Barker, William, Residence
Why it's listed
This two-story wood frame house at 805 Wye Road in Ghent, Bath Township, dates to about 1850. It has three bays, a T-shaped plan, a gable roof with shingles, clapboard siding and a stone foundation. Original siding and double-hung windows survive. A central entrance opens onto a full shed-roof porch supported by turned posts and carved brackets, with saw-tooth vertical siding in the gable ends. A two-story rear addition has a similar back porch. The house is associated with William Barker, who owned two buildings in 1856, this one probably serving as his residence. Barker held 571 acres that year, invested in two mills and built a factory, which suggests considerable prosperity. By 1874 he had sold the house to J. Evans. It faces a side residential street, with a creek on one side and a modern post office on the other. The survey lists its exterior condition as fair and notes a risk from neglect.
Significance in brief: The house is associated with William Barker, a prosperous local landowner and mill investor who owned it in 1856. It is also a surviving mid-19th-century frame house with original siding, windows and porch details. The inventory form is brief and gives little argument beyond these points.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 79002797, listed June 11, 1979. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 805 Wye Rd., Ghent |
|---|---|
| County | Summit County |
| Listed | June 11, 1979 |
| Reference number | 79002797 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Exterior condition is listed as fair; the form notes the property is endangered by neglect. It is in residential use. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 41.15742, -81.63653 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 79002797.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.