Rolling out the Welcome Mat
GROVE CITY — History will be as much of an attraction as any architectural feature in the upcoming Friends of the Grove City Library house tour.
The Historic Grove City Tour 2012 on Sept. 23 will include Tower Church, the Grove City Historical Society, a bed and breakfast and two private homes, said Rebecca Limberg of the Friends of the Library who is overseeing the event.
Limberg said the 30-member group ran house tours in 2008 and 2010.
“We tried to reinstate it. It was an annual thing they did 10, 15 years ago,” Limberg said of the fundraising house tours.
She said the reason the revived tours are staged only every two years is because “people are not nearly as receptive to opening their homes as they once were. And for as much work as you put into it, it must pay off.”
Limberg said the 2008 and 2010 tours each attracted between 200 and 300 people and each raised more than $1,000 for the library.
“We'd like to get a little more this year,” said Limberg, adding the money will be used to fund library functions.
For this year's tour, Limberg said, she wanted to go with homes that were established in the community. “It's really to celebrate the historic value that we have here.”
And despite Limberg's saying that people were reluctant to open their houses to strangers, one of the owners on this year's tour, Ray Mercer, said the more strangers the better.
But that could be because Mercer and his wife, Molly, own the Terra Nova House Bed and Breakfast, 322 W. Poplar St.
Mercer said from the history he was able to reconstruct from legal records, he believes his Victorian-style house was built by Thomas and Katherine Carlin of Grove City in 1901 on a parcel of land they bought from W.A. and Margaret Steward, for whom the present-day Steward Avenue is named.
“That's what we are guessing; it was built in 1901,” said Mercer, basing the date on the molding and door frames.
Mercer said in 1939 then-owner Mary Hogue began to take in tenants when her husband died, and the house was divided into apartments. The house continued to be used as apartments until a bank seized the property in 1986.
It was bought in a sheriff's sale in 1986 by Jeffery Wood, a Grove City attorney, who renovated it and reconverted it to a single-family home.
It was made into a bed and breakfast in 1997 by then-owners Clifford and Janice Brown, who were both on the faculty at Grove City College, said Mercer.
The Mercers, originally from Mars, bought the bed and breakfast in December 2011 from Barry and Sally Miller.
“We get 30 percent college-related guests, mostly Grove City,” said Mercer. “Thirty percent shoppers at the outlet. We get 12 percent of our business from Ontario, 10 percent from Ohio, 9 percent from New York and 4 percent from Michigan.”
Mercer agreed to show off the four bedrooms that make up the bed and breakfast part of the house.“Visitors can go up and look at the rooms; I'll be in the foyer to answer questions.“I'm not prepping for the house tour,” Mercer said. “I'm leaving it as it is. Right after Halloween we're getting ready for Christmas.”Stephanie McGahey is another owner happy to show off her home for this year's tour.She and her husband, Jeffrey, and their daughter, Jordan, have lived at 210 Gilmore Avenue since 2000.The McGaheys said their house is more than 100 years old, and the oak woodwork, especially the unpainted ceiling beams and trim, are what appealed to them most.The McGaheys said they've almost completely changed the house inside and out with extensive renovation and landscaping.“A couple of the ladies at the library asked me to do this. They had been to the house and asked me to do it,” said Stephanie McGahey, a Spanish teacher at Grove City High School.“Anything to help out the kids. Being a teacher, I'm always willing to do things to help.”Anna Dzirkalis, owner of the home at 217 E. Pine St., another stop on the tour, said, “One of my friends on Friends of the Library recommended I participate.”Dzirkalis, who's lived in the house for four years, said, “I just love old homes and to see old homes, and just creating that opportunity is a nice thing to do.”Limberg said the church, and historical society are near the library, which is at 125 W. Main St., and the two houses and the bed and breakfast are two to three blocks away.Additionally, Tower Church will have a stained glass window tour, said Limberg, while the historical society will have a window display and the library will offer refreshments to tour participants.
<B>What: </B>The Historic Grove City Tour 2012, includes two private homes, a church, a bed and breakfast, and the Grove City Historical Society<B>Where: </B>Within three blocks of Grove City Library, 125 W. Main St.<B>When:</B> 2 to 5 p.m. Sept. 23<B>Tickets: </B>Available at the library and Beans on Broad, 141 S. Broad St., Grove City
