Twelve Stones Realty

Twelve Stones Realty This page is dedicated to sharing the history of the property at 4806 West Ridge Road and the renovations we undertook to preserve it.

This is a picture of the coal burning furnace which was located in the basement of the farmhouse. It was manufactured b...
06/27/2024

This is a picture of the coal burning furnace which was located in the basement of the farmhouse. It was manufactured by The Rybolt Heater Company of Ashland, OH. The Rybolt Heater Company was incorporated on July 30, 1912. About a year ago, while we were renovating the home, we were lucky enough to have two friends (and their two friends) assist us with moving the furnace to the barn for cleaning and storage.

06/09/2024

While researching the ownership of the farmhouse property, I created a family tree on ancestry.com for Nellie Williams and that gave me an opportunity to learn about some of her ancestors. Her mother, Maria Hadley, was born in 1851 to Stephen Hadley and Mary (Skelton). Mary’s grandfather, James Skelton was born in Chester County, PA in 1762. James left the relatively modern town of Philadelphia in 1801 and moved to the frontier, just north of Venango Village in north-central Crawford County. He “constructed a shelter of brush and as soon as possible built a cabin of such poles as two men could raise. It afforded little protection against rain or cold, but was occupied for many years.” This quote comes from History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (Crawford County was created in March, 1800). James and his wife Mary (Bastian) had what I believe to be thirteen children over a thirty-year period and their 8th child, born in 1800, was Rushton Zelotus Skelton. So, either James Skelton moved to the frontier with eight children or he returned for them once he was settled. Rushton married Charity Gardner and they had fourteen children over a twenty-three year period and their second child was Mary Skelton (who married Stephen Hadley and their child was the aforementioned Maria Hadley). Rushton lived to be 94 years old, and he lived longer than ten of his children and all of his brothers and sisters. Their nearest neighbor was ten miles away. In 1827 he built on his farm the first saw mill in the county, and he married Charity Gardner. In 1835, scarlet fever took the lives of five of his children within a few hours. When Rushton was younger, he was at one time pronounced dead from scarlet fever and preparations were made to bury him, when he was restored, but the disease left him a cripple for life. When his children died of scarlet fever he wrote an article which was published in the Crawford Democrat on April 27, 1858. It is a most sorrowful recounting of the deaths of his children and includes wonderfully written poetry expressing his feelings. His daughter Mary survived scarlet fever and as a result the story of our property includes Maria Skelton (Hadley) (Mary’s daughter) and Nellie Nicholson (Williams) (Mary’s granddaughter).

The Bloch Brothers To***co Company of Wheeling, West Virginia was founded in 1879 and was best known for Mail Pouch chew...
05/06/2024

The Bloch Brothers To***co Company of Wheeling, West Virginia was founded in 1879 and was best known for Mail Pouch chewing to***co. The campaign to paint ads on the sides of buildings (primarily barns) began in the 1890's and at its height in the 1960's about 20,000 Mail Pouch barns had been painted in 22 states. The link below to a blog on the Hagan History Center website provides a good overview as well as an undated photo of our barn. We are going to repaint the sign and have been in contact with an artist in Youngstown, who has repainted a number of signs. Shown in this post is that artist's rendition of what our barn should look like when it is repainted. You will be able to see the sign from the intersection of Asbury Road and 23rd Street.

https://www.eriehistory.org/blog/mail-pouch-barns-a-fading-american-icon

The renovations to the barn took about a week. New windows were installed, as were gutters to take the water away from ...
05/06/2024

The renovations to the barn took about a week. New windows were installed, as were gutters to take the water away from the foundation. A sliding door was installed on the front (surprisingly very easy to move on a track that runs to the right of the entryway on the exterior of the barn wall). A new wall was constructed on the right side of the entryway to better support the roof. The flooring on the left side of the barn was replaced. Two 10" x 10" beams were notched together (a total of 35 feet long) and secured to the floor and the western wall and two cross beams were installed to support the wall. Prior to the renovation the western wall was only supported by a 6" x 6" beam that only ran half-way up the wall.

