Cranz, Edward, Farm

Set on a plateau along Oak Hill Road in Peninsula, Ohio, this 12-acre farmstead was established by Edward Cranz, a German-born former merchant who bought the land in 1865 and finished the house in 1867. The core is a New England one-and-a-half-story form with modest Greek Revival touches, enlarged in 1890 and again in the 1970s. Surviving outbuildings include a smokehouse, chicken coop, carriage house, toolshed and bull pen, arranged with the surrounding fields. In 1870 the farm kept twelve cows, 33 sheep and a few hogs, and produced butter, cheese, wool and grain. Cranz belonged to the county agricultural society, and his son expanded the outbuildings around 1900. The farm outlasted the decline of many valley farms by diversifying into gravel sales around 1930. It is listed for its agricultural record and for buildings that show valley farming practices.