It was the that fine old Italianate house that caught my eye, but then I’d also forgotten that the Corvette’s fiberglass body was built by MFG (Molded Fiber Glass) there. And MFG still builds parts for the Corvette.
The ability to have the Corvette serviced at any Chevrolet dealer really was a boon too.
As a seasoned boat scraper, sander, and oil marine based painter of my parent’s aging wooden boat by the age of 10, I viewed my first MFG craft with awe and envy.
The first MFGs even copied the lapstrake construction of classic wooden Lymans.
Alas, my family kept the old wooden Elco until the late 1970s, so I continued to help them scrape, sand, and paint it until then.
So much formula in this ad! General Motors had this great knack in their advertising, to portray themselves as grassroots with average Americans, and as akin to them, as apple pie and mom. Worked for decades in their ads, until the mid 80s or so. Certainly, Saturn extended its life.
It appears that Corvettes are still sold and serviced in all these towns , except Keokuk….
Does not surprise me, Keokuk is a third world country. Passed through there this summer on the way to St. Louis. Woof.
I remember this classic ad. A few years ago I tried searching online to see if this house still exists in Ashtabula. I’ve never been able to find it.
This assumes the house is actually IN Ashtabula–or maybe the ad agency just obtained a random photo of a Victorian house somewhere and used that. (“No one will know the difference!”)
The style of this house is “Italianate” or “Tuscan”–reminiscent of an Italian villa with Renaissance details. That’s the “Italian” connection.
As soon as I saw this, I figured I HAD to see if I could locate the actual house. Looks like it is, in fact, in Ashtabula – here’s a Google StreetView image:
https://goo.gl/maps/9HrmCTBHzEcNc7iQ8
…hard to tell the house’s condition since the yard is overgrown, but the house is still standing.
This house is much older than one would expect – it was built in 1828 (likely in a simple Federal style), and the Italianate embellishments were probably added in the late 1800s when such ornamentation became popular.
Surprisingly (to me), the house is not located in Ashtabula’s harbor-area historic district, but rather a few miles south of there. It was built originally by an Ashtabula businessman named Edwin Harmon – he owned a mill, some ships, etc. He also owned a farm, and the house was located on the farm, which accounts for its (then) country location.
Thank you! My first thought after finishing the post (other than Paul’s resurrection of this ad) was the hope that someone had found it. And here it is. . .
How in God’s name did you find it?
You’re welcome!
Fortunately, the house really was in Ashtabula. Like Stephen mentioned above, I had my doubts, but figured I’d look anyway. And since Ashtabula is a relatively small place, I eventually found it. But it did take a good hour or so of digging around.
Thanks so much for your efforts. that’s awesome. That ad is printed in black and white on page 11 of the 1966 Indianapolis 500 program.
Here’s an image of the same house with a vehicle from a previous era in front of it:
Eric, “Agent 703”:
Woooffff! That’s incredible–One, that you were able to find it; and Two, that the place looks so neglected. I guess we should be happy that the house still exists at all.
Everything looks so much worse than in 1966. The elaborate roof over the front door (which “makes” the whole house) is gone–if it needs repair, just rip it off and throw it away; who needs it anyhow? Looks like the wrought iron fence is gone too.
I have this silly assumption that any owner of a fine house like that would lovingly care for it and appreciate its rarity and beauty. I’ve been proven wrong time and time again.
This house in downtown Detroit was considered beautiful and important enough to be featured on the cover of a book about old houses. You would think such a house would be preserved for the ages, but no–it was demolished several years ago.
Steve, with all due respect, may I submit that the wrought iron fence is still there, but hidden inside the lush but uncontrolled overgrowth.
Also, I would say it is ‘unclear’ whether or not the “elaborate roof over the front door” is missing. Going back and forth between the Corvette ad and the Google Street View image, I confirmed the front door is on the far left, not in the middle of the façade. So I’ve reasoned that the front door and it’s “elaborate roof” are hidden behind a particularly large and untamed bush growing along the wrought iron fence in the Google image.
Otherwise, I completely agree with your “silly assumption” about home maintenance. Yet, we don’t know the circumstances: could it be the house is, or was, owned by a single elderly person with no younger family members to help maintain it? There are thousands of other possibilities, of course. Maybe if we check back on Google Street View some time in the future the property will have been cleaned up!
Zooming in on the 2014 streetview: the elaborate portico is missing over the front door.
Looks to be in pretty good shape except for the missing portico. As Eric said, this was probably a Federalist style house that was later trimmed in Italianate style, meaning the portico would not have been original. I actually think it looks better without it.
I have this silly assumption that any owner of a fine house like that would lovingly care for it and appreciate its rarity and beauty. I’ve been proven wrong time and time again.
It’s all about the economics. And about location. The heirs or owners obviously don’t have the resources to car for it properly, which can get very expensive (ask me how I know). If that front portico was badly rotted, it alone could cost a very significant amount to restore/replace.
If this house were located in an economically vibrant city, it undoubtedly would be well cared for. But it’s not. Places like this (and so many small towns) have been in economic decline for many decades. Who can live there and afford major repairs?
