{"nrhp_refnum":"78002177","name":"Edwards, John, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"305 W. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leipsic","county":"Putnam County","state":"OH","lat":41.101516418000074,"lon":-83.99065792499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-11-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large brick mansion at 305 West Main Street in Leipsic, Putnam County, Ohio, built in 1894 by John Edwards, a member of the locally prominent Edwards family.","why_significant":"The house is presented as historically significant because it was built by one of the wealthiest and most important families in Leipsic and Putnam County, founders of the Buckeye Stave Company. It is architecturally significant as a well-preserved High Victorian mansion whose elegant style of living was unusual for the frontier Black Swamp area.","narrative":"Built in 1894 at 305 West Main Street in Leipsic, Ohio, this large brick mansion was the home of John Edwards, one of the sons of a family that built a major stave-making business in the Black Swamp region. The house has a projecting pavilion, spoolwork bargeboards, a wrap-around porch with a gazebo-style turret, and imbricated slate roofing. Inside, stencilled ceilings, stained and leaded glass, parquet floors, an open cherry staircase and an oak-paneled dining room survive from the original construction, along with an early gravity-fed bathroom. The Edwards family formed the Buckeye Stave Company in 1886, owned mills and banks, and employed about 1000 people. The property stayed in the family until 1977, when it was deeded to the Village of Leipsic for a library. It is valued as a well-preserved example of the elegant living that wealth brought to a small frontier-era community.","period_of_significance":"1894","architect_builder":"John Edwards (builder)","architectural_style":"High Victorian (reviewer notes describe a Queen Anne mode)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Deeded in 1977 to the Village of Leipsic for use as a public library and cultural center; the form describes it as little changed since construction and well preserved inside and out.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.568954-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/78002177.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002177/a0694ceca0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002177/a0694ceca0-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Edwards_House_in_Leipsic.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Edwards_House_in_Leipsic.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991076","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edwards_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6231401"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/putnam-county/edwards-john-house-78002177/"}