Crane-Ross Home
The Crane-Ross home at 117 Main Street was built in 1879 by J.A. Vroom, (a local furniture maker and undertaker), in the Italian Gothic style. It was originally built with seventeen rooms and the lumber used to build it came from the Hoag Lumberyard, just up the street at 130 Main Street.
Mr. Vroom was commissioned for the job by Ory P. Crane, an eclectic physician, who sold home remedies such as” blood purifier” and” renovating pills”.
Just the year before Mr. Crane had been the owner of a match factory in Freedom, N.Y. called Crane and Sons. His son Lucien had graduated from the homeopathic college in Buffalo in 1880 and also set up practice in the house at 117 Main Street after his marriage. In 1888 Lucien died of an unspecified illness. In 1891 Dr. Crane’s wife died. Dr. Crane died in 1894. In his will he left the house next door at 115, which he also owned, to his daughter Elvira.
The house was next purchased by Dr. Arthur Foster, a local dentist who resided there for 53 years and used it as his place of business as well as his home.
Dr. Foster was a 32nd degree Mason in the Akron Lodge 527 A&F.M. He was an avid sportsman in his youth, with a particular interest in boxing in his college days. He died in 1959, age 78.
It was next occupied as the Ross Funeral Home. During this period the home was altered in several ways. The tower, which was sixty feet high from the ground to its finials and the side porch were removed.
In 2005 the building was purchased by a private owner to be his home. Renovation work began in 2006 when the tower and the porch were restored. The current owner has hopes of re-establishing a carriage house on the site in the future and has been continuously working on the property since taking ownership.