pray that someone finds out about this who has the means to restore it. It's nearly 200 years old and I am eager to find out more about it. There's a story in this house and I want to find and uncover it!

This is another gorgeous historic home in our area for sale. It's already been lovingly restored and maintained and we grew up playing at this house because it belonged to family friends for many long decades. They grew too old to keep it up any longer and a son lived there for a few years, but he's decided to sell it and now it is on the market and has been for some time now. Its original asking price was quite hefty and it keeps coming down in price the longer it stays on the market. It was built in 1828 and was the childhood home of Clara Wolcott Driscoll, a well known designer who worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany and designed many of his famous pieces. The Wolcott family are quite prominent here locally and I grew up with one branch of them here in my hometown. This house is absolutely stunning inside and it sits on close to 2 acres of land. If I had the money, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat, but I can barely afford the rent and utilities at my century plus old home, let alone this sprawling historic house. This, again, deserves a loving owner who appreciates old historic homes and will maintain it as faithfully as did our family friends for so long. I have many fond memories of childhood play at this house and was even here when the historic and devastating July 4, 1969 "derecho" storm hit NE Ohio. I still have a scar on my right hand from that terrifying night because one of my fingers got slammed in the car door escaping the storm leaving this house. Well, I do hope that both of these beautiful historic local homes get new owners who will love and cherish them and care for them as they so deserve to be. These are rare homes dating from before 1840 that still stand. We continue to lose more and more each day and it's heartbreaking. We just lost a historic 1840 canal era Greek Revival home here locally in my hometown because nobody stepped forward to save it. We can't afford to lose any more of our local historic architecture. History once gone disappears from our landscape forever.