Upcoming Youngstown Home Tour and Tea worth checking out

by Susan Mikula Campbell
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, September 9, 2006

Set back on a sweeping expanse of lawn, featuring tall columns and a mansard roof, the Pillars is one of those stately homes along Lower River Road in Youngstown that people often wish they could see inside.

That wish will be granted on Saturday, Sept. 16 to those with tickets to the 2006 Youngstown Home Tour and Tea, sponsored by the Town of Porter Historical Society. The Pillars is among eight homes on the tour.

Go inside seven Youngstown homes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each home will feature a centerpiece created by a Youngstown Garden Club member and visitors will vote for their favorite. After touring the homes, settle back with tea and dessert, served by the Youngstown Study Club from 1 to 4 p.m. in the garden behind Kathy and John Goller’s home at 615 Main St., where there is a panoramic view of the Niagara River, Fort George, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Old Fort Niagara.

The Pillars also was featured in the first tour and tea held to celebrate the village’s sesquicentennial in 2004. The Second Empire style house was purchased that year by a California couple looking for a retirement home and has since undergone extensive renovations.

‘Magnificent Mansion’

The beautiful home looks like it could be the centerpiece of a romance novel, and indeed, its story is romantic. It was built in 1870 by local builder John Carter for Robert Gardiner Newton who came here from England. The bricks for his house were imported from his home country. The tall pillars on the front, which give the house its current name, weren’t added until the 1930s. Then owner Fred Spinner had them put in place as a surprise gift for his wife.

Nancy (Chase) Slaven, who grew up in Niagara Falls, used to notice the house as her family took drives to Youngstown on warm summer afternoons.

“You know how kids do. I’d say, ‘Some day I’m going to live there!’ ” she remembers. “This house was like a magnificent mansion to a kid.”

Two years ago, she and her husband, Robert, rented an apartment in Lewiston as they looked around for a retirement home. The Pillars, although a tattered old lady, was available.

“I can’t believe I got it!” she happily says today.

The Slavens have enjoyed the hard work of restoring the beauty of the old house, despite a period of washing dishes in the bathroom sink and using a camping table in the front hall. The work has included painting inside and out, repairing the walls, putting in a marble entryway, dividing the living room so a library with floor to ceiling bookcases could be built, refinishing hardwood floors, new fixtures, chandeliers and of course, restoring the pillars out front. Slaven said it’s still a work in progress, hard work, but a job that she loves.

More Must-sees

Other than the Pillars, the remaining homes on this year’s tour are not repeats, according to Karen Noonan, chairman of the show and historical society board member. They include:

•A five-bedroom inn at 500 Main St. operated as a bed and breakfast by Quain Weber. While other homes will only be open on the first floor, visitors at this 1850s vintage building will be able to view the bedrooms on the second floor.

•The 1840 Italianate house at 550 Main St. Recently totally renovated, the Finkle House features a beautiful wraparound porch.

•An 1890s Queen Anne at 343 Main St. Located next to the former El Dorado Hotel, it was formerly known as Temperance House. It currently is divided into four apartments. Visitors will see the grand old staircase and one of the apartments that has a view of the river.

•A Bennett “kit” house built in 1928 at 27 Chestnut St. It’s now the home of Gaylynn and Tony Clark. Original freight bills, a list of materials, floor plans and building instructions will be on display. The original owner, a local carpenter, had the house pieces shipped in by railroad, then built his home to last.

•An 1895 vintage home at 374 Lockport St. that still has the cistern where rainwater was collected in what is now the dining room. Owners Nancy and Ken Greulich kept the vintage front of the house and put an addition on the back for a master bedroom and bath, laundry and breezeway.

•The final house is a new one at 445 Lockport St. Owners Kathy and Ray Mahtook chose the American Colonial design specifically so it would fit the village’s historical look. They lived on the East Coast, but relocated here in 2004 after they fell in love with the community following a visit to Fort Niagara, Noonan said.

This won’t be the last home tour for the Town of Porter Historical Society, Noonan said. In 1976, 100 homes dating from 1820 to 1904 were identified in the town; and about 200 more were added to the historical society’s records for the sesquicentennial.

“The hardest part is finding people who are willing to open their homes,” she said. “We’re already thinking the next one will be along Lake Road or in Ransomville.”

Tickets Available

This year, only 300 tour tickets are available for a $20 donation at The Dory, 435 Main St., and Dan & Lucy Wilson Real Estate, 128 Lockport St., Youngstown, or at the Lower Niagara River Region Chamber of Commerce on Center Street in Lewiston. For more information call Noonan at (716) 745-1283 or e-mail her at knoonan@buffalo.edu. The first tour two years ago sold out before the tour date.

Noonan said if any tickets are left on Sept. 16, they will be available at The Dory.