Built Circa 1911

Blue Prints Found in Neighbor's Basement

Library, Formerly 1^st Floor Bedroom

The story of the library starts with a friend of mine who obtained some old blond Globe Wernicke maple book shelves.  He got this stuff in 1982 from the derelict Dayton State Mental Hospital several years after it was shut down.

Globe Wernicke Company, Cincinnati, Ohio

They sat in his back yard for several months being rained on till I asked him what he was going to do with all of this wood. He said, I thought jokingly, “Give it to you.” Well, needless to say, this pile of boards were carried to my basement forgotten till I moved to another house in 1985 and then again in 1987 when I moved to Cincinnati. There they sat in my parent’s basement till 1998 when I decided that I had a room appropriate for them and when I decided to make something out of them. After nearly a year of work, I dedicated the library to my brother, a lover of beautiful old fascinating books.

A house is a home to those who live in it. Hopefully, it provides comfort, security, and a place to comfortably be with spouse, children, and friends. The home should be someplace that surrounds the occupants with the memorabilia that describes these people’s personalities, interests, values, and history.

This house was such a place.

At the time this house was built in 1911, they still gave structures height.  This gives this small house a kind of grandeur. It was also during this period that taxes were still being assessed by the number of floors a house had. So as a consequence, this house appears to only have one floor from the street.

This house marks the beginning of the arts and crafts movement in Cincinnati. One can tell this by the mixture of styles, i.e. Spanish clay tile roof (since removed), the short Greek columns, and the artsy brackets. The house is made in the light of several schools of architecture.

To date, I have only found two other houses of this style in Cincinnati; one several doors from me and one wood frame house in North College Hill.

During the 1900s, this house was touted as being a modern home because its many “avant-garde” features which included electricity, gas/electric lights, contemporary woodwork, no stained or leaded glass, outside loading icebox, poured concrete foundation, central gas hot water heater, a modern bathroom, steel posts and i-beams, and a host of other firsts. It was an expensive house by the then standards. It also was known for its low maintenance exterior features which utilized hardened brick, clay tile shingles that still adorn the gable and dormers, metal moldings and trim instead of wood.

An architect named C. M. Foster built this house for Henry C. Burdick, who was said to be a sports writer.

In the early 50s, the Burdick Family still owned the house when, it was rumored, the husband of Viola Burdick who was professor of piano at the College of Music, left her for another much younger woman (one of his students). It was then sold to an Italian couple. Later the husband died and the wife lived here for thirty years after that.

Over the years the interior of the house it self was kept original and in pristine condition. However, during her tenure, the Italian lady had very little money to spend on repairs except that she did fall prey to a windows salesman in the 1980s.  So as a consequence, the first floor wooden windows sashes went.  The clay tile roof and metal box gutters continued to deteriorate to the point that when she sold the house, they were in bad need of repair. The house was sold to an investor who did nothing but allow college kids to live there.

Then, I came along. I saw a picture of this house and realized what it was. After many years of restoration, it is was returned to its original splendor.

I used my cabinet making skills to build a kitchen. A Harbor Freight sheet metal bender allowed me to fabricate the copper range hood.

	The house has many unusual spaces.
	This includes what was my study.

Steam Shower, Master Bath