The Wilbur Cahoon House is one of the oldest homes in

Lorain County Lorain County () is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,964. Its county seat is Elyria, and its largest city is Lorain. The county was physically established in 1822, beco ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.Guide to North Ridge Scenic Byway, Lorain County, Ohio; Charles E. Herdendorf; Sheffield Village Historical Society and Avon Historical Society, July 2010 The house is long with 12 rooms, situated overlooking French Creek. Wilbur Cahoon arrived in Avon in 1814 from

Herkimer County, New York Herkimer County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 60,139. Its county seat is Herkimer (village), New York, Herkimer. The co ...

with his wife, Priscilla and family; he was Avon's first settler and an early industrialist.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 870. Cahoon purchased through a trade of in New York. His new land was covered by a forest, and he and his family constructed a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

as a temporary shelter. In the following year, he began to build a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

nearby along French Creek, and in 1818 established a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

. The log cabin was no longer the Cahoon family home after 1826, when the present house was erected. Later in life, Cahoon entered into local public service: he served as Justice of the Peace for Avon,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

and

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

Townships, as well as holding offices such as

overseer of the poor An overseer of the poor was an official who administered poor relief such as money, food, and clothing in England and various other countries which derived their law from England, such as the United States. England In England, overseers of the po ...

, elections judge, and constable. Cahoon's house is a

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

building with prominent local

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

influences. Although the style is typical of period houses in the region, its

floor plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

is unusually disorderly, in contrast to the symmetry of typical Greek Revival structures, and the house is unusually short for its footprint. Set on a stone

foundation Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

, the house is a two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Narrative, an account of imaginary or real people and events ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting ** News story, an event or topic reported by a news orga ...

wooden structure with a protruding

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d section on the left, as seen from the road. Shuttered windows fill much of the wall space on the facade.,

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 2007. Accessed 2010-02-13. In 1978, the Cahoon House was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, qualifying because of its connection to Cahoon. As the home of the first pioneer in the area and as one of the area's earliest buildings in any

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

, it occupies a significant place in local history.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahoon, Wilbur, House Avon, Ohio Greek Revival houses in Ohio Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Houses in Lorain County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Lorain County, Ohio Wooden houses in the United States Houses completed in 1826