5945 Summit St.

GAYLEEN GINDY
LOOKING BACK

This house was originally built in 1895 at 5926 N. Main St. by Thomas Gibbs. He owned a hardware store in downtown Sylvania and his daughter, Julia Gibbs, married Alberti R. Chandler, who took over the hardware business after Gibbs retired.
Thomas and Susanna (Pittman) Gibbs built this house on N. Main Street when he was 59 years old and she was 62 years old. Gibbs was born in Kent, England and came to the U.S. in 1852. He returned to England in 1856 to marry Susanna Pittman and then returned to Cleveland. He served in the Civil War and was honorably discharged in 1865 when the war ended. The couple went to Mentor, Ohio, then in 1866 moved to Whiteford, Mich. where they farmed until they retired and moved to Sylvania in 1886. In 1888 he bought the hardware store from Silas Root and operated it until 1895, when the building was destroyed by fire. At that time his son-in-law, Alberti Chandler, rebuilt the hardware building at the same location at 5648 Main St. (today Chandler Café)
Gibbs built the subject house in 1895 and lived there with his wife until she died in 1911 and he died in 1930. In the meantime, in 1900, Alberta and Julia Chandler built their beautiful home just to the south of her parents at 5916 Main St.
In 1922 Roy Chandler, the only child of Alberta and Julia, built his home at 5922 Main St. In 1930, after his grandfather passed away, he and his wife Genevieve purchased the property at 5945 Summit St. An Oct. 14, 1930, zoning permit approved moving the Gibb’s Main Street house to this Summit Street address and for it to be modernized.
The March 19, 1931, Sylvania Sentinel newspaper, under the column of classified ads read,“FOR RENT OR SALE – Modern 7-room home on Summit Street. Completely refinished. Hardwood floors throughout. Soft water plumbing. Garage. R.A. Chandler. Phone 45.”
Roy and Genevieve Chandler continued to be landlords until 1944 when they sold it to Claude S. Starrick. He only owned the home for two years and sold it in 1946 to Maurice D. and Virginia Lindau.
Maurice Lindau purchased Day’s Drug Store in September, 1945 in downtown Sylvania. He changed the name to Lindau Drug Store, which he operated until he died in 1989.
According to a 1947 article, “Maury, as he is known to his friends, now lives with his wife, Virginia, and a son David, 11, at 5945 Summit St. His brother-in-law, Edgar Shively, also lives with him, and is attending the College of Pharmacy at the University of Toledo.”
A zoning permit was issued in 1952 to Lindau to build a 22-foot by 22-foot block garage, move a 12-foot by 16-foot wood frame garage and repair the porch. The work was done by William Burch.
The Lindau family lived here until 1955 when they had a house built at 7122 Erie St. Later owners include:
1955 – Roger and Madeleine Williams
1963 – David and Leila Weiss
1966 – Michael & Helen Giaquinto
1986 – David Oswald
1989 – David and Dana Oswald
1993 – Lawrence and Kim Rosinski
2000 – William and Paula Bartlett
2010 – Jillian Adams
In 1995 Larry and Kim Rosinski allowed this house to be on the Sylvania Senior Citizens’ Historic Home Tour. The literature described the home with a nice screened-in porch wrapping around two sides of the house. The inside included: cove ceilings, decorative woodwork throughout, built-in china cupboard in the dining room, a large pantry made into a bathroom, recently renovated kitchen, decorative door trim, even on the inside of the upstairs rooms, all with decorative hinges.