Before I post the pictures showing the renovations to the barn, I wanted to share a picture of the eastern side of the b...
05/06/2024

Before I post the pictures showing the renovations to the barn, I wanted to share a picture of the eastern side of the barn. You can see the front entryway to the left and the "wall" of the entryway which consists of several large industrial windows and wood doors. Windows are missing on this side of the barn and the roots of an English walnut tree growing off the corner of the barn have cracked the block wall.

These are photos of the barn were taken before we completed renovation work in May and June of 2023. There was no door ...
04/20/2024

These are photos of the barn were taken before we completed renovation work in May and June of 2023. There was no door on the front of the barn and the eastern wall of the entryway did not exist (other than a post holding the roof up and a patchwork of large industrial windows and old doors meant to shield the entryway from the weather. The interior of the barn was littered with yard debris, excess scrap wood, and plenty of walnut husks and animal f***s (6 forty gallon bags full of nuts and dung!). Almost all of the windows on the barn were broken or missing. One-third of the floor on the west side of the barn had deteriorated (this was the portion of the floor used to store hay, so the moisture from the hay caused the floor to deteriorate over time). Andy Yoder, owner of All-Trade Construction, completed the renovation work and his crew did a fabulous job. Stay tuned for the photos showing the renovation work!

04/20/2024

Nellie Nicholson, the original owner of our home, was married to George Ellis Williams. George was a Millcreek Township Supervisor (I discovered this from his death certificate and confirmed it with a current Millcreek Township Supervisor Jim Bock). I haven't had much luck researching George Williams' family history; he passed away in 1950 and that led to Nellie selling the home to Walter Heidt. I mentioned in a previous post that Nellie's father was John E. Nicholson. John served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War from August 1864 to August 1865 on the USS Silver Lake. On April 29, 1865, John was sent to the hospital with a diagnosis of phthisis pulmonalis, also known as tuberculosis. The hospital note indicates that he has been "unfit for duty most of the time since he entered the service". John's father was Andrew Nicholson and Andrew married Elizabeth Brindle in 1846. Together they had five children: John E. (the oldest), Perry M.B., Emma Jane, Isabella A. and George W. Andrew's wife Elizabeth died in 1872 and Andrew died in 1879. Andrew's Will left "the farm on which I now reside in West Millcreek lying on both sides of the Ridge Road and containing about one hundred and thirty five acres of land" to his sons, John E. and George W.; to his son Perry M.B., Andrew left "the farm on which he now resides in said Township and adjoining the farm on which I now reside, on the South, being in Millcreek Township and containing about ninety acres of land." John's brother George W. would die in 1888, leaving John as the sole owner of the original family home.

The first photo is of Walter Heidt on scaffolding preparing the exterior of the house for stucco and the second photo wa...
03/31/2024

The first photo is of Walter Heidt on scaffolding preparing the exterior of the house for stucco and the second photo was taken after he completed this job. Walter and his wife owned the home from 1950 until his death in 2017. These photos were taken in 1978. Prior to this date, Walter had encased the lower half of the home in fieldstone. In the third photo you can see the west side of the house and the upper story is wood siding. The fourth photo was taken from the back of the home looking toward Asbury Road and this photo shows Walter's extensive gardens. In the 1950's Walter built a motel to the west of the home and the front of the motel is show in the fifth photo. These photos are courtesy of Walter's daughter, Phyllis, who still lives in the home immediately to the west of the property.

And these are the pictures of the living room showing the progression, first with the carpet removed, sanded and then fi...
03/03/2024

And these are the pictures of the living room showing the progression, first with the carpet removed, sanded and then finished.

These are the photos of the dining room showing the progression, first with the carpet removed, then sanded, and finally...
03/03/2024

These are the photos of the dining room showing the progression, first with the carpet removed, then sanded, and finally finished. The floors have oak on the exterior and pine on the interior. This was done to save money (pine was cheaper than oak, and the pine would be covered by an area rug). Dana Floor Sanding did an expert and professional job refinishing the floors.

Address

4806 West Ridge Road
Erie, PA
16506

Telephone

+18144809951

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Twelve Stones Realty posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Twelve Stones Realty:

Shortcuts

Share

Category