October 2006 - Lakewood Landmark Will Fall to Wreckers
Some houses die of old age after a long illness of non-repair. Others are hale and hearty to the end and make the wreckers earn their day's pay. Such is the case with 13309 Detroit Avenue, a Lakewood landmark since the Civil War.
Inside the white frame house, the past still lives for a little while for Mrs. Lionel B. Duckwitz. Mrs. Duckwitz has enjoyed the big, rambling 17-room house with its acre and a half of land for 17 years. Now it is to be replaced by a 36-suite apartment building.
Margaret Manor Butler, Lakewood historian, dates the house from 1864 when Detroit Avenue, originally an Indian path, was the freeway of its day - a plank road. The land is thought to have been purchased for two oxen by the KIDNEY family, early settlers of the area now known as Lakewood. One of the KIDNEYs in 1819 was a founder of Rockport Township which comprises today's cities of Lakewood and Rocky River.
The Kidney house built in the last years of the Civil War was high fashion then, a complete contrast in its elegance with the then-passing log cabin. Its carved, curving walnet staircase leads up to an oval window on the landing. Two huge Corinthian pillars mark the entrance to the front parlor and oval arches with 12-foot-high sliding doors mark entrances to the sitting room, the music room and the dining room. Turkish fretwork bedecks other archways.
The house was originally heated with Italian marble fireplaces, two of which remain after three remodelings of the house. Mrs. Duckwitz still lights the gaslight in the brass chandelier.
In Theodore Roosevelt's era, the house was purchased by Miss Mary Guthrie. Her niece inherited the house and sold it to the Duckwitz family.