Crumrine, John, Farm

This farm near Nova, in Troy Township, Ashland County, Ohio, centers on a Greek Revival house built about 1860-62 for farm founder John Crumrine. The house is an upright-and-wing design on a stone foundation, with a front-gabled two-story section, clapboard siding, corner pilasters, a broad cornice with returns, frieze windows and a slate roof. Inside, the staircase, oak wainscoting, clock niche and original hardware survive. Thirteen outbuildings and structures remain, including a hewn-beam barn, smokehouse, granary, corncrib, chicken coop, carriage barn and early garages. Four generations of the family raised cattle, Merino sheep, chickens, hay and grain here, and the original fence lines are intact. Troy Township was settled late, and few of its Greek Revival houses escaped later alteration. Most farms also lost their older outbuildings as their uses faded. This property kept both house and outbuildings, so it illustrates the township's architecture and its farming history from the mid-1800s into the twentieth century.