Brewster Mansion

Brewster Mansion is a high style Gothic Revival house, built by Frederick W. Bunnell, probably to Simeon Porter’s design, for Anson A. Brewster. Large sandstone blocks were used extensively throughout the building. It is the only stone Gothic Revival house in the Western Reserve.

Anson A. Brewster was one of Hudson’s earliest entrepreneurs, who owned, in addition to the Brewster Store, several Main Street buildings and the land which became Brewster’s Addition. He expected that this grand mansion would be one of many elegant town houses in the great metropolis of Hudson that would develop with the coming of the railroads.

Notice the drip moldings on the windows, the second floor lancet window, the two story entrance motif, with minarets and small onion domes, the quatre foils in the front door.

Originally, this entire corner property, marked by Brewster Store, Brewster Mansion, Christ Church Episcopal, and the parking area to the rear (one and three-quarters acres in all) belonged to Owen Brown, father of abolitionist John Brown. Owen’s first house was a log cabin, replaced on this site in 1825 by a large frame house. That house burned to the ground in 1842.

This building was renovated in 1982 by architect Allan Sveda, who uncovered five fireplaces, rebuilt the mantels, matched the existing Gothic Revival woodwork and restored the wide board poplar floors. The wooden porches flanking the entry, complete with Tudor arches and battlemented parapets, were restored in 1984. It is now used as an office building.