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George and Emma Wahr House, 1890

George and Emma Wahr House, 1890 image
Year
1890
Description

445 South Fourth Avenue

George and Emma Wahr House, 1890

Four years before George Wahr constructed a similar high-style Queen Anne house on North Division Street next to the Wilson-Wahr House, he built this house on South Fourth Avenue near the intersection with Packard Street. Embellished with an elaborate display of the woodworker's craft, the house is detailed with carved barge boards, sunbursts, dormers, bays and gables, all blending together in a wonderful example of Victorian excess. It is rumored that Wahr had a feud with his neighbor who hung the wash out on a line to dry. This apparently upset him enough to move to the other side of town! (His increasing prosperity might also have prompted the move to a more exclusive part of town.)

Wahr's bookstore on Main Street became quite successful by the late 1880s when his name appears in bold letters in the City Directory. Four years after he built this house, he opened his second bookstore on State Street. It outlasted his Main Street store by many years, remaining in business until the 1970s. The first occupant after that was Border's Books, then a used and rare book shop.

Wahr sold the property to the Schaffer family who lived here for close to a century, which helps explain its intact condition today. George D. and Elizabeth Schaffer moved into the house in 1894 and by 1900 they had seven children: Anna, Bertha, Carrie, Elizabeth, Ella, George Jr. and William H. By 1915 only Carrie, Anna, and Bertha were still living with their parents and by the mid-1930s only Anna and Bertha were still here. In 1935, their mother Elizabeth, a widow, married the man next door, Mr. Frank Ohlinger, and moved into 451 South Fourth Avenue. In 1965 she was again widowed. In the late 1970s, probably after her mother's death, Bertha moved into 451 and rented out 445.

After Bertha's death, both properties were sold and the house at 445 was purchased by the William Johnson family in 1981. They did a major overhaul of the house, restoring it to its original splendor. They were recognized by the Historic District Commission in 1988 for their splendid efforts at reviving this glorious structure.

Rights Held By
Photos used to illustrate Historic Buildings, Ann Arbor, Michigan / by Marjorie Reade and Susan Wineberg.