Story and photos by Laura Freeman First featured in the 2007 Hudson Home & Garden Tour, creating the gardens on Manor Drive was a labor of love for the homeowners. Molly and John Logan moved to the property in 2003 when none of the gardens existed. “There were a few trees,” Molly said. “We put in everything.” A sunny cottage garden greets visitors with a riot of color as they begin the tour. Just inside the gate is a boxwood brought from England by Ada Cooper Miller’s family in the early 1900s. Molly enjoys a variety of clematis and has a Princess Diana variety in the fenced garden and a Prince Charles variety near the lamp post and jokes she has to keep them apart. The tightly packed plants, mostly perennials, create the cottage garden within the white picket fence. “I like things unexpected,” Molly said. “If they choose to come up, if conditions are right, I let them be.” Some of the flowers in the front include lupines, Sweet William, salvia, yarrow, allium and peonies. A single Japanese peony belonged to Molly’s mother. As visitors walk along the side of the house, they should notice the white hydrangea climbing up the chimney. Other white flowers decorate this side of the house. The backyard is a restful retreat of mostly green and white. “You can solve a lot of problems in the garden,” Molly said. “You can take out your frustrations with weeding.” Garden sculptures are tucked away to be a surprise by those walking along. Notice the sundial among the foliage. The shade garden was created in the shade of the large maple tree. Because of its roots growing close to the ground, Molly gathered newspapers from neighbors and friends to create 12 layers of paper with six inches of topsoil for the bed. The boxwood frames the hostas, ferns and other plants which create texture in the varying shades of green. Several benches create quiet spots to sit and enjoy the tranquility of the garden. The garden also plays tribute to family with some plants and trees making the move from their former home as well as heirloom garden tools and family stepping stones that have been put into service. The tool shed is open for the tour. Outside are handprints from family members from several generations. Inside are all the tools necessary to create and maintain a garden. Gardeners can copy some of the ideas like keeping plant tags for future reference, which are hanging near the door. A rocking chair provides some relief when gardening begins to stress the back or knees. On top of the tool shed a weathervane made for the family includes figures of Molly’s father, her brother and two sisters. Molly is the figure in the middle of the girls. On the opposite side of the yard is a new pathway and several hostas and ferns. A hurdle, purchased on a trip to England, holds up Solomon’s seal and keeps it protected from lawn mowing. Near the door is a cutting garden. Molly said her mother was up at dawn working in the garden, and she would join her. She always complimented and encouraged her work in the gardens. “She brought her friends to see my garden,” Molly said. “I got a lot of encouragement and that continues with friends.” The Wacky Weeders, a group of 20 women, come every other week to help with the weeding, Molly said. “I love advice,” Molly said. “You can’t know everything.” The Logans enjoy traveling and gather ideas from the places they visit. “It’s all a learning process,” Molly said. “You have to be flexible as a gardener and need a plan B.” Molly has made a few mistakes but realizes gardeners can start over next spring because “there’s always next year.”
The family weathervane portrays the owner’s father and siblings. Above: Red peonies are among the larger flowers that bloom in the spring.
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Above: Pat Schron mixes perennials and annuals in her gardens. Left: Pat Schron displayed her collections of Steiff animals and antique toys on the built-in shelves in the library. Below: The Schron House at 20 N. Oviatt Street was originally the home of Sheldon C. Osborne when it was built in 1883. Bottom: Whimsical planters can be found throughout Pat Schron’s gardens.
