The First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Second and Elm Streets is believed to be the outstanding architectural example of its kind in northwest Ohio.
This well-known Perrysburg building, constructed at a cost of $5,200 in 1892, is worth a close look for it is a unique blend of the Stick and Gothic styles.
The Stick style represented a transition linking the preceding Gothic Revival with the subsequent Queen Anne, all three being adaptations of Medieval English building traditions. The Stick Style, most popular in this country between 1860 and the 1890s, stressed the raised wall surface itself as a decorative element rather than just doors, windows and cornices.
Unfortunately, the original stick work which ran in horizontal, vertical and even diagonal directions has been covered by plain horizontal aluminum siding on the original walls. But remaining style characteristics are pleasantly visible in the decorative trusses and arches on the tower, gables and porches, and the steeply pitched gabled roof, and church officials have done a good job in recent years of preserving the building and its original details.
The original portion of the building, designed by architect Charles Sturgiss, was constructed some 17 years after a fire in 1875 destroyed the congregation's brick church building then located where Way Library now stands. The congregation was organized in 1834. For many years until the present building was constructed, worship services were held in Centennial Hall located upstairs in the south half of the brick building at the corner of Front Street and Louisiana Avenue.
The interior of the new building featured 32 antique oak pews and a frescoed cathedral ceiling supported by gently curved beam rafters. A colorful 14-foot-long stained Reamy glass window still faces the Second Street side and above this and in the gable along Elm Street are stained gothic-arched windows. These and other stained glass throughout the building are largely memorial gifts over the years.
Perhaps the most prominent exterior feature is the bell tower, which is illuminated at night to help highlight the trio of pointed lancet windows perforating each face of the tower.
Remodeling and alterations were made in 1952, in 1985 when the large addition was made at the rear and in 1991.
The pastor at the time of the building of the church was the venerable Reverend George A. Adams who was also largely responsible for the previous building that burned. He was born on Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts in 1821. He was educated at Oberlin College, after which he taught school before studying for the ministry.
During the Civil War he served as chaplain of the 12th Ohio Cavalry in which a number of Perrysburg area men also served, but returned here to complete 47 years as pastor to the congregation. He died in 1903 at the age of 83, still the active pastor.
Presbyterian Church
200 East Second Street
This fine old brick Italianate house at 203 East Second Street across from Kazmaier's Grocery Store was built in about 1876 by prominent Perrysburg banker, Nathaniel L. Hanson.
Born in New Hampshire in 1827, Mr. Hanson's education at Dartmouth College was interrupted by the Civil War and after a time he came here in 1871 as teller of the short-lived Exchange Bank. In 1979 he organized the Citizens Bank, later called the Citizens Banking Company, which operated under that name until recent years. He served as cashier and manager until the time of his death in 1903.
The two-story house with its truncated hipped roof with a cap is said to have cost $5,000 at the time--a considerable amount. Typical of the time, it most likely had a frame porch across the front. Incised, carved brackets at the roof line support a broad cornice beneath which is a dentil pattern. The tall windows on the Second Street side feature carved lintels, and the double door entrance is topped by a transom of beautifully etched glass. The two-story bay window walls on the west side are three-sided while the one on the east wall is square.
Mr. Hanson was a typical civic-minded business leader, serving as a member of the Board of Education, as a manager of the Way Library Board and a village councilman. He was a leader in the Presbyterian Church and belonged to the local Knights of Pythias. He died in 1893 at the age of 66.
The Hanson House
203 East Second Street
The Hoover House
209 East Second Street
Horace M. Hoover is thought to have built this frame house with Queen Anne characteristics ca. 1890. It has a steeply-pitched roof of irregular shape with a dominant front gable and bay windows. Most of the side windows are very tall and narrow, and there is an interesting angled corner window in the right first floor. The main and side porches have classical columns instead of the more common turned posts.
THe Hannah House
214 East Second Street
Just off Louisiana Avenue, this house could have been built by William Hannah ca. 1863, who owned the property for 18 years. The plain vergeboard in the front gable, the overhanging eaves supported by small single brackets, and the single small window in the downstairs façade are among the notable architectural features.
