Hard Work Pays Off
Hard work transformed a boarded-up house in the city into a beautiful home.
Donna Gumpper has spent the past decade making repairs to her 218 E. Fulton Street home.
She and her late husband, Bill Gumpper, bought the home after serving as missionaries in Africa.
“We didn't have a lot of money, so we had to find a place to fix up,” Donna Gumpper said.
Bill Gumpper, a former missionary pilot, was a Butler native who was hired at the First United Methodist Church in Butler.
When the couple first bought the home in 2003, it was in poor shape.
The windows were boarded up, the bushes overgrown, doors and cabinets were destroyed.
“It was a mess,” Gumpper said.
The shape of the home was a shame considering the care put into it during its first century standing.
The home was built in 1860 by William H. Riddle, a prominent attorney in Butler.
Riddle built the home as a temporary house while a mansion was built next door.
But after Riddle left, the Black family purchased the home and lived in it for the next century until Kate Black passed away.
Ruth Bernstein, one of the first female attorneys in the city, then bought the home and heavily renovated it in 1981.
“They lifted the house up and put a full basement in,” Gumpper said.
Bernstein invested more than $100,000 into restoring the structure, but never moved into the home.
“Her husband didn't want to move,” Gumpper said.
Instead, the home went to Bernstein's relatives, who did not care for the structure.
“The (living) room was covered with tar from them smoking,” Gumpper said. “Every door, every cabinet was ruined.”
While the family had full intention of renovating the home, they didn't know a lot about how to make the needed repairs.
“(Bill Gumpper) was a mechanic only through flying,” Donna Gumpper said. “He didn't really know how to do anything with the home.”
But after paying a contractor $500 to replace the front steps, the family decided it was time to learn.“He told me he's getting a book and learning to do everything,” Gumpper said. “And that's what he did.”Bill Gumpper started with adding a back porch.The family then re-installed the original mantle.“We found the original mantle under the steps in the basement,” Gumpper said. “It had just been sitting there all those years. I had to strip it down to the wood and repaint it.”She and her husband placed it in the living room and installed a gas burner in the fireplace.The family continued working on various parts of the home. Each of the three bathrooms was redone, as were many of the rooms in the house.In October 2007, Bill Gumpper was diagnosed with cancer. He died in November the following year.Before his death, Bill Gumpper had one final present from his church.“They sent us away to the Bedford Springs Resort for a weekend of golf,” Donna Gumpper said.When the couple returned, a new den was waiting in the basement of the home, complete with a refrigerator, television and furniture.Gumpper said her husband was able to spend two Pittsburgh Steelers weekends in the new den before he died.“He loved it,” she said.After her husband's death, Gumpper continued to work to improve the home she occupied with their two children.She specifically focused on the outside of the home, repainting it and adding a white picket fence.“I wanted the fence away from the house,” she said. “It's nice security.”Gumpper said Butler County Commissioner Dale Pinkerton spent two weeks helping her paint part of the home.
“I remember I never offered him a Coke,” she said, laughing. “I was so busy with everything else I forgot.”Gumpper stripped the entire outside of the home down to wood and repainted it.“It took four years,” she said.During that time she also renovated the garden and patio in the back, and planted numerous flowers on the property.The hard work and dedication to the house was all worthwhile for Gumpper.“It gives you something to be proud of,” she said. “You feel good about it.”Gumpper said she is planning to sell the home she has invested so many hours into repairing because she will be moving to Cranberry Township with her fiance.“It's going to be tough,” she said about selling the home. “I love this house. I'm going to miss it.”Gumpper received an annual Butler Preservation Award from city council in July for her and her husband's work on the home.
