MANSFIELD – As a little girl from Ontario, Laura Anliker remembers making the drive to Mansfield down Park Avenue West.
Peering out the windows of the family car, she looked up at the big, beautiful houses and declared to her parents, “I’m going to live in one of those houses.”
“Mom and dad would say, ‘Well that’s good, everybody’s got a dream,’” Laura said, her voice breaking. “Then, when we did buy a house, my folks were still alive and they said, ‘Are you guys crazy?’”
Laura fulfilled her childhood dream when she and her husband, Bill, bought their home at 350 Park Ave. West in 1996. The Anlikers estimate the house was build in the 1890s. They are the first to use the home as a residence since 1965.
However, the couple is not the first members of their family to be in the house. According to Bill, his ancestors were most likely guests of the man they believe built the home, photographer Ezra Potter.
“(Potter) and Winfield Ward, who bought the house from Potter after he had it built, were in the Civil War together,” Bill explained. “My great-grandfather, Lewis Deems, was in the Civil War, and they’re all from this area. I’ve often said to Laura, great-grandpa was probably in this house.”
According to “History of the Service of the Third Ohio Veteran Volunteer Calvary,” written by Sgt. Thomas Crofts in 1910, Ezra Potter served as a private in Company E of the Third Ohio Calvary in the Civil War. Another member of Company E – Bill’s great-grandfather, Corporal Lewis Deems.
The 3,000-square foot home, listed as the W.S. Ward House, is one of 65 structures designated on the National Register of Historic Places in Richland County.
Adding to the historical coincidence is the installation of the oak floors on the second floor of the house.
“My grandfather put in most of the oak floors in Mansfield because he was a finish carpenter,” Bill said. “Every time I look at those floors I think, grandpa might have laid these.”
With so much personal and area history steeped in their Park Avenue home, the Anlikers have taken special care to restore their home in a historically accurate fashion.
“That’s our taste, and I’d much rather see it period correct,” Bill said. “If I had a 1950s house I would want to make it look like the 1950s. This was built in 1892, so I think it should look Queen Ann Victorian.
“Especially with so many of them falling down, it won’t be long until there aren’t any left. Then the younger people won’t know what it really looked like,” added Laura. “And to really live in one; we always said we didn’t want it to be a museum, we want to live in it and enjoy it.”
However, restoring the home has not always been an easy task. On the exterior alone, the seven colors adorning the house started to bubble after a year due to being primed incorrectly. Vinyl siding was eventually installed, per the guidelines of the National Register of Historic Places.
On the inside, the Anlikers have tried to restore one room per year, tackling cracked walls and ceilings as well as restoring the original floors.
“There was the nastiest shag carpet in here, with salt and brine damage,” Bill said. “Whoever put the padding underneath glued it to the floor, so I painstakingly took it back up and wished I could hit the guy with a shovel.”
Despite a few setbacks, it’s been a labor of love – particularly when the Anlikers’ two children and four grandchildren come to visit.
“We just like Victorian homes; I don’t know why, there’s just something about it,” Laura said. “And all the space – when the whole family comes, there’s plenty of room in here.”
Bringing back family homes is something Laura hopes to see in the future of Park Avenue West. The Anlikers were one of the first to start restoring their historical home, and they hope they’re not the only ones.
“All the homes were so beautiful, and it just breaks your heart that no one takes care of them,” Laura said. “Maybe we’re planting a seed and there’s going to be a revival of people starting to fix up their places.”
