ARTS O’ MAGAZINE

🏡 History of Walnut House 🏡

Mike Kraus

By all appearances, John is a success. As we know, appearances are more important than facts. He looks the part of a celebrated businessman standing on the cobblestone lane waiting for his family to arrive. John dresses, acts, and delegates as is expected of an executive.

In this stern Protestant community, it is insisted that homes have a simple design. The exterior of 443 Walnut Street appears to be a plain farmhouse painted sage with gold, purple, and blue accent colors. Opening the heavy walnut door and walking through the vestibule is an impressive stairhall. A grand and ornately carved staircase welcomes visitors. Wasteful ornamentation shows others that he has “made it.” Having shaped walnut wood continues John’s dynastic wealth and this house is its temple. Carpenters from his furniture factory were hired to elegantly design doors, wainscoting, and window trim. The gem of the house was the back parlor that featured a large fireplace and mantle made up of figures of Greek gods, like Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The parlor has a side entrance and could be locked and isolated from the rest of the house for secret society meetings.

For the next 32 years, John saw a lot of changes. In 1893, a duplex was constructed immediately to the north for…