This house served as the Presbyterian Church parsonage for over 85 years.
For over 110 years this fine old Queen Anne style frame house at 215 East Second Street was in the Munger family. The property on which the house sits was in the original 1816 Perrysburg plat and was first purchased in 1849. An early out-building sat on it at the end of the Civil War, but in 1887 George Munger, Sr. bought the property from Julia Spafford and in 1890 built this house whose outside appearance is virtually unchanged today.
George Munger was born here in 1854. His father (also named George) and mother came to Perrysburg from near Bamberg in Bavaria, Germany in 1846 and settled on a just plotted river tract off East River Road.
They preceded a group of 72 German immigrants from the same area who arrived six years later and who were the nucleus of the founders of Saint Rose Church.
A self-made man and eldest of nine children, Mr. Munger took over the family at age 13 after the accidental death of his father. He spent his early life clearing the dense forest which surrounded the little clearing that was then Perrysburg. He later became involved with cattle and in 1879, with his brother John, established a butcher shop. The following year they bought the building at 123 Louisiana, and for 50 years Munger Brothers Meat Market was a downtown landmark.
But that was far from the extent of the business. In 1888 the brothers bought the land just south of Fort Meigs Union Cemetery for a cattle yard and slaughterhouse. It was part of a wholesale operation that for many years supplied Toledo and northwest Ohio customers, including some of the best restaurants. The brothers bought and shipped cattle here by rail from Chicago and as far away as Texas.
The paired column wrap-around front porch of the house features a dentiled cornice, a balustrade and latticework underneath. Heavy overhangs and a tall chimney accentuated the steep pitch of the Victorian hipped roof. The large gable has an elliptical, or lunette, window (there is another on the west side of the house), and a projecting bay window adds interest to the east side of the structure.
Being quite active in civic affairs, Mr. Munger was a village councilman for many years, a member of the first board of Public Affairs, and a member of the Water Works Board. He was also a charter member of the Exchange Club, one of the organizers of the Perrysburg Tile and Brick Company, an officer in Perrysburg Grain and Seed Company, and for more than 30 years the president and a director of the Citizens Banking Company. He died in 1935 at the age of 81.
A son, the late Harold H. Munger, during his long occupancy of the house, eventually made it into a duplex with a side entrance. He also added a screened porch on the northeast side. His son, Harold C., and his wife also raised their family here.
The Munger House
215 East Second Street
The original frame portion of this house was built ca. 1850 by boot and shoe salesman John Eberly who came to Perrysburg from Germany. The front of the one-story left wing (an addition to the original) is of brick, said to have replaces a wooden wall damaged in a fire. The front entrance is flanked by four-paned sidelights above which is a full entablature.
Eberly built the brick building on the southeast corner of Louisiana Avenue and Second Street for his hand-made boot and shoe business.
The Eberly House
216 East Second Street
Historic inventories suggest that this house was built in the 1860s, but it could have been built later by dry goods merchant William Barton whose family lived in it until 1918. The original symmetrical part of it contains the usual wide frieze board, return cornices, and sidelights and pilaster-like door surround.
Barton was an Englishman by birth. While enroute to Perrysburg from England via Buffalo, he lost 14 relatives in the sinking of the G. P. Griffith steamer on Lake Erie in June 1850.
The William Barton House
220 East Second Street
Designed by Perrysburg architect George Rheinfrank Sr., this basically queen Anne-style house built by Christopher A. Hoffman ca. 1898 features a three-sided two-story bay topped by a conical roof, giving it the resemblance of a tower. The lower story walls of the house are of clapboard and the upper are in shingle. The flared porch roof is supported on Ionic columns.
Hoffman began in the grocery and saloon business, a common combination at the time. He also operated a restaurant.
The Hoffman House
221 East Second Street
The Bloomfield House
233 East Second Street
This Greek Revival style house, built ca. 1840, started as a one-and-a-half story building.
Among other additions over the years were the one-story room with a shed roof on the right side, a small front entrance porch, small porches at the rear and left sides, and an extension with a flat roof in the rear.
It was built by Edmund Bloomfield, who once taught school, was a skilled carpenter who worked in a Toledo shipyard and was a Wood County Commissioner.
