Hurn-Bliss House

This house is one of three income properties built by David Hurn during the railroad boom, two of them side-by-side on Owen Brown Street and reflecting two distinct Hudson styles from this period. The Hurn-Doncaster House at 28 Owen Brown Street is Gothic Revival; this one is a nostalgic version of a New England farmhouse, a smaller version of the David Hudson house at 318 North Main St. Their only similarity is in the wood construction and the square footage.

David Hurn never lived in any of these houses; his residence was at the corner of Main and Baldwin Streets, a house now demolished. Henry Bliss bought the house in 1867 and lived here until his death in 1899. Bliss was a mason and stonecutter; his wife, known as “Mother Bliss,” was a housemother and manager of the dining hall at Western Reserve College.