MEDINA, Ohio -- Sitting on East Washington Street, the Judge Albert Munson House had been waiting patiently for its big move back in 1985. Janet Lipstreu had everything ready to move the house, but the weather kept postponing the house’s trip across town.

On what looked like another rainy day, Lipstreu and fellow historian Joann King met at the house to check the weather when they saw a sign in the sky.

“We knew it was the day, because Joann King and I got there and it still looked like it was going to rain,” Lipstreu said. “But then a rainbow came out over the house, and it was like, ‘That’s our sign.’”

In 1985, Medina County planned to use the Munson House’s land for a parking lot, meaning the home had to go or be demolished. The Medina Community Design Committee, led by Lipstreu, raised the necessary funds to move the house, saving it from being destroyed.

Thirty-three years later, the Huntington House at 347 N. Huntington St. is in a similar situation.

The City of Medina is acquiring the historic house in a land swap with the Medina City School District so that it can use the land as parking for Ray Mellert Park. The original agreement was for the schools to cover the demolition cost, but soon after hearing about the plans, Bankers Row Historic Neighborhood Association Member Suzanne Sharpe began making plans to save the house.

Medina County acquired the Munson House in a similar trade with the Medina County Historical Society, which in exchange got the larger John Smart House on North Elmwood. The historical society has used the home as its offices and museum since the trade.

“That worked out in favor of the historical society, but at the same time we all knew we wanted to save the (Munson) house,” Lipstreu said. “I mean, it was a given -- just how that was going to be done, who knew?”

Close to demolition, all options were on the table

Medina County was close to demolishing the Munson House, repeatedly pushing back the deadline, and even accepted bids for the demolition.

With destruction becoming a real possibility, former Medina Mayor Bill Lamb said the community was scrambling for solutions.

"I think a lot of it was just born out of finding a use for the house so the county wouldn't tear it down,” Lamb said. “It was just kind of a scramble to try to figure out how to save it."

One of those solutions came from a local drug-free advocacy group called The Chemical People. The group wanted to move the home onto Memorial Park and turn it into a teen center.

Lamb and The Chemical People brought the plan to City Council, which rejected it because they didn’t want the home on city property.

During his time as mayor, Lamb said the council he worked with was not supportive of historical preservation. Now a councilman-at-large, he said the current council and Mayor Dennis Hanwell are in full support of saving the Huntington House.

“We are actively working to help preserve that house,” he said.

Saving the home, he said, has to be the first step.

“The goal has to be simply to save the house,” he said. “Where it goes and what you do with it is important, but the saving is the key. If you don’t save it, nothing else matters."

In 1985, the CDC finally found the solution and secured the funding to save the Munson House.

The Munson House in transit. (Courtesy of the Community Design Committee)

The Big Move

The Munson House now sits on the corner of South Prospect Street and Blake Avenue, but it took Lipstreu a lot of time, effort and coordination to get it there.

“I’m very blessed that my family put up with me during that time period,” Lipstreu said. “Because I spent a lot of hours on the phone and a lot of time trying to work out all the details.”

Along with hiring AA House Movers to move the home, the CDC had to find a vacant lot for the house to sit on. They also had to make sure a train wouldn’t block -- or worse, hit -- the home while it crossed the railroad tracks.

"So we had to coordinate with the railroad, as well, to make sure there wasn’t going to be a train coming through, you know, at the given time that we were moving,” Lipstreu said.

Electrical wires had to be lifted or disconnected so the house wouldn’t hit them. Ohio Edison dealt with the wires, even having an employee stand on the moving house to lift up cables.

“When they could snake under wires, they would do it.,” Lipstreu said. “But then otherwise they ended up having two crews, one in front and one in back.”

Lipstreu said the crew in front of the home would drop or cut the wires, while the crew behind would quickly work to repair them.

After months of fundraising and countless hours of phone calls, Lipstreu said it only took two hours to do the actually moving of the home. On Nov. 18, 1985, the Munson House landed at its new home. Once the move was over with, the CDC could start renovating it, turning it into their new offices.

After being an office space for the Medina County Historical Society and Community Design Committee, the Munson House is a residence again. (Sean McDonnell, special to cleveland.com)

A surprise homecoming

Many years later, Beth Biggins-Ramer had recently moved back to Medina and drove around town to get reacquainted with the area.

A past CDC member who had worked in the Munson House offices, she was in for a surprise when she drove by the stately structure.

“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, there’s a for-sale sign in front of the Munson House,'” she said.

Lamb, now the executive director of the CDC, said that for a variety of reasons, the group wanted to move back to the square where it originally began.

“A lot of the CDC’s work really ended up revolving around the house, to maintain the house,” Lamb said. “We needed an influx of new money, and we needed to go back to the square where the CDC started."

The CDC is working with the city to restore the second floor of the Town Hall and Fire Engine Museum, which is where the new CDC offices will be. In spring of 2014, the Munson House was sold to Biggins-Ramer and her husband, Charles Ramer, who became the first family to live in it since 1954.

Since the house had been turned into offices, Biggins-Ramer said it was missing things like a kitchen and even a shower. Since moving in, the couple has restored the house from an office back to a residence -- and kept the home historically accurate.

“We kind of take that responsibility seriously,” she said. “We’re the stewards (of the home) for as long as we occupy the house, and then it will hopefully be passed on to someone who can take the next several decades of stewardship for the home.”

Biggins-Ramer said it's important to preserve historical homes, saying the houses are “intricate to the fabric of the community.”

“Whether it's an architectural piece of history or if it’s on a beautiful countryside, when it’s gone it’s gone,” she said. “It's a resource. So once you exhaust a resource, you can't get it back, and some are irreplaceable."

The Munsons

The Munson House is named for Judge Albert Munson, who was elected Medina County Probate Judge in 1877 and moved his family into the home soon after. Albert Munson also opened up his business, Munson and Son Hardware, on Public Square.

After he and his son, Lyman, passed, his daughter, Cora Munson, ran the family business for 25 years and inherited it, along with the Munson House.

“Cora doing that made her really one of the first independent businesswomen in Medina,” local historian Roger Smalley said. “So we have not only the history with her father, but her contribution as well from that standpoint.”

Cora Munson left her home to the Medina County Historical Society when she died in 1954. Smalley said the Italianate Victorian home used to be surrounded by other Victorian-style homes, but by the time the county swapped for the land, the other homes around it were gone.

Lipstreu said showing the historic value of the home to the community was a large part of the CDC’s efforts to save it.

“I think the biggest part of it was putting a face on the historic value of the house itself, because we wanted people to be involved,” Lipstreu said. “It wasn't just about CDC coming in and saving the house. It was about the community standing behind its history.”

For anyone trying to save a home, Lipstreu said her advice would be to use the home’s history to make a case for it.

“State your case as to why this house was important,” she said. “It’s all about the history; otherwise why would you save it?”

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