Story & photos by Stephanie Fellenstein Pat Schron, and her husband Courtney, saw the potential in the house at 20 N. Oviatt St. before anyone else. “I remember my sister saying, ‘what are you doing,’” Schron says when they were buying the house. That was back in 1980 when the house was white and the nearby garage was falling down. Now the beautiful Victorian home will welcome visitors on the 70th Annual Home and Garden Tour. Built in 1883 by Sheldon C. Osborne, the house was the first one on the block. The Osborne family was known for building cheese boxes, but Sheldon chose to work for the railroad and spent part of his career as a conductor. Visitors will enter through the front door and visit the dining room, living room, library, family room, kitchen and porch on the first floor. The dining room includes a reproduction David Smith tiger maple harvest table and Windsor chairs. One piece to note is a memory box, created by a dear friend, that hangs on the dining room wall. It depicts Schron’s life from childhood. She points out the Dunkin Donuts cup and miniature Cavalier King Charles dog like her own dog. A special memento in the living room is a year-round Santa that was created out of quilt from her husband’s grandmother. It stands next to a Christmas card picturing Courtney as a child. Also in the display is a miniature Christmas cabin created by local artist Dede Klein that Schron won in the Grey Colt Charity Stocking event. Moving on from the living room, the library is filled with vintage and antique toys. Schron has a collection of Steiff animals and dolls from her youth displayed on the built-in bookshelves. She points out her Tiny Tears dolls from the 1950s that cried real tears and the Shirley Temple doll she received for her 13th birthday. Also in the room is a dollhouse built for the Schrons’ daughter when she turned 7. Antiques can be found throughout the house like the bench made out of an antique crib in the kitchen hallway. The kitchen features soap stone counters and an antique gumball machine. The house has remained mostly in its original state except for two upstairs bedrooms and a screened in porch that were added over the years. The garage was rebuilt, and a new carriage house was added in 1994. Courtney passed away before the carriage house was finished, but an angel weather vane, a Christmas gift to him from his family, adorns the top of the cupola. The gardens surrounding the house are also on the tour. The horseshoe garden in front of the carriage house includes hydrangeas, cone flowers, butterfly bushes, tick seed, viburnum, Annabelle and Shasta daisies. Other plants found in the meticulous gardens include sweet woodruff, bee balm, red twig dogwood and hostas. Schron thoroughly enjoys visiting antique shops to find the perfect pieces for the house. During the tour, visitors can page through a photo album filled with pictures of the house from those early days and each improvement since.
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Story by Tim Troglen; Photos by Robert J. Lucas Hudson is home to a variety of animals including horses, llamas, alpacas and a whale. Don't worry, the whale at 150 Aurora St. doesn't live in a nearby lake or pond but resides on a wall near the family's front door. The home is one of the featured stops on the 2017 Home and Garden Tour which has been sponsored for 70 years by the Garden Club. The tour is always the Thursday and Friday before the third weekend in June. "Three or four owners ago a daughter made a wooden whale," according to Darlene LaFontaine, who has owned the home with her husband, Mark, for about three years. When the family moved, the new tenants noticed the whale, which they liked, was gone. "The next family loved it, but it was gone," she said. So the family commissioned another wooden whale to be made for the door. "Both families have stopped by since we've lived here and told us the story of the whale," she said. "The whale is so well known around Hudson that people tell the family: you live in the whale house," she added. The family thought it was fitting since they formerly lived on Nantucket Island before moving to Hudson. Tour members will visit the downstairs floor of the home which was formerly owned by the Barlow family. Visitors will walk through a dining room with two full bay windows shining the seasonal sunlight on a wall filled with built-ins. "It's a beautiful room," she said. The room also has a cascading black chandelier made by a Vermont artisan. "It's likely one of a kind," she said. "We love it." The dining room has the original dental moulding, as does a downstairs fireplace and the living room. A variety of color will be found in the living room drapes, blue velvet couch and along the walls in the form of barn paintings. "I like color," she said. The family brought a variety of New England pieces with them when they moved to Hudson. Visitors will also see a large print, taken by a photographer and sold in some retail stores, of LaFontaine and her family from New York in antique racing boats. The pictures were taken by a photographer and sold. The kitchen, which along with the rest of the home has been renovated. Visitors will find marble tops and new cabinets. A special piece from her grandparents also accentuates the room. "It's a kitchen set that looks like two pews and a table piece set," she said. "It was actually built into their breakfast nook. I take it to every house we live in and paint it to match the decor — it's now gray." This is the second appearance on the tour for the home. The garden was featured on a tour in the 1960s.
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Story and photos by Laura Freeman Hudson Montessori School was first on the Home and Garden tour in 1970 when it was a new preschool early in its development. Hudson Montessori School is now a thriving school serving children from toddlers through eighth grade. Visitors will view the middle school’s herb, vegetable, fruit and flower gardens. They can view the beehives, hydroponics tower, community lunch program and microeconomy which are unique aspects of the Montessori adolescent curriculum. Stephanie Hectorne, program coordinator, said the students began to learn to run a small business 12 years ago. The business program began with a grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, Hectorne said. Each of the 20 students in the middle school has a management role, she said. “Entrepreneurship is seen as important at the Hudson Montessori School,” Hectorne said. In the past several years the middle school has been a recipient of several Hudson garden Club grants. One of the recent grants was for a greenhouse, which students were assembling May 23
next to The Exchange, a shed turned into a shop where students can sell things they have grown and made. The shop will be open during the tour. Jam, mint tea, jewelry, a literary magazine and lip balm will be for sale. “Adolescents are ready for adult work and responsibility given the opportunity,” Hectorne said. The hands on selling teaches them entrepreneur skills, she said. Head of School Matt Virgil said in other school systems, the teacher is directing a business program, but at Hudson Montessori the students are in charge and teachers guide them. “We help problem solve or guide, but we let students make mistakes,” Virgil said. Teachers work side by side with students, Hectorne said. Students have to report their progress to class, and there is accountability. Another grant from the Hudson Garden Club is for a trellis for the entrance facing the street. Those visiting the school on the tour will see nine container gardens, said Tracy Keenan, director of development. The upgraded containers include an old fish tank and other items with flowers, plants and herbs in them. “The students repurposed, decorated and
planted the containers,” Keenan said. Teacher Beth Mast said gardening teaches science such as plant biology, soil composition, chemistry, water studies and nutrition. The raised beds have flexible poles and netting to protect young plants during a frost and also to keep birds and wild animals out of the berries, Mast said. Berries in the raised beds include raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. Also students are growing lemon balm and chamomile from seeds for tea flavors, Mast said. The students prep the soil for tomatoes, green peppers and jalapeno peppers for hot pepper jam, Mast said. Another raised bed has herbs, including mint. Amy Fagan teaches the students about beekeeping, and two students suited up to examine the three hives on the property. They learn about reproduction, community roles and honey production. Students put in several hours, weather permitting, weeding and working on the landscape around the buildings as well as the raised garden beds. From seed to sales, students learn about the profits of gardening.
