The Stone House at Nagel and Schwartz Roads in Avon

One thing that I really like about the Lorain Journal of the 50s and 60s is that its writers had a real curiosity about historic old homes in Lorain County – and consequently wrote some terrific stories about them.

Here’s one about a house that you might have driven by and wondered about. The distinctive stone home, built by Avon’s pioneering Nagel family, is located at the corner of Nagel and Schwartz Roads in Avon.

The article by Staff Writer Hermaine Speigle appeared in the Journal on April 13, 1969.

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120-Year-Old House Built to Last
By HERMAINE SPEIGLE

THE VIOLETS and spring beauties will soon be blooming again under the south windows, just as they have for 120 years since the stone homestead of the Nagel family of Avon was built at the corner of what is now Schwartz and Angel Roads.

There were no frills on the imposing, two-story rectangular building, but it was well-designed for balance and architectural interest.

The house was built to last, of the best materials available. Huge slabs of sandstone were cut from the Amherst quarries and hauled by oxcart over the winding road at the crest of “Detroit” ridge to the site.

The stone cutters chipped away to form the structural blocks with chisels that created a variety of patterned surfaces. They took a year and a half to build the house. For all the other German settlers in the area, it marked the prosperity, industry and thrift of the Nagel clan.

Several generations of Nagels and their friends wore deep treads in the sandstone threshold at the kitchen entrance. Many coffins bearing Nagel kin were borne out the 48-inch wide front door after they were “laid out” in the parlor.

A frame structure of four rooms was added about 1900. What was originally the kitchen doorstep is now the threshold between living and family rooms. The space of the doorway, including frames, is all of three feet deep.

Joseph Nagel, the last family member to reside in the house, sold the property to Sample Realtors 20 years ago. The 1100 acres were cut into lots for development. With three acres of land, the old house was sold first to a widow, Mrs. Foulds, who restored the fireplaces and much of the interior. The third and present owners, Oliver and Beatrice Rathbun, have reinforced the dwelling structurally, and completed modern heating, plumbing and wiring projects.

In spite of the dwelling’s rather forbidding and dour exterior, there is much warmth and comfort inside.

Mrs. Rathbun enjoys her modern kitchen appliances, particularly since her husband drilled through the 40 inch basement walls to install the new “city” water line several years ago.

“I get up every morning aware of the many generations of housewives who lived here before me, making do for their families,” says “Be” Rathbun, as she likes to be called.

“When the house is empty or quiet, I often think of its former occupants. When my gang gets going, I’m grateful for  its charm and durability, and space, lots of it,” she says.

Lex Rathbun, 23, recently home on leave from Vietnam, has hung his psychedelic posters and school mementoes in his room. Jay, 19, who attends Cleveland State University, keeps his trap and bass drums set up in his room, and Jody, 14, home from Avon Junior High, keeps the record player turned up loud.

“Be” has been an antique bug since her first visit to an antique shop 20 years ago.

“A dealer told us about this house being for sale one Sunday afternoon, and we dropped everything to come to see it. We fell in love at first sight, and love it more as we live in it,” she said.

Her passion for old things runs mainly to the more “homey” styles and lines in furniture. She has refinished dining sets, tables, rockers, chests, beds and desks. Every bed in the house is four-poster, made in the days when rope was strung to hold the straw mattresses. She uses conventional mattresses on the rather high beds, but likes old fashioned quilts and bedspreads.

“There are only two pieces in the house that I haven’t refinished,” she said. She showed an intricately carved walnut organ which still has its beautiful, unmarred finish, and pointed out a large maple secretary.

“My husband took all of my projects matter-of-factly, going along with my ideas without any enthusiasm, until the day he spotted this desk and wanted it,” she said. “He decided, right then, that he wanted to do the refinishing himself, and has been hooked ever since.”

His antiquing enthusiasms carry over to his work as fleet electrician with the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., Cleveland. He often runs into old ship’s lanterns, and brings them home for burnishing, wiring and repairs. The house provides many perfect spots to display them.

There is also a den for Rathbun’s Ham-Radio hobby, for his wife’s sewing room, as well as a roomy garage for their 1929 Model A Ford car, which everyone enjoys.

“Be” has used many of her treasures with imagination and whimsy to make her own very modern imprint on the house.

In the family room, an upturned sauerkraut crock, with a circular, fringed cover, serves as an end table. In the living room, a burnished cooper boiler holds books and an ash tray – also an end table.

“Be” said, pointing to her coffee table, “I didn’t know what to do with an old wagon seat a neighbor gave me. Isn’t it perfect for that spot?”

She particularly likes showing her house to young people, Girl Scout groups or grammar school classes, she said.

“The kids are thrilled learning about the rope beds, butter churns, cast-iron pump, cistern and coal-oil lamps. I tell them about chamber-pots, wash stands and spittoons. American history and those ancient “early settlers” come alive for them, she said.

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I’ve featured other articles about interesting homes written by Ms. Speigle; the first one was about Budmar Farm in Amherst; the more recent was about the former Steamboat Inn in Vermilion.)