08/12/2019
NEW PRICE!!! REDUCED!!! BUY! BUY! BUY!
$99,000
Click on Link for MLS Data page .
https://neohrex.mlsmatrix.com/matrix/shared/ts2dqCwZvcc/1448LakeRd
https://bhhsmarketingresource.com/p/6b98977588cb1ab11b358ef6c5a4daa6
https://www.propertypanorama.com/1448-Lake-Rd-Conneaut-OH-44030/unbranded
SELLER IS READY TO DEAL! COME TAKE A LOOK. LOOKING FOR OFFERS
Check out this Century home on 1.73 acres built in 1854 on 1.73 acres. 19 rooms including an in-law suite was added several years ago.
A kitchen, dining room with Fireplace, large living room with fireplace, formal dining room, study and an entertainment room with bar and the
1st floor bath round out the first floor of the Century home. Upstairs you will find 3 bedrooms with one bedroom big enough for two.
Further West in this home you will find the in-law suite with separate entrance from the rear. Upon entering the foyer is the Whirlpool bath,
Large bath with all the amenities and two closets. Go a little further from the Whirlpool room you will find a living room, bedroom and large closet.
An old time barn and 2 out building round out this property, Come take a look.
FYI
DID YOU KNOW that the house at 1448 Lake Road in Conneaut and its 1.73 acre site tells the tales of those who have come before that had an impact of what is Conneaut today. : from Indian Arrowheads dug up behind the barn, exposed hand-hewn beams which proudly display the adze marks of craftsman who built it from wood cut on the property, to a July 1866 date etched on a wavy hand molded library windowpane.
The main house(the entire2,765square foot home is actually comprised of three separate structures---the oldest dating back to1820! has been owned by only 8 families in 173 years (ironic that tat is the number of acres of the lot) and briefly served as Conneauts first Country Club c1920.
The property's heritage is documented back to the creation of the Western Reserve. according to an Aug. 13, 1978, article in the Erie Times News, the house was identified by the Ashtabula County Historical Society as one of the oldest surviving structures of the early settlement of the area still being used as homes. It was dedicated as a "Heritage Home" by the ACHS in 1973.
Visible Historic features remaining in the home include 9 double-hung 6 over 6 sash windows with original hand-molded glass panes, complete with waves and bubbles, in the library and large dining room. Each window also has its original brass hardware along the side. The library-- a parlor , originally -- retains its original woodwork that includes 12-inch high baseboards and Greek Key design window frames . (Built-in bookcases of the 19th Century design were added in the early 1970'sby the current owners.)
Also remaining are four original inter doors , two of which feature their original hardware that includes hand-wrought iron thumb-latch handles. The style of the six panel doors is called "Christian" or "Cross and Bible" as the upper styles and rails form a pattern suggestive of a cross, while the two lower styles and rails vaguely resemble an open book such as the Bible.
Three large 10.5" logs , hand-hewn and with some bark remaining serve
as supporting beams under the center of the main house. Perimeter beams are similar. The roof rafters , which are bark covered trees 5" and sat he 7" inches in diameter, rest on a perimeter course of hand-hewn beams at the roof line. Floor joists are 7"-10" in diameter trees, some, some not he
IN 1820wn but striped of bark, and others partly hewn with some bark.
During their 1970 remodeling, the current owners exposed 7 of the hand-hewn beams in the house., as well as the bark logs. When remodeling the one--room Cass section of the home into a bar they learned about the c1820 construction methods while removing old broken plaster. "The wall upon which the plaster was mounted is made of wide horizontal boards which have many irregular horizontal slits into which the plaster seeps upon application. This holds the plaster in place just as the lath did at a later period before the advent of drywall. We now know that type of wallboard is called "shatter board"because of the way it is made." Louise Legeza explained in a 2001 Ashtabula Star Beacon article.
The majority of the house was built with large pegs of wood / or with mortise and tenon construction. Where nails are used , they are the square headed, hand-wrought type.
PROVENANCE
The homes current owner, historian/genealogist Louise LeGeza, did extensive research throughout the years to trace the property's origins
back to its original Western Reserve Settlers, James and Ester Cass of Elk Creek , PA
In 1820 the Casses purchased a heavily wooded 10 acre lakefront parcel
frm the Conneaut Land Co., the post-colonial land speculation company that surveyed and sold off lots in the newly chartered Connecticut Western Reserve, and constructed a one-room house there.
