McKenster-Groff House

Built in 1849 at 334 E. Washington Street in Sandusky, this two-story limestone house is an early example of Gothic Revival design in the city. The walls are cut limestone, later cemented over, beneath a truncated hip roof. Wide eaves carry double brackets, and the windows have stone lintels and sills, more elaborate on the front than on the sides. Stained glass decorates the upstairs windows, with leaded beveled glass downstairs, and the front door has stone pilasters and a stained glass transom bearing the house number. The arched, bracketed front porch was added around 1900 and remains intact. The house was built by the proprietors of the Exchange Hotel. A later owner, Edward Marsh, entertained William Howard Taft here, and a photograph shows Taft on the porch. The corner lot has an iron fence in front, a brick wall at the rear, and a wooden carriage house from about 1880 with three dormers, ornate window caps and imbricated shingles. The property was recorded as vacant.