Another victory for historic preservation

Last January, the historic 1829 Poe House that sits on a hill midway between Kent and Ravenna suffered a devastating fire that caused about a quarter million dollars worth of damage to the house. Newspaper articles called it a total loss, and I feared that this meant that the house would not be able to be salvaged and restored and would be lost to history forever. However, I am delighted to report that the house has undergone a near total restoration and will soon be re-occupied and used once again as a residence, albeit apartments, which is what it was before the fire. Still, that this historic house was able to be saved is a testament to the vision of yet another local architect who, like so many of us, could not bear to see it lost. Fortunately, its massive thick brick walls were able to keep the fire contained to the interior of the house and the exterior was largely untouched. I would drive by this house from time to time after the fire and I began to notice large dumpsters in the yard and what appeared to be work going on at the house, which to me suggested possible restoration work going on. Happily, I was correct, and the house will not be lost and will still be there for people to drive by and enjoy. This makes six local historic structures that have been saved in the past few years, the 1838 Stinaff-Stephens House in Ravenna, the 1893 historic flagpole in Ravenna, the 1829 Poe House in Ravenna, the 1920 Hotel Kent Ellis in downtown Kent, the 1881 Wheeling & Lake Erie train depot in Kent and the 1858 Wells-Sherman House in Kent. I'm delighted to see historic preservation finally take root here locally. We've lost so many historic homes and structures in my lifetime to lack of vision, fires or progress. Now there seems to be a kind of push back going on to save what few historic structures are out there that are threatened. I could not be happier and I do hope that this trend continues in the future. History lost can never be brought back. It's time to step up our efforts to save historic homes and structures in our communities for future generations to be able to see and know where we came from. It's never too late to start!