{"nrhp_refnum":"73001490","name":"Sessions House","other_names":["Tuscan House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"157 Mentor Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Painesville","county":"Lake County","state":"OH","lat":41.712607552000065,"lon":-81.24840672999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-08-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large brick, T-shaped house at 157 Mentor Avenue in Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, built around 1870 and first owned by Lucia Sessions. It is also known as the Tuscan House and is used as an apartment house.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the most outstanding masonry example of the late Italianate style in Lake County. Cast iron, jig-sawn woodwork and coloristic motifs mark it as one of Painesville's best examples of post-Civil War romantic architecture. Its designer is unknown, though Charles Wallace Heard has been conjecturally suggested.","narrative":"Built around 1870 at 157 Mentor Avenue in Painesville, this large brick house was first owned by Lucia Sessions and is also known as the Tuscan House. It has a T-shaped plan, a central projecting bay with a splayed doorway under a semicircular stone arch, a Palladian-like second-floor window, a hipped roof, and a bracketed cornice with coffered soffit. Inside, the original twelve rooms were arranged in double-parlor fashion around a central hall, but the plan has since been altered for individual apartments, and a 1945 remodeling encased the fireplaces. Little is known of its history, and its designer is uncertain, though Charles Wallace Heard has been suggested without firm evidence. The house was listed because it is considered the most outstanding masonry example of the late Italianate style in Lake County, combining cast iron, jig-sawn woodwork and colorful detailing typical of post-Civil War romantic architecture.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (built c. 1870)","architect_builder":"Charles Wallace Heard (conjectural attribution only; no concrete evidence)","architectural_style":"Late Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as an apartment house; condition listed as good and altered, with the interior remodeled for apartments and the original fireplaces encased in 1945.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.081581-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/73001490.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001490/70a0e33100-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001490/70a0e33100-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"LeeG7144","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sessions_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">LeeG7144</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sessions_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989555","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sessions_House_(Painesville,_Ohio)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7456162"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/lake-county/sessions-house-73001490/"}