This house, believed built between 1858 and 1868, is called interesting by historical building inventory people because of its variety of details representing Greek Revival, Federal, Georgian, and Italianate architecture.
Conveyance records show that the Elizha Jones family (about which local records shed little light) bought the property for $138 in 1858 and sold it for $6,500 10 years later.
There is further evidence that an earlier house might have sat on the property as early as the 1830s when it was owned by a John Chambers.
Architectural features on the original box-like structure include a flat hipped roof, brackets (since removed) under the eaves, a rather wide frieze board, and a massive broken pediment with a pineapple at its center over a paneled wood front door framed by pilasters on either side.
Dentils decorate the underside of the pediment. Three very substantial additions have been made to the rear and a now removed porch which ran across the entire front of the building was also likely an addition since it would not have been as harmonious with the original facade as without a porch.
The Jones House
220 West Front Street
It has seen more than 160 years of Perrysburg history -- falling just a couple of years short of when William Henry Harrison himself was a guest a few doors up the street upon his return here to campaign for President. It's the house at 224 West Front built by a true pioneer.
The two-story Greek Revival house was built in 1843 by John C. Webb, Sheriff of Wood County when most of it was a dismal swamp, and a well-known man in local government circles. John Webb bought the lot on which the house sits from his brother-in-law, Thomas McKnight, an even earlier pioneer resident in 1823.
The house that was eventually built has a front-gabled roof with an off-center main entry. In recent years alterations had the front porch replicate the roof pediment, but it is more likely that the present entry design more truly represents the original.
The front door is flanked by multi-paned sidelights and has a transom. The present owners say that the two downstairs front windows and what is now the east entrance ran all the way down to the floor level. Very noticeable are tall fluted pilasters on the corners of the facade. These of course are in lieu of free-standing columns often associated with Greek Revival structures. A large porch featuring a second-story balustrade supported by square Doric columns that echo the front pilasters is built above the east side ground floor entrance. The porch has recently has been rehabilitated and improved by Tom Raymond, an old-time skilled artisan in such work.
The house was for many years a two-family dwelling but was converted back into an 8-room single family home within the past 10 years. In the process the owners discovered old bark-covered rounded roof supports without a ridge beam, part of a baking oven in a downstairs chimney, and pipes to supply natural gas to lighting fixtures.
John Webb was born in New York City in 1795. His father was a hat maker and the son also learned the trade. They moved to Canton, Ohio early in the 19th century and from there John came to Perrysburg in 1822, plodding through the Black Swamp led by McKnight and John's brother, Thomas Webb, who was apparently already here.
The family "squatted" originally on a clearing near town along what is now East River Road and then took over an abandoned frame dwelling (supposedly the only one here at the time) located in the river flats near where the municipal sewage disposal plant is now located.
Webb bought some land on the north side of Front Street in 1824 and built a log building to house his hat-making factory. Two years later he was elected sheriff for the first of three times, during one term of which (in 1830) he was in charge of the county's first execution of a criminal which took place between Fort Meigs and the entrance to the Fort Meigs Memorial Bridge.
Over the course of many years he also served as County Clerk, County Recorder, Clerk of Court, Township Trustee and Village Clerk. He was also treasurer of the School Improvement Association, perhaps the earliest version of a board of education here.
John Webb was married three times and fathered 18 children during a lifespan of 90 years. He died in 1885.
The Webb House
224 West Front Street
The house at 232 West Front Street is called by experts a fine example of the Shingle style of architecture. It was built by Henry H. Sargent sometime shortly after he purchased the property for $650 in 1894. It remained in the Sargent family until 1947.
This type of Victorian building was a uniquely American adaptation of other traditions and was particularly popular between 1880 and 1900. Identifying features other than wood shingle walls are gambreled cross-gables and multi-level eaves.
This house has a multi-planed but cross-gable gambrel roof. In the front a second story bay features three windows with mullions.
A pent, or short extension roof, extends above the bay, and below it across the entire front is another pent roof. Two windows on the first floor have mullions matching those above, and the front entry way is recessed with the door facing west.
On the west side a gable drops midway down the roof and covers a sunroom. The gable is supported by two Ionic columns. A higher gable toward the rear contains two second-story windows over a small first floor bay. On the east side the center gable continues halfway through to the first floor, and a pent roof between floors runs from the left side of the gable to the gable to the rear of the house. The walls, of course, are covered with wood shingles. Additions have been made to the rear.
Henry Sargent was born in Monroeville, Ohio, in 1854. He came to Perrysburg in 1893, having purchased a partnership in the Williams-Chapman woodenware company which was then renamed Chapman-Sargent. This firm was one of the largest manufacturers of wooden bowls, plates, etc. in the country, controlling a number of such factories in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Canada. The headquarters were located in Perrysburg, with Chapman managing that part of the business and Sargent doing the traveling which he had been doing prior to his purchase.
Henry Sargent was a director of the Citizens Banking Company, a member of the Masonic Order and of the Episcopal Church in Maumee. He died in 1920 at age 65.
The Sargent House
232 West Front Street