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1. From left, Rebekah Verdon, 14, of Twinsburg, Lauren Dempsey, 13, of Hudson, and Elizabeth Lawrence, 14, of Garrettsville, prepare the soil for planting in the raised beds. 2. Olivia Hrivnak, 14, of Hinkley, sorts the pieces to a greenhouse with Soren Palencik, 14 of Twinsburg, while Kunal Jain, 13, of Hudson, reads the instructions. 3. Caroline Chen, 15, of Shanghai, China, suits up, while teacher Amy Fagan helps Paul Rubin, 13, of Hudson, with his mask before checking on the bee hives.
The Lydia L. Finch historical home on Division Street was built in 1889 for approximately $700, including the land. The porch originally extended across the entire front of the house.
Story and photos by Laura Freeman
The dining room has original plaster walls and although the window seat is old, it was not original. The third window was added at one time, Maupin said. The family room with the fireplace may have been a bedroom originally, Maupin said. “Everyone has taken care of the house who has lived here,” she said. Maupin, a retired social studies teacher, has a bucket list of all the places she taught about and plans to visit. She travels with her sister each year. The most recent was a 16-day trip to Morocco in North Africa. She has been to India, Africa, South America and many of the Native American reservations. She has an Apache burden basket from Arizona which has metal tipped straps to scare away animals while the women collected berries in the containers. She has purchased different baskets from different groups, and they are on display on a high shelf in the fireplace room. “I’m drawn to these things, and they fit well in this old house.” Maupin said. She purchased items from each visit and used many of them in her classes. Those she didn’t give to students, are on display throughout the house. From Benin, West Africa, visitors will see recycled materials used for art like the plumber (her husband’s occupation) on the fireplace. “They made repurposed art before it was popular,” Maupin said. Other repurposed artwork is from the Detroit Institute of Art and used buttons and a measuring tape to create a figure walking a dog, also on the fireplace. “Wherever I go, I look for art,” Maupin said. “I see similarities in art in different parts of the world.” Visitors will be able to view the collection from her international travels. “I’ve never been any place I didn’t like,” Maupin said. “I have a lot of experiences.” In the backyard, the original garage was moved and added onto. The Maupins built a summer house, which overlooks the gardens, on the cement slab left from the old garage. The upper edge of the interior above the screen walls was painted by David Weirtz in 1992. The shade garden had to be converted to a spring garden after a large Maple tree died and sunlight filled the yard. Maupin said she gave away many of her hostas, but others remain among a variety of plants.
The home at 83 Division St. has a Hudson Heritage marker with the name Lydia L. Finch, 1889 on it, but owner Judy Maupin knew little about the original occupant except the land and house cost $700. A couple of interesting people have lived at the home. Dr. Mary Anderson was one of the first female doctors in the Western Reserve area. She graduated from medical school in 1896 and was listed in the Who’s Who in America in 1935. She was a suffragette and worked for the federal government in World War I. Also the late John Morse of Morse Controls lived in the home when he was young. Maupin was able to share some of the historic home secrets such as the front room annex had originally been the porch. When they worked on the room, the tags on the windows indicated they were bought locally in the early 1900s. Windows play an important role in the small home, opening the space and providing natural light. “I like all the windows and the archways,” Maupin said. “It was an open floor concept before that was popular.” In addition the outdoor cellar entrance was brought inside and the staircase reversed, she said. Visitors will enter by the front door but the open plan allows them to see through the dining room windows and into the gardens in the rear of the property. They will notice the use of color in rugs and curtains. Maupin said her grandmother enjoyed and decorated with color as well. Maupin, who added all of the gardens, said when she dug in the dirt at the back of the property, she would find medical bottles, which she donated to the Hudson library. In addition she found lead soldiers, an Indian head penny and lots of cinders from where previous owners burned trash. “You never know what you’re going to unearth,” Maupin said. “I find it interesting.”
