Restoration experts: Saving the Oviatt House is achievable goal

by Sheldon Ocker

Ken Bowman and Larry Brichacek have been restoring historic structures for three decades, so they know a lost cause when they see one. To them, the Oviatt House is far from a lost cause.

For months, if not years, the Oviatt House has created consternation among Richfield Joint Recreation District board members, who voted 6-1 in November to raze the 183-year-old structure, which was home to Mason Oviatt, one of Richfield’s earliest settlers.

Too damaged, too far gone, too expensive to rehabilitate, the RJRD was told. As important as the house is to understanding the history of the community, and regardless of the fact that Oviatt was a significant figure in the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom, it just didn’t make sense to save the residence.

Enter Bowman, who makes his living as a restoration carpenter at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and his friend since high school, Brichacek, who has been restoring historic buildings for 30 years.

Bowman believes the RJRD board was “misinformed” about many aspects of the house.

“They heard it was built in different years; they heard it was moved; they heard it was majorly altered; they heard it was very, very unsafe,” he said.

Using two maps from the 1850s, examining the nails and lath used in the house and the kind of a sawmill that had been on the property and listening to testimony from descendants of Oviatt has led Bowman to one conclusion: The house was built in 1836 and never was moved from one location to another.

“From everything we’ve seen, there’s no reason not to believe this,” he said.

The Oviatt House is part of the Richfield Heritage Preserve, overseen by the RJRD. Bowman asked to look at the house in December, when he was working on another project at the park. After what he saw, he called Brichacek.

“Structurally, it was amazing,” Bowman said. “I talked to Larry. He was more excited than I was. It was in a lot better shape than we thought.”

That is not to say the Oviatt House is in move-in condition.

“We know it needs a roof, because the roof is leaking pretty badly,” Brichacek said. “Some outside gutter boards need to be replaced. The sill plates [bottom horizontal parts of walls] throughout the house are terrible. There’s some rotted wood. Some of the ceilings are caved in. Some of the plaster is falling.

“But for the most part, 90 percent of the house is pretty sound. A lot of the framing seems to be in good shape. The foundation is in good shape. It’s square, straight and solid. The basement isn’t even moldy. And there’s no water leakage.”

Bowman said the house is wrapped in siding dating to the 1950s.

“It’s covering up the original siding,” he said. “We’re expecting to find a whole lot of original siding in pretty good shape, because what’s on there now has taken the beating for the last 60-70 years. It also looks like the original window frames are still in. We pulled back [some of] the carpet, and the original flooring is underneath.”

Bowman discovered a 3-by-3-foot piece of wood left over from the roof. After sanding the edges and counting the rings, he was astonished at the probable age of the poplar tree that produced the slab of lumber.

“I counted 290 rings,” he said. “I called my daughter, who is a professional engineer. We calculated it was six inches to the center of the tree. That would mean another 145 rings. So the tree was about 335 years old when it died, and it was cut down almost 184 years ago. That means it started growing in the late 1300s or early 1400s. That, to me, is so cool.”

Brichacek and Bowman’s findings must be digested by the RJRD board, which would have to cancel the wrecking ball for renovation to move forward.

“What they want to do is not unrealistic,” said Bob Becker, RJRD board chairman. “Of course, we will listen to the community. We’ve gotten very few phone calls, most of them to save the house. We’ve gotten six emails and three phone calls.”

A committee of residents, SavetheOviatt, was hastily formed to raise money for the project. According to Brichacek, $52,000 in pledges have come in since early January.

Also, the Richfield Town Trust has altered its rules to allow contributions to projects such as the Oviatt House.

At this point, there is no way to determine the exact cost of a restored Oviatt House or how much it would take to maintain it, say, as a visitors center for the Richfield Heritage Preserve, which is one proposal.

“Typically, a lot of the projects we do are around $150 a square foot,” Brichacek said. “This is 1,400 square feet, so that would be about $210,000. But there are going to be some unforeseen things.”

Asked to clarify his position, Becker said, “I’m right down the middle, but we have very few funds.”

He said he fears that if there is a concentrated effort to raise money to save the Oviatt House, other capital projects at the park will suffer. “We will address it in a timely manner, like our other priorities,” Becker said. “If the community gives us direction, we will move in that direction.”

Feature image photo caption: Volunteers worked on the house for five days at the end of February and tore off a back porch, replaced missing siding, scraped and repainted the entire house, secured the windows, sealed the roof and painted the doors.