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The Young House

931 Center Street

The Young home with Victorian gables, bay windows and pop outs

The Faultless Rubber Company on a vintage postcard

The mantle that was installed where a fireplace was bricked over

This late Victorian built in 1908 was

originally the home of A.E. Young. The gables, bay windows and pop outs were typical of that time period. Later, the home was occupied by Ralph C. Foster and his family. Mr. Foster

worked as a foreman at the Faultless Rubber Company, which was created by his neighbor Thomas W. Miller, who served as president. P.A. Myers, also a Center Street resident, served as vice president. In his 1915 Centennial book, Will Duff writes that the company employed 400 people here and had agencies in New York and Chicago as well as salesmen adding another 142 to the payroll. In those early years, Faultless Rubber Company made rubber sundries, rubber surgical goods, rubber toilet articles, sponges, toys, and balloons. With two new buildings in 1915, the company had 125,000 square feet of floor space creating a need for foreman like Mr. Foster.

In more recent years, Colonel Frank Wilson and his family lived at 931 Center Street.

Mr. Wilson retired from the United States Army and purchased the home in 1986. According to Betty Plank, he assisted in the research leading to the extension of the Center Street Historic District in 1993.

In August of 2004 Wayne and Sue Dickson

bought this Victorian. The couple found a fireplace had been bricked over many years earlier. Knocking out the brick and installing a vintage mantle in the home has brought back character and warmth the parlor. The original honey oak woodwork can be seen throughout the home.

To update the kitchen, the Dickson’s enclosed a side porch to add more square footage.

About the same time, they discovered a window and pantry that had been plastered over years ago. The window now brings extra light to the space and the pantry provides the extra storage that every kitchen needs.