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Captain Joseph B. Brinton had this home built by carpenter
Theodore McNeely. The back portion of the home is older than the
front. A story and a half Cape Cod type home with a lattice porch
was moved to the rear and incorporated it into the new house.
Structural changes were made when the home was converted into a
two-family dwelling in the 1930s, but it still bears a striking
resemblance to the photograph which appeared in the Ashland
Advertising Gazette in 1895.
The Captain, his wife Lydia, and daughters Berta, Edna,
Mary, and Florence came to Ashland in 1877 when the captain was hired as the station agent at the railroad. In her later years, Mary wrote her memories of Ashland in the early 1880s. “The new part contained a reception room, a sitting room and a front and back parlor downstairs,” she said describing her home. “And upstairs there were three bedrooms, a hall, and” dressing room. “Woodwork,” she continued, “was all cherry. There were inside shutters on all of the new part of the house, and all the walls were papered. The oil lamps in the old house were replaced with gas burners.”
At least two of the daughters were married before the mantle in the front parlor. On June 21, 1904, Florence married Paul Weeks Litchfield, superintendent of the Goodyear Rubber Works in Akron in “one of the social events of the season,” according to the Ashland Times. Two years later on June 23, 1906, the Times account stated, “The marriage of Mary Brinton and Robert Tubbs is marked in society’s calendar as one of the most beautiful ever solemnized in Ashland.”
Raul J. Torres and Kyle O. von Kamp purchased the home in March of 2006 and contacted several Brinton descendents who sent interior and exterior pictures of the home. These photos proved helpful in restoring the structure back to a single family dwelling. Portraits of the Brintons once again grace the walls of the original family’s home. The restoration of this historic house has been an ongoing search for period antiques including furniture, lighting, and gas heaters. The latter have been installed by Frank Cepero of K and F Plumbing and function just as when the Brintons lived in the house.
City historian, Betty Plank, lived in the home during the 40s and 50s. Her research has been invaluable.
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