Picture this building 15' longer in the back and perfectly proportioned windows down the side. It would look like a huge New England Salt box home, more than a church. This photo was taken about 1971.
The Original Church
Today the original Lockville Church located at 5950 High St N.W still stands and is a private residence. It was most likely the very first building in Lockville and ironically built on land annexed to America by President Thomas Jefferson an atheist. This building with stood the test of time and even the first depression in the 1930's. The owner at the time a guy by the name of Stone lost all his money in the 1 st bank crisis and had to make do with slip shot remodeling, despite his grand plans.
I helped care for this house threw the 1990's. As near as I can tell it was built about 1810-30 and at one time it was 15 foot longer in the back than it is now. It has a huge ash beam going threw the center of the building a stand stone foundation and wood timbers and siding. It is a very sturdy barn type building with post and pin construction. It had a metal roof for years and might have been slate when new. I spent many a summer painting the metal roof silver. When freshly painted it was so bright you could see it from US 33 a mile or two away. There was a lot of square footage up there. Today it is a modern shingle roof and still as big and as steep as ever. As I got older and older I got wiser and started parking a car at the base of the house and tying rope to the car and myself just in case I fell I was not going all the way to earth. I did the roof with out a rope for years kind of tempting the young and dumb theory.
Grandma-grandpa brought the place in the 1930s? for $6900 had a huge down payment and paid it off early. Funny back then an early pay off and big down payment were good for your credit rating. She brought it from a man named Stone. When Grandma first seen the place it had a Grand Piano in the living room. Mr Stone had big ideas of turning this massive church into a show place home. It was kind of 'church ish' but it more reflected a huge salt box New England cottage. His dream of turning it into a home was not all bad. However the First Depression was a killer for his pocket book and like nearly everyone else of the time (kind of like the depression we are in now) he lost it all. He ended up patching and piecing together things to even complete the most basic of rooms. Boards were mis matched there were not two steps in the place that were the same. The second floor Dad's bedroom was basically the recycled lumber from the back of the house.
The second floor was not real sturdy. Yes, you could feel it sway and swing as you walked on it- a stark contrast to the rest of place which was rock solid. It was after all slap shot engineered due to the lack of money. It never had the second floor or a balcony when new as some church's did but it was tall enough for the second story. It was kind of funny when it went threw extensive remodeling in the 1990's after Grandma passed on the remodeling crew was working one hot summer day and with the windows open (thankfully) I heard them all SCREAM at once and everyone ran from the house from about every door or window possible. You heard the old timbers on the second floor groan like an old ship sinking to the bottom of the sea. Evidently they disturbed the wrong one and they feared it was going to fall in on them! Eventually they removed it from the building peace by peace but it seemed like it was going to do them in first.
Remodeling that 1830's property was a chore I can tell them the Ash log in the center of the place rotted out and I patched it with concrete repairs more than once. I can tell you walking threw the dining room was an up hill experience and the water classes on the dining room table were never filled full as they would run off the side of the glass. Still it was sturdy old house that never shook during a tornado -high wind and only did when there was a minor earthquake. Grandma used to say If this place ever shakes we have had it. You never drove a nail in the old wood you always had to drill a hole then drive a nail. The old wood was so hard.
Electrical issues were just delightful and the cloth wiring and the old 1930's fuses and wires had seen their better days by the 1970's. Neighbor Jack Creglow can attest to that as he ran up to Grandma's one night when her meter box weather head was sparking so bright he could see it from his house! He was an electrician and thankfully he knew how to pull the meter box and he saved her house from burning down. Good thing it had rained hard that night and the wood siding was wet or the place would have burnt down. You could see the burn flame marks on it and they reached a foot or two from the fire. Lockville was served by all volunteer fire departments at the time and technically we were supposed to call Bloom Township in Lithlopolis first but they were so far away. Violet Township in Carroll Was only 3 miles away but still all volunteer at the time. Still we always joked if anything caught fire we were only inviting the fire fighters to a winne roast
as it would be gone by the time they got there.
Sometime in the 1920's the original school house (still standing) became the church when the straw was cleaned out of it and stained glass windows were installed making it a church. One thing about Lockville its people reused the buildings time and again.
The new owners of the place have a very nice place with modern heat and air conditioning. Grandma heated with two Sears oil stoves for years and then only one room on the coldest days. The bedroom was never heated hers down stairs or Dads up stairs. Imagine that would be child abuse or plain poverity today haveing a child in an unheated bed room. It seems short of a disaster this building will be standing long after Lockville is gone.