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“The garden has something blooming all season,” Maupin said. The plants include foxtail, catmint, Asiatic lilies, Solomon’s seal, elderberry, peonies and astilbe. Among the plants, visitors will see glass artwork from Kitras Art Glass in Ontario and wooden birds or pottery from Detroit as well as a limestone mask from Mexico and fossils from the Sahara Desert.
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Story by Tim Troglen; Photos by Amanda Woolf Bigger is not always better — just ask the folks who own the one-story cottage at 144 Hudson St. The home is one of the featured stops on the 2017 Home and Garden Tour which has been sponsored for 70 years by the Garden Club. The tour is always the Thursday and Friday before the third weekend in June. This is the second appearance on the tour for the home which was featured on the first Home and Garden Tour in 1947. The current owners, a husband and wife, purchased the home several years ago after deciding to downsize from their former Hudson home. "I call it my New England or Nantucket cottage," according to one of the homeowners. The owners purchased the home from a local construction owner well known in the area, she said. "It's had extensive renovations," she said. "He [the former owner] did what he could to enhance the small home." Some of the renovations included adding on to the original structure and raising the roof for the installation of cathedral ceilings in several rooms, including the kitchen and master bedroom, she added. "It's cute and interesting," she said. "He just took the roof off and raised it." And while the home was interesting when purchased by the couple, it's been made even more so, as well as personally comfortable due to several homey touches. Visitors will find some of those touches to be artwork collected, created, purchased and commissioned, she said. Other additions include a front porch and a variety of home furnishings which reflect the tastes and interests of the owners. "We are just an old couple who retired to our little cottage," she said.
Story and photos by Stephanie Fellenstein Regular travelers through downtown Hudson have seen the transformation of 81 East Streetsboro St. on the outside. Now visitors to the 70th annual Hudson Home and Garden Tour will have a chance to see what has been going on inside the house. Built in 1918, Peter and Amiee Wiley purchased the home in November 2016 and hit the ground running. “We redid everything,” Amiee said. “We really wanted to make it a special house.” While Amiee, the owner of Gathered: Interiors by Amiee Wiley, provided the inspiration and the design, Peter says he provided the labor. Peter is also senior pastor at First Congregational Church of Hudson. Tour visitors will enter the home through the front door. The 1970s décor, complete with shag green carpeting and dark wood paneling on the walls, has been replaced. Hardwood floors were added and the paneling was painted white. While the Wileys added the hardwood in the front sitting room, the rest of the hardwood floors downstairs are original.
The tour will continue into the living room where the Wileys took the room, and most of the rest of the house, down to the studs. “It has been rewired and also has all new plumbing and duct work,” Amiee said. “We added air conditioning and rebuilt the fire place.” Peter added, “It is a new, old house.” Amiee is an artist. Pieces of her collection are seen throughout the house. A painting of a weeping willow at Barlow Pond hangs in the dining room and a canoe painting graces the walls in the living room. She has also painted landscapes of the places where her children studied in college. And a cow painting hangs in the new half-bathroom downstairs. “I went through a cow phase,” she says, smiling. With a fairly open floor plan, visitors to the house can see the dining room and the kitchen while standing in the living room. The kitchen used to be a sitting room, but Amiee wanted the kitchen to be the center of the house. The side kitchen doors open up to a screened-in porch. The former kitchen is now a laundry room and the Wileys added a half bathroom. Moving upstairs, visitors will see that the original four-bedroom/one bathroom house is now a three
Built in 1918, the house at 81 East Streetsboro was completely redone by Peter and Amiee Wiley. They also ripped out the shrubs that used to surround the house and added the picket fence.
bedroom/two-and-a-half bathroom house. The full bathroom at the top of the stairs, and the bedroom across from it, are still in their original positions. The rest of the upstairs has been reconfigured. The master bedroom now includes an in-suite bathroom. “Everything is redone,” Amiee says, adding that they tried to decorate it in a style that could be original. Amiee is very particular about her room designs. She collects pieces over time and figures out how they can all work together. An old dresser became a bathroom counter and she created a side table with a simple piece of wood and some piping. Each piece tells its own story. After six months of intense work, the Wileys are very happy with the results. Stop by 81 East Streetsboro St. to see the finished design.
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