Museum Tours
Lowrie-Beatty Museum
The Salmon Carter House
The Strickland House
The Proehl-Kline Clock
John Campbell Land Office
The Mahan New England Barn
The Ford Seed Company
The Limber and Caisson
The Steam Traction Engine
The Merts & Riddle Hearse

Click Image to Enlarge

Click Image to Enlarge

The side entry plan of the 1835 house with the corridor running front to back easily accepts additions to the side and rear of the home. One of these anticipated additions       was constructed in 1847 in the same Greek Revival style of 1835 house.This side addition with a full porch created an Upright and Wing form, one of the most common ways of enlarging a Greek Revival home. Built when Salmon Carter was 80, it probably enabled the older couple to move downstairs by shifting the kitchen functions to the addition, leaving the former main room as a bedchamber.

After Salmon Carter's death in 1854, Willis Strickland purchased the home and farm property. A wealthy farmer, Strickland owned land in many neighboring townships in addition to his extensive holding in Ravenna. He repaired the fireplaces in the 1835 home (which caught fire in 1853), and then in 1860 he enlarged the home with a single story addition to the rear. 
This addition probably had a porch to the north and served as the new kitchen area. Ten years later he built the brick home to the south, leaving the Carter House as a residence for his married son who farmed with him. The construction of the brick residence probably saved the Carter House from an extensive remodeling, keeping the front rooms close to their original 1835 and 1847 forms. The property remained in the Strickland family hands, with several generations occupying the brick home and using the Carter House as a residence for extended family or farmhands.In 1912 an addition was added to the rear of the home and a second story above the rear addition. This created a separate apartment above with it's own interior stair, kitchen, and bath. The porch was filled in and a large dining room was created, complete with new oak moldings, doors, and a fireplace. This was where farmhands were fed, and served as the main living area while the front rooms in the 1835 and 1847 portions of the home were reserved for more formal events.
 
 

Dining Room	Birthing Room

The last owner of the home, Charlotte Strickland, returned to Ohio to retire close to her brother, G. W. Strickland, and inherited the entire property after his death. In 1962 Charlotte Strickland agreed to sell the property to the Portage County Historical Society, with the agreement that she would live in the rear portion of the home. Repairs were initiated in the front sections of the house, and in 1965 the adjacent museum was built.

The 1835 and 1847 portions of the Carter House are relatively unchanged from the time of their construction. The fireplace wall in the 1835 home has been rebuilt, the parlor mantel replaced, and the fireplace upstairs in the bedchamber was eliminated. However, the handsome stair, the trim surrounding the windows, and the wooden timbers visible in the outer corners of the rooms are all elements of the original 1835 house. In contrast, the rear portions of the home were altered as required to house extended family and farmhands. In the early 20th century farmers increasingly had to provide housing for farmhands to ensure a stable work force. The Carter House was pressed into service to house (and feed) laborers on the dairy farm.

One of a dwindling number of farmhouses from the early period of settlement of Northeast Ohio, it is an important cultural artifact recording the life of the early settlers of Ravenna.