From sinkholes to condos

LIMA — When a sinkhole exposed a wine cellar at Jameson Avenue and Market Street, it posed more questions than answers.

What was certainly clear is a wine cellar didn’t fit with the purpose of the current State Bank and Trust Co. While the cellar — known to be part of the former Wemmer house — was quickly filled to make the bank structure sound, it bears a bit more explanation. Let’s look at that corner of Market Street, back when it was a grand neighborhood.

934 W. Market St. (current bank location)

This entire block of Market Street was one lot, owned by Dr. Samuel Baxter. His huge home at 910 W. Market St. was near Charles Street. He would open the vast expanse of lawn and garden to the public for concerts and the like from time to time, but in 1905 he decided to sell some lots, according to a newspaper story from Feb. 14, 1905.

Henry G. Wemmer bought the corner lot. He didn’t squander the opportunity to build exactly what he and his family needed. And was well enough heeled to do it.

Wemmer was born in Germany in 1865 and came to the United States in 1884. He worked with an uncle in his cigar manufacturing business in Delaware, Ohio, first and later came to Lima. In 1891, he and cigarmaker Henry Deisel joined to form the Deisel & Wemmer Co. Business boomed. The entire Wemmer family was involved in many civic duties, even at one point funding welfare for the Lima poor before the government did.

According to a Wemmer family history booklet, the house at 934 W. Market St. had three floors and a ballroom. The breakfast room featured a mural of the Black Forest done by a New York artist. The windows were decorated with etched Ws. The clay tennis court was flooded in winter for ice skating. And let’s not forget that wine cellar.

“Wemmer spared no costs in making the home one of the most magnificent in Northwestern Ohio. Two years after the Wemmer family moved into the residence, a wing was added to the building at a cost of approximately $50,000. The original cost of the home was in excess of $125,000. Walnut for the interior was imported from Germany and Brazil. Two expert craftsmen were brought to Lima from Germany to handcarve designs on the fireplaces and woodwork throughout the home,” according to a story from May 19, 1951.

It remained the family home for years, but left the family when Wemmer died. Wemmer’s wife, Fredericka, died in 1937 at age 67. Wemmer, the last surviving founder of the Deisel-Wemmer-Gilbert Corp., died in 1940 at age 74.

The house was purchased in 1940 by C. Franklin Jervis and William Zeller and at some point became a “fashionable three-story apartment house,” according to a May 19, 1951, story.

The same story describes a fire that hit. Fire broke out in a storeroom that contained luggage, and residents had to scramble to get out. The home had been broken up into eight apartments, seven of which were occupied at the time of the fire. A 94-year-old man was helped from bed by his nurse and carried to safety by firefighters. An 86-year-old woman was found in the first floor hall, overcome by smoke after fighting her way from her second-floor apartment. Everyone survived.

“The blaze spread rapidly up an air shaft to the second and third floors on the north side of the building,” the story reported. The cause of the fire was unknown, and the loss was listed as $50,000 to $65,000. The carriage house behind the main house was untouched.

It is unclear when the house was razed, but its carriage house remains today behind the bank just off Jameson. On the site, the South Side Building and Loan Association built the bank building in 1972. It first passed to Liberty Savings Bank, and became State Bank in 2005. Today, the address is 930 W. Market St.

926 W. Market St. (razed)

Sitting two lots east of the Wemmer house — the lot between didn’t have a structure on it — this address was home for a time to the Gooding family. Edwin M. Gooding was born in 1858 in Delaware, Ohio, and came up in the mercantile business. He came to Lima on Nov. 16, 1881, and opened a shoe store at 230 N. Main St. He was married to Anna De Grief.

Gooding was vice president of Gooding Real Estate and General Insurance Co., according to his Aug. 29, 1938, obituary. He died at age 82. His obituary explains he was in the shoe business from 1881 to 1913 and then went into real estate with his two sons. 

It is unclear how long the Gooding family lived in the house. His wife’s obituary in 1959 lists her residence as 303 S. Rosedale.

A real estate advertisement lists the house in 1958. The photo of the house at that time shows a home that was comfortable but not grandiose. The ad describes it as “Ideal for home and office,” and “Fine location for a professional man.” 

It is unclear when the house was razed.

916 W. Market St. (current office/condo)

Just one lot east of the Gooding house and the third house from Jameson was the Holdridge house. Hiram A. Holdridge was the owner of Model Mills, the Lima mill that produced Pride of Lima, Charm, Choice Family and Model Best flours. He was in wholesaling and oil before the mill and was involved in business circles, including the Old National City Bank. He died of a stroke at age 89 in 1929.

The large house passed to his daughter, Louise. She married Leon B. Merritt, the president of the South Side Building and Loan Association, and car dealer. Merritt, who was born in Minnesota in 1888, came to Lima and after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1910.

He took over the local Buick franchise and eventually built his own in 1924, according to a Jan. 7, 1962, story. He started operating the Buick/Pontiac dealership in Wapakoneta in 1924. He continued there until 1950, 10 years after he left the business in Lima.

“Pictures of children and close friends dot the neatly kept family home,” the story described.

Louise Merritt died at age 66 in 1956. Leon Merritt died in 1965, and his obituary lists his residence as 916 W. Market St.

The details are unclear, but the house was remodeled and added onto extensively and is now Oduduwa Professional Building. The building now holds medical offices and condos and has the address of 916 to 920 W. Market St. It’s currently for sale.