Don’t blame it on the owners; blame it on the inevitability of the changing fortunes of small town/rural America.
A great story of urban decay and rebirth is the book, Detroit Hustle by Amy Haimerl. The author and her husband buy a neglected and abandoned vintage house in a residential neighborhood. One of the biggest problems is that they cannot get a mortgage on the property very easily. At the time lenders would not finance these houses. I have read where home buyers will get together with a group of family, and friends, and run up to their credit card limits to make the purchase. Prices at the time were very low. According to the book, the city of Detroit demolished thousands of abandoned homes trying to curb crime in those neighborhoods.
This is not a situation that I’m familiar with. On the West Coast there are only pockets of ruined areas since real estate is so expensive here. Areas like that are usually subject to gentrification instead.
One of the very few promising benefits derived from the pandemic, is the increased push towards remote work. Many professionals, made the decision to leave city living, and returned to smaller communities. Or country living. As their careers, and/or employers allowed it. Shopify was headquartered near where I live. They made the decision in 2020, to adopt a remote work model for its full workforce. It may give potential new life to smaller, more remote communities, with less economic means to compete. Plus, the added benefit for the environment, of fewer commuters.
Agreed. Actually, if you ignore the overgrowth, the house itself looks to be in pretty good shape, at least in the 2014 image. That eave in the front does not look rotted at all; and I’ve seen plenty of this same vintage which were – soffit vents were not a thing back then.
Thanks! I have a tendency to fall down research rabbit holes, and it’s nice when those trips down the rabbit hole achieve success.
It’s tough to tell the house’s actual condition since the front yard is so heavily overgrown; I’m hoping the house itself is in OK shape. According to public records, it was last sold in 2009.
Anyway, here’s an illustration of the same house before the Italianate architectural additions:
I’m guessing that in 1966, unless you lived on the coast, there weren’t many places to buy *or* service an Italian exotic. (Possibly with the exception of Chicago?)
I wonder if there was special training for Corvette mechanics in those days.
“Italy doesn’t have a thing on Ashtabula, Ohio.”
Well, maybe a couple of things . . .
Paul, you are so right, economics and location are often huge contributors.
In addition to restoring old cars during the day, I also restored old homes in what other people call their time off. Both have a similar trait; The fancier the ornaments, and the higher the overall cost when new, means the fancy and costlier examples are a lot more work and expense to restore today.
Packard vs Ford, Mansion vs farmhouse.
This is one of the reasons I preferred to buy nice original vintage cars, and my last home restoration was a simple 1850 Amish farmhouse. A close friend and business partner is a gifted wood carver and sculptor, and we worked on a few of the replacement exterior carvings for the J. W. Packard home [319 Oak Knoll Ave, Warren, OH]. Comparing the amount of work to replicate the curved eaves in the Packard home was 20 times the similar work needed for the much older [& simpler] farmhouse.
I should have taken that advice in 1989, when we decided to do a rebuild/restoration/renovation/expansion of our 1866 house in Los Gatos. I’m embarrassed to say how much we spent on that. Well, I’ll be embarrassed: over $600k; not to buy it, but for all that work we had done by a contractor.
But it was splendid afterwards. I recreated lots of details of the exterior trim from old photographs I had blown up.
But who has that kind of money in Ashtabula?
Speaking of Packards ; the front porch and moldings over the windows remind me of Packard grills. It appears a lot of folks here have an interest in architecture like myself. That’s what is so cool about CC,the discussion can drift into unexpected directions and still be interesting!
John,
Back in 2017 I spoke with the owner of the JW Packard house and was hoping to get the job for us to make & install all the exterior rotted moldings. We didn’t get the job, but the sub-contractor who did get the job had us do some of the more difficult parts like some of the curved front portico. We shipped the parts out there, and they installed them.
As a serious Packard enthusiast I am always looking for Packard trademarks like Hexagons and the grill shape. I looked this house & grounds over closely, and was sad to realize we couldn’t find any tie-ins to PMCC trademarks.
With the number of vintage bike fans here at CC, I thought perhaps someone would bring up the Ashtabula bicycle crank, a one-piece forging which combined the left and right crank arms and crank axle into a single heavy steel part. My fancy bike friends and the local college bike co-op were pretty snooty about the chromed Ashtabula crank in my Schwinn Varsity. But though I’ve know this term for 50 years, even with today’s Internet I’ve been unable to find out why this style crank has this name, though imagine it had something to do with a foundry which may have been the original source of these cranks. And of course Ashtabula is mentioned in Bob Dylan’s “You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go”.
I did think of the Ashtabula crank, but you managed to post well before I read this article. My old Murray cruiser had one, as does my son’s Schwinn Manta Ray (1984 vintage).
“And it costs several million lire less.”
A dig at the Italian currency.
I’m just impressed that they correctly pluralized “lira,” honestly.
On Google Maps, drag and spin horizontally to see other houses in the area- all modern-looking brick structures. It certainly stands out. Eric, good detective work. Did you get a chance to see it in person?