Window Workshop at the Jonathan Coulter House

The Workshop

The late 19th Century Jonathan Coulter house at 171 West First Street was the scene of a wood window restoration workshop over three days in late November.

The Richland Preservation Action Group, recently formed under our auspices, organized the event, with the help of a grant from the RichHistory Alliance Rover Pipeline Fund. Lindsay Jones, owner of Blind Eye Restoration in Columbus, taught the hands-on classes.

Day 1 covered the sash removal of typical double-hung windows, and the problems of different configurations of weather stripping and deterioration that hinder removal. All attendees each removed a set of sash to work on the next day, temporarily putting them back in place for the night. Window board-up on the first floor was taken off and replaced each night to keep the house secure.

Day 2 covered glazing removal, scraping, glass cutting, priming, and reglazing. Day 3 wrapped up with reinstallation of sash including weights, sash cords, and weatherstripping.

The Historical Society contributed the insurance coverage for the event. Julie Rohl and Tracy Bond have been the primary organizers of the RPA group, and Julie planned the workshop event. Julie is an alumnus of Belmont College’s Building Preservation/Restoration Program in St. Clairsville, Ohio.

The house

At 16 years of age, Jonathan Coulter enlisted in the Union Army as a drummer. He later became the Postmaster for Perrysville, then a mail transfer clerk for the Pennsylvania railroad according to Ken Dudley of the Mansfield Memory Project Facebook Group. Kent Dorr has added the information that Coulter served in Co E of the 64th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

The Coulter house is indicated on the 1890 tax index. The house to its west belonged to Benjamin Baxter and a post-1890 house on the split lots in between and sharing the driveway with the Coulter house has been demolished recently. Jonathan Coulter died in October of 1900 and after his funeral in the house on First Street, he was buried  in Perrysville alongside the many others of his pioneer forebears buried there.

The State Historic Preservation Office in Columbus has determined the house is historically significant as a contributing part of the area that is identified on the city’s Preservation Plan as a potential National Register District