“The Architectural Legacy of Lemuel and Simeon Porter”

“The Architectural Legacy of Lemuel and Simeon Porter” will be the featured topic at the April 10, 2014 meeting of the Hudson Heritage Association at the Barlow Community Center at 7:30PM. Tom Vince will present the program.

Lemuel Porter (1780-1829) and his son, Simeon Porter (1807-1871) were among the most prominent carpenter-builders and architects of the classic era in Western Reserve history. Lemuel came out to Tallmadge in 1818 with his young family and immediately became an important builder, his most enduring masterpiece being the historic Congregational Church at Tallmadge Circle.

So prominent was the name of Lemuel Porter that the trustees of the newly-founded Western Reserve College in Hudson gave him a contract to design and build the first structures on the campus. Lemuel completed the work on Middle College and South College (both demolished) and was just in the process of finishing up the handsome President’s House on Brick Row when he died unexpectedly in the fall of 1829.

The trustees had such confidence in the work of the Porters that they extended Lemuel’s contract to his son, Simeon, who completed the work on the Brick Row over the next decade. Simeon Porter, in concert with Archibald Rice of Waterbury, CT, did the Nathan Seymour House on Prospect Street and the Athenaeum on the campus of WRA which is undergoing a major renovation at this time, scheduled for completion in June. The original building by Porter and Rice was finished in 1843 and was the main classroom building for the next six decades. Simeon Porter designed many other Hudson houses before moving to Cleveland in 1848 where he partnered with Charles W. Heard on many of that city’s most prominent structures including the Old Stone Church (1855) that still graces Cleveland’s Public Square. The program is free and open to the public.

Speaker Tom Vince has been writing about Hudson’s history for the last forty years, and has served as Archivist and Historian at Western Reserve Academy since 1996.

Founded in 1962, Hudson Heritage Association works to protect historic buildings, the village streetscape, and the city’s Western Reserve architectural aesthetic. It encourages the preservation of historic buildings by providing research, resources and education to homeowners who wish to maintain their historic homes and co-sponsors the city’s work with the Cleveland Restoration Society. HHA also works with building owners to help them meet historic marker requirements and identifies those buildings with the HHA historic marker. The association shares and celebrates the history of Northeastern Ohio by publishing books and newsletters, conducting workshops and field trips, and hosting monthly meetings that feature local preservationists, historians and craftsmen.

The Hudson Heritage Association meeting is free and open to the public and will be held at the Barlow Community Center in Hudson.   The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. and will conclude with refreshments. For more information, call 330-342-7996.