MANSFIELD — A historic house in Mansfield’s Woodland neighborhood has been spruced up for the holidays and is ready to become a home.
Homeowner David Keller hosted an open house on Sunday afternoon at 627 Hawthorne Lane to show off the new house after nearly a year of remodeling. The 3,500 square-foot house has four bedrooms, three full baths, and was originally built in 1933.
“This is truly custom-built and that’s what I appreciate about it the most,” Keller said. “It has character.”
Keller purchased the house on Jan. 30 with the intent of trying to restore it to its former glory. The house sold for $130,000 through an online foreclosure site, and had fallen into a state of disrepair.
“The online pictures were both intriguing and scary, because they showed you what it really was,” Keller said. “We knew we were going to have to put a lot into it, but with its location and its natural appeal, we felt we could get our money’s worth.”
Keller and his contractor Elmer Prater decided to move forward with the project despite the many challenges that lay ahead of them, including broken pipes, moisture damage, windows that need replaced, a roof that needed replaced and carpet that was, in Keller’s words, “disgusting.”
“It ended up being quite a mess,” Keller said. “But Elmer wanted to do a big project, so he was the one who encouraged me to go with this.”
This is the second home renovation project that Keller and Prater have tackled together. The first was a small house on North Columbus Street in Galion, where Keller works as an attorney, and was a much smaller job with a quicker turnaround.
A resident of Ashland County, Keller always appreciated driving through the Woodland neighborhood and admiring the unique houses. It was the Woodland neighborhood itself that inspired Keller to renovate the 627 Hawthorne Lane home.
“This was a sore spot in an otherwise beautiful neighborhood,” Keller said. “The outside pictures were what caused me to think this was a project I would love to do, the architecture of the outside and the front of the house. You could tell there was a lot of work, but you could see the potential.”
Keller and Prater ended up investing $60,000 into the house, not counting hours of labor. Other features of the home include an upstairs laundry room, two baths with jacuzzi tubs, an upstairs balcony and sitting area in the back, three gas fireplaces including the master bedroom, and all-new kitchen appliances.
The most unique part of the house, in Keller’s opinion, is the dual staircases.
“This has a grand stairway, but there’s a stairway to the back that leads down to the kitchen, and I’ve always loved those,” he said. “It goes back to being a kid – my grandchildren were here a little bit ago and they were loving it.”
The current listing price for the house is $349,000, although Keller noted the price was open for negotiation. On Sunday, almost exclusively neighbors came through the house from 1 to 4 p.m. to explore inside the home they’d been curious about for years.
“Obviously when you do something like this you hope to not lose money, but it’s also a fun project to see it brought back to the state it was meant to be in,” Keller said.
For more information on the house, or to schedule a tour, contact Keller at 419-295-1552.
