Pre-Civil War Avon Lake House Vandalized - Dec. 8, 1965

Here’s a sad story from the pages of the December 8, 1965 issue of the Lorain Journal. It’s about an Avon Lake farmhouse that predated the Civil War that was senselessly vandalized a few weeks earlier. As stated in the article above, “A onetime farm house, lived-in before there was an Avon Lake or even a Civil War, is now under the legal axe of quick repair or demolition, courtesy of Thanksgiving week vandals.

“The house, said to have been part of a family history for the past 143 years by owner Mrs. Ruth Bramen, No. 2 Putnam Hill, Greenwich, Conn., is the first house in Avon Lake west of Bay Village on the south side of Walker Road. It is part of a 93 acre estate on the verge of being sold for “around $93,000.” Value of the house itself was never set and may be considered a small fraction of the final price.”

The damage was considerable. According to the article, “Every window was smashed; screens and doors were splintered; mattress springs, mattress and bedding were hurled through upper floor windows; a bag of cement was bashed open and the fine powder combed by breezes through the house; lamps, fixtures and non-bearing walls were broken, ripped or kicked.”

The sad thing is that until the end of the first week of that November, the house had been occupied by tenants, and appeared to be in order. So the vandals worked pretty quickly.

The photos by Bob Cotleur accompanying the full-page article are disturbing, even if it was unlikely that the house would be restored or saved after the sale of the land.

I’m not too familiar with Avon Lake history, but it appears that today the property is part of Walker Road Park, which is co-owned and managed by both Avon Lake and Bay Village. Judging by the views on the Historic Aerial website, the farm house was indeed gone by 1970.