changes over the life of the home. Built by carpenter Theodore McNeely for Captain Joseph B. Brinton, the back portion of the home was a story and a half Cape Cod with a lattice porch. The Victorian Stick style of architecture in the front was constructed in the 1880’s and was photographed for the Ashland Advertising Gazette in 1895. In the 1930’s, the dwelling underwent multiple structural changes when the home was converted into a duplex. The original tower was removed and the front and side porches were enlarged and enclosed during the Great Depression years.

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. “There were inside shutters on all the new part of the house, up and down. There were blinds in the old part, and outside shutters, painted green. The whole house had wall paper on the walls. The parlors had a white paper with a gold design and a wide lacy gold border,” she said describing her home. “The parlors had wall to wall carpet, but in the sitting room and dining room we had Brussels rugs, with green carpet filling around the outside. In the new house, the straw bed ticks were also replaced with mattresses, so it was much easier to keep the house clean.” She continued, “Before the First World War, a new invention came to town which made our spring housecleaning much easier. A gasoline-driven vacuum cleaning machine as large as a truck would park at the curb, and the men would bring in a house about the size of a fire hose with a cleaning nozzle on the end. This was supposed to take out all the dirt from the rugs clear down to the wooden floors without taking up the carpets, and it didn’t take long then to clean every floor in the

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.”

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. In October of 2007 Raul and Kyle had the turret rebuilt on the home and this spring they had the house painted. The restoration of this historic house will continue on with the interior with plans to wallpaper the home just as the Brinton had. Check the progress of the restoration online at www.BrintonHouse.org