Joseph and Lydia Cahoon Family Homestead, 27715 Lake Road, c. 1818
The fourth in a series of articles to be published as a walking tour of Lake Road by the Bay Village Historical Society in 2025.
This home replaced a log structure constructed in 1810 when the Cahoon family were the first pioneers in Dover Township. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The oldest part of the frame structure was constructed by Joseph and his son Joel using timbers milled in their sawmill on the premises.
After serving in the War of 1812 and work out of town as a contractor, and the death of his parents, Joel returned to live in the home with his wife Margaret who named it Rose Hill because of rose bushes planted by Lydia. Joel died in 1882 and the property passed to his five unmarried children.
Sometime during the Victorian era, a fashionable parlor was added onto the northeast corner of the structure and additional bedrooms were constructed under a peaked Gothic Revival roof. Ida Marie was the last surviving sibling. When she died in 1917, she willed the entire 115-acre homestead property to the Village of Bay. The house was used as a library from 1921 to 1960 and as a museum since 1974.
William Krause
William R. Krause, AICP, retired as the Assistant Planning Director of the City of Westlake in 2020 after over 30 years with the city. He also served on the Bay Village Planning Commission for 5 years. He was a trustee for the Bay Village Historical Society from 2020 to 2021 and a former board member of the Westlake Historical Society. He was chair of their Lilly Weston Committee and was a member of the Reuben Osborn Learning Center Steering Committee. He is currently a Trustee of the Western Reserve Architectural Historians and the Gates Mills Historical Society. He has been married to Debra for 41 years and is the father of three grown children, grandfather of six and co-owner of a Yellow Lab named Sadie.