The John H. Nichols House is a historic house in downtown

Wapakoneta Wapakoneta may refer to: ;Places *Wapakoneta, Ohio *The Lima- Van Wert-Wapakoneta, Ohio Combined Statistical Area ;Ships *, United States Navy ships ;Other *The Treaty of Wapakoneta *The Wapakoneta City School District The Wapakoneta City Schoo ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1865, it is Wapakoneta's oldest example of the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style of architecture. Among its leading features are a three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

facade with a prominent

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

, large

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s under the roof, several large windows on the front and sides, and a

trabeated In architecture, post and lintel (also called prop and lintel or a trabeated system) is a building system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces between them. This is usually used to hold up ...

entryway framed by several

sidelight A sidelight or sidelite in a building is a window, usually with a vertical emphasis, that flanks a door or a larger window. Sidelights are narrow, usually stationary and found immediately adjacent doorways.Barr, Peter.Illustrated Glossary, 19th ...

s and a

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

supported by two

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 54-55.

History

One of Wapakoneta's earliest

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

s, John H. Nichols designed his two- story, seventeen-room house in the

plan A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. F ...

of a cross, patterning it after a house in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

with which he was familiar.Auglaize County Historical Society. ''A History of Auglaize County Ohio''.

Defiance Defiance may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Defiance'' (1952 film), a Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander * ''Defiance'' (1980 film), an American crime drama starring Jan-Michael Vincent * ''Defiance'' (2002 film), a ...

: Hubbard, 1979, 117. The house's brick walls rest on a foundation of limestone and are covered with a tin roof, and elements of wood and limestone are prominent on the exterior., Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed 2010-08-06. Inside, walnut wood is dominant, including on the house's massive central fireplace. Among the original windowpanes is one on which several of Nichols' children incised their names. Built by Thomas and William Nichols, the owner's brothers, the Nichols House soon became the core of Wapakoneta's oldest major residential section. Six other large brick houses were built immediately west of the city center between 1865 and 1875. Like the Nichols House, these structures were erected for prominent members of Wapakoneta society, including its social and political leaders. Since the Nichols family, the house has changed hands very rarely; it had only four owners in its first century. By the late 1970s, it had been purchased by a photographer, who used it for both home and

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

. To expand its uses for photography purposes, the house has been slightly modified by the addition of a brick patio and a white picket fence. In recognition of its high quality of preservation, the Nichols House was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1988, because of the significance of its architecture in local history. Today, the house is home to the law office of Jauert & Burton, before which it had been office space for the Ron Spencer Real Estate Agency.Contact Ron Spencer Real Estate
, Ron Spencer Real Estate, 2010. Accessed 2010-08-06.

References

External links

Owner's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, John H., House Houses completed in 1865 Buildings and structures in Wapakoneta, Ohio Former houses in Ohio Gothic Revival architecture in Ohio Greek Revival houses in Ohio Houses in Auglaize County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Auglaize County, Ohio Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Italianate architecture in Ohio