Oldest of the county's old are in Maumee
11/12/2000Ohio became a state in 1803, but the northwest region was the last part to be settled. The oldest houses locally are about 175 years old.
The Lucas County auditor's office lists three houses built before 1830. All are in Maumee.
According to its list, the oldest remaining privately owned house in the county was built in 1818 at 312 West Harrison St. It is owned by Craig Van Horsten, a lawyer with offices in One SeaGate.
Ted Ligibel and Lee Comer, however, list the home as circa 1830 in their book Lights Along the River, because they did not find definitive proof that it was built in the teens.
A Greek Revival-style house at Conant and East Harrison streets that had been built by Maumee's first mayor, Robert Forsyth, is dated 1825 by the auditor and circa 1825 in Lights Along the River.
Mayo Roe, an engineer who founded Roe, Inc., in Perrysburg Township, and restored the dilapidated house that he bought in 1989, died last month.
A white saltbox at 208 Elizabeth St. that was once home to physician Daniel Cook was built in 1827, according to the auditor's office. Lights Along the River lists it circa 1834. The house is owned by James and Karen Vocke.
A brick Greek Revival at 618 Pierce Dr. is listed in the book as circa 1830. The book says the house, owned by Julie and James Funk, Jr., was built no earlier than 1820 and probably no later than 1830.
The area has other houses thought to have been built during the early 1800s, but some have been substantially changed by remodeling.
In Perrysburg, Lights Along the River says, the oldest residence might be a Greek Revival cottage that originally was home to one of the city's earliest schoolteachers, Thomas Powell. It is thought to have been built about 1820.
The book also lists Greek Revival houses at 27338 West River Road and 503 West Front Street as circa 1830. The Front Street house belonged to the first mayor of Perrysburg, who was in office from 1833 to 1835.
In Monroe County, the oldest remaining residence is thought to date to about 1818. It is at 6823 LaPlaisance Rd. in Monroe Township, according to the Monroe County Historical Commission.
A house built by a mason, Edward Loranger, who made bricks on the farm at 7211 South Stony Creek Rd. in Frenchtown Township, is thought to have been built after 1824. The current owner, Peg Clark, has lived in the house since the 1940s.
In the city of Monroe, a house at 204 West Second St. is thought to have been started or completed in 1827. The stones to build it were brought on barges from Kelleys Island.
Others thought to have been built in the 1820s, according to the historical commission, include a Greek Revival at 47 East Elm Ave. that looks much as it did when it was built (believed to be about 1828) and a Greek Revival at 221 West Elm Ave.