444 Lake (452 Lake) Railroad Station Agent Cottage

Abrsacted From John Houghton's I Remember... This Old House a :

After describing all of them, Corwin turns to another source, John F. Cromley. “Neighbor” Cromley, as he was known, had been born to Joel and Amelia Cromley in Sandusky County, Ohio, in December, 1845; his family moved to the Maxinkuckee area in the early 1850s, liviing first in the far southwest corner of the county (the area of Cromley Cemetery), and then moving into Marmont in 1869. Neighbor Cromley ived almost to the age of 96, dying in March of 1941, the last Civil War veteran in Marshall County.

Mr. Cromley, then, when interviewed in 1934, could remember which buildings in Culver had been standing when his family first came to the newly-renamed Marmont. His report to Corwin was that the house on the knoll under the pine trees near the depot was the oldest one in town: “It was the first house I saw when I came down here. It was wild here then. That house is the only one left of those that were here in those days.”...

It turns out that W. T. Parish, Culver’s station agent from 1917, had the house moved to Lake Street in the 1920s and added a canopy over the front entrance. Typically, though, Corwin doesn’t give a street number, but simply mentions that the Arthur Simpson family lived in the house for a while.

The Editor and I tried some casual research on this question one morning last August over our sausage gravy and biscuits at a well-known local eatery: but even though some of the folks at neighboring tables actually lived on Lake Street, no-one seemed to know what might be the oldest house in the neighborhood. Once again, I turned to Judi Burns, who made a quick check of the 1930 census and reported back that in that year Arthur and Ruth Simpson lived at 452 Lake Street. I commissioned the ditor to check the east side of Lake Street for our old house. Sadly, he found no house numbered 452. More than likely, the house has been torn down in the seventy years since Corwin wrote; possibly, the house is still there, but has been renumbered

Station Agents Cottage

1923 - Jan. 24 - Removal of Landmark

W. T. Parish has bought the cottage on the railroad land and will remove it to his lot in the Dillon & Medbourn addition north of the Keen gallery.

It will be remodeled and modernized into a comfortable renting property.

The building was on of the first in the original town, erected about 1866, when there were but eleven houses in side the corportation.

Its first occupant was Dr. Wiseman Sr.

The numbers assigned to houses by the Post office in 1925 lists: "Lake, E Side, 0452 - Parish, W T & G E - Lot 10"

The 1930 census shows that Arthur and Ruth Simpsom lived at 452 Lake Street

It is found that sometime since its relocation that the address was changed to "444 Lake St." listings for this address provides this list

1960-1980-? - Elbert W. Graham (1910-1985) (telephone directory)
married Edna Bell Andrews (1910-1973)

? - 1981 - Michael Rafferty
1981-1999 - Robert R. Diaz
1999-2004 - Nicholas J Paccelli
2004-2008 Relocation Advan
2008-2013 - Charles Munroe

2013- 2023 - Christain S. Sweet

Dillon & Medbourn Add. Lot 10