GAYLEEN GINDY 5737 Summit St.

In 1893, John Hopkins sold two parcels to the south of his home on Summit Street to his son-in-law, Henry Burnham. Hopkins had just been ordered to re-pay a debt he owed because a man that he insured as Sylvania’s treasurer disappeared with the tax monies that belonged to the village and township of Sylvania. This man was never located, dead or alive.
Henry Burnham, and his wife Mary, apparently lived in the structure on this parcel, which was originally a church, according to all old maps and records. Documents say that this church was known as the old “Gin and Sugar Church.” A group of “free-thinkers,” as they were called, used to holdservices there. Early settlers in Sylvania that were interviewed said that members became so emotional during services that the surrounding residents and the church-goers at the Congregational Church just to the south, thought they seemed to be “under the influence,” thus the nickname “Gin and Sugar.” Another old-timer is quoted as saying that “there were frequent cases of people “getting the power” and that trances, rolling in the aisle, and general hysteria were favorite diversions. Apparently, it was John Hopkins who was involved in this church, and an interesting item I found about him was that his headstone in Ravine Cemetery reads: “Free Thought, Science, Reason vs Superstition,” There is a torch with a moon and stars carved into the stone as well.
IN 1894 while the Burnhams were living on Summit Street, Mary was documented as hanging herself in a wood shed behind their home. The next year, after his father-in-law, John Hopkins passed away, Burnham sold the old church/house to Sarah A. Ellis.
She was the widow of well-known Sylvanian Abram A. Durfee, who had died in 1872. Sarah married her second husband, another very-well-known Sylvanian, Foster Ellis, in 1873. Ellis died in 1884.
In 1895, while still widowed, Sarah purchased the parcel. She gave the old “Gin and Sugar” church structure to Dr. Cosgrove, who lived a couple lots to the south, and he moved it to his property. That structure survived at that location, even after Dr. Armstrong purchased that property, until it was dismantled in about 2011. After it was moved, Sarah had her home built on the old church parcel and her address became known as 5737 Summit St.
In the 1900 census she was listed living here as Sarah Ellis, head of household, born in 1840, 59 years old, widowed, four children born, owned home, no occupation. In 1904 Sarah married her third husband, Thomas Chandler. In 1908 Sarah had the house at 5733 Summit St. built, just to the south, which she rented out.
By the 1910 census Sarah Chandler was listed living here by herself, 69 years old, married three times, no occupation, but living on own income. She is listed as owning her home free of mortgage. Her husband, Thomas Chandler, was living as a boarder with Fred and Caroline Ingold who were renting the house that he owned on the NW corner of Summit and Erie streets. At this time Thomas and Sarah were married but not living together.
Sarah Viets-Durfee-Ellis-Chandler passed away in 1916 and was buried in Association Cemetery in Sylvania. One year before she died she transferred these two parcels, and both homes, to her children as follows:
1915 – Wallace E. Durfee, Forrest Durfee, George A. Durfee and Grace M. Cone
1918 – Otto and Amelia Knuth
1919 – Fidelia Waffle
1921 – Joseph and Victoria Montri
1923 – Frances E. Buck
1943 – Robert Blackburn and Charles H. Haskell
1943 – Milton A. and Blanche Trombly
1963 – Carl F and Lelah Dorcas
1969 – Sandra L. Root
1969 – Marion and Catherine D. McGee
1973 – Scott E. Hall
1978 – Jeffrey and Janet Franklin
1983 – James and Melinda Schwerkoske
1987 – Lyle C. and Wanda L. Hooper
2016 – Wanda Hooper
2016 – Samantha Waltermyer
2020 – Cassandra M. Stansley
2024 – 5737 Summit Street LLC
All of the families who have owned this home has a history of their own, but space limits me from writing about all of them. Lyle Hooper was a police officer with the Sylvania Police Department from 1956, and served his final four years as the Chief of Police, retiring in 1984. He and wife Wanda owned this house from 1987 until 2016.