Their move to Salem ( the town name changed to Conneaut in 1832)was a mere 24 years after the Connecticut Land Co. surveyor Moses Cleveland arrived at the mouth of Conneaut Creek and was met by Massagoes tribe members, who challenged their clain to their territory. Cleveland successfully negotiated with the tribe, and was granted safety to continue the exploration toward the Cuyahoga River.
The pioneer Casses stayed on the land until July 1840, when Conneaut newlyweds Barzillia Granger and Hannah (Bushnel) Viets purchased their 10 acre farm for $350.00. Tax records indicate the Viets lived in the one-room house until 1844-1845 , when they built a large new home near the front of the property and a two-story barn toward the back. At some point, they moved the one-room Cass house forward and attached it to the new house.
The LeGezas long speculated , but never found confirmation, that an enclosed area located beneath the 1820 Cass portion of the house was used as part of the Underground Railroad before the Civil War ended slavery in the U.S. That speculation was based on the homes Lakefront location combined with the fact that Barzillia's first cousin, Conneaut native, Rev. Rodney Viets, was a radical abolitionist in nearby Saybrook, Ohio. The Rev. Viets was according to a newspaper account, "active in the transportation of slaves from the South to Lakefront homes where they were hidden until put aboard Canadian-bound ships."
Around 1890, the Viets, moved a one-story, three bedroom c1860 house from North Kingsville and attached it to the former Cass home, creating a long wing to the west. The wrap around front porch is believed to have been added to the main house around the same time.
The Vietses were a farming family who raised four children, Veronica, Edward W , Francis W.,(died at age 15)
and Bryon B., in the beloved home they built and remained until their deaths, in June 1855 and September 1890, respectively.
After Hannah's death, youngest child Bryon, by then a doctor of Ophthalmology,and ontology in Cleveland, took ownership of the Lake Road property. Since Dr. Viets wife, Katherine A. (Matson), and daughters, Veronica Evelyn and Vineta Anna lived in Cleveland, they rented out the wing to a caretaker and summered in the main house. Several newspaper and/or book articles tell the story of a Dr. Viets, while summering at the house , performing cataract surgery on his kitchen table for his neighbor Henry W.Benson.
In 1905, Dr. Viets removed the main homes three original "eyebrow" windows or :frieze board" windows located under the front eaves and replaced the with the current dormers. The LeGezas found his signature and the year 1905 inscribed on a dormer board, now covered with drywall in the East bedroom.
The Viets sold the property, by then totaling 140 acres, according to a newspaper account in July 1919to a group of men, represented by Arvin W Pelton (probably the founder of "Pelton's at the corner of Main and Broad Street) who used the house for social functions as Conneaut's first Country Club.. The latter was confirmed by two men Mrs. LeGeza spoke with who visited or dined there when it served that purpose.
In 1921 the club's formation was finalized and a 76 acre tract was purchased on Whitney Road at the corner of Lake Road. Work on the new golf course began , signaling the end of 1448 Lake Roads short stint as a Country Club.
On Sept. 6, 1921, the property was sold to George H. and Helen Press who named it "Shore Acres". Mr. Press intended to develop the property into an allotment. It was surveyed off and and registered , but only a few cottages were ever built. When the LeGeza's bought the home there was one remaining decorative concrete block pillar at the driveway entrance, its cap inscribed "Shore Acres". That pillar cap remains on the property today serving as a stepping stone into the one room schoolhouse-style shed whose provenance has never been determined.
The line of ownership after the Press Family was D.B. and Ethel E. Smith (purchase date currently missing)
Harold and Marguerete Bowers, June 12, 1951
Grover Buyers, August 2, 1955
David M. and Janie Parker, July 17, 1967.
The Legezas bought the house in 1970 and moved in Dec. 10, 1971 with their four children, Michael, Pam, Kasha, and Babs."They did not attempt (a true) restoration as to much modernization had been done by the prior owners. Nothing original or or of architectural value was disturbed"...some was enhanced, other work was done in character, with only minimal modernization, usually only to capture scenic beauty. "Louise LeGeza wrote in the 1985 book "Ashtabula County History: Then and Now".
Sadly, the current owners , in their elder years were not able to lovingly maintain their beloved home as they would have liked. Now this "Grand Old Lady" needs a New Family to step in and lovingly perform their 21st Century historic renovation.
This history compilation was written by Kasha LeGeza from a large number of newspapers and book articles about the house that were originally researched by her mother, Louise, who now resides in dementia-care facility.
MLS # 4109275 -
