Home of the Month Winner is....
The February Home of the Month, sponsored by the
Marietta Board of REALTORS®, is this home located at…
37 Meadowbrook Lane in Waterford, Ohio
The Marietta Board of REALTORS® would like to congratulate
Mary Wells
The Lanning House in Waterford sits on what was for years, a 128 acre farm. Let's Take a Step Back through Time....
When it was built, they were just farms at what is now Waterford. The farm basically covered what is now Waterford High School, High Street, Virginia Street, with the house near the center of Lot 33 from a north-south direction, but near the west line from a east-west direction. over the years, especially after 1900, parts were sold off (especially Martin's Addition in 1910) until the house now sits on a .975 acre tract.
Deeds and tax records indicate that Barnabas Curtis was the first name associated with the house. He was born in Loundoun County, VA. about 1763 and eventually immigrated to Belmount County, Ohio, where he appeared in the 1830 census. On November 10, 1831, he purchased about 172 ½ acres (all 100 acre lot 15 except 3 acres and all 76 acre lot 33 except ½ acre) from James Leget for $900 (Vol. 22, pp. 202-03) . With land in 1830 running $3 to $5 an acre, this much land could have easily cost $860 without a house. More than likely, the house on lot 33 was built about 1831-32, the time Barnabas Curtis came to Waterford. On September 1, 1834, he bought the tannery in downtown Waterford (where Fulmer's Market was).
In 1847, Barnabas Curtis died and he was buried in Waterford Cemetery. On the tax records in 1846, the property appears in the name of Barnabas Curtis, but no value on a building is listed. The 1847 book is missing. property is still in Curtis' name. The 70 acres of lot 33 was valued at $425. The 58 ½ acres of lot 15 was valued at $551. There was a building valued at $148 on lot 33, tannery property was valued at $119 and the tannery at $380.
By money values in those day, Barnabas Curtis was well-to-do and his home certainly would have been one of the nicer ones in Waterford Township. It has long been reported (by Mary Irvin) that John Turner Starlin lived in this house and that daughter Mary was born there in 1883. The daughter Mary married Marshall Armstrong, who had a daughter, Mary, who married Richard Irvin. Curtis' administrator sold the property (now described as 128 ½ acres) to Stiles R. Fox for $1,551.00 on July 15, 1848 (Vol. 38, p. 577-78)
Fox had started the tannery in Waterford and later became a large land owned (almost all of the Peninsula, etc.) . It seems he got in financial trouble, left the area, and his whereabouts unknown.
By 1857 Charles L. Bowen owned the property. The house was valued at $306. Bowen, son of James Bowen, and nephew of Dr. George Bowen and Charles Bowen (both lived in Kelby House that burned (in 2005), all rich and prominent, lived in the big square house on Mill Street for years known as the McCutcheon House. Charles L. worked at his Uncle's store (now Jukebox Pizza). The rich and prominent men in those days liked to live in town, but have a farm nearby-thus explaining why Charles L.'s interest in lot 33 and lot 15. He also had two sons, Arthur H. and Homer, and no doubt the dad had an eye on buying nice farms for his boys.
This is where the story turns sad. Homer was killed in a steamboat accident in 1860 and Arthur H. became a doctor and moved west. By 1867 Wn. A. Howell owned the property. Не was well-to-do farmer who moved from Round Bottom Equity area to make a living on this productive Waterford f