Lakewood Lore

Grace Avenue mansion lives on in Christmas wreath

Early this century when Lakewood became known as the "City of Beautiful Homes," Grace Avenue's pride and joy was the Hackenberg mansion between Franklin and Madison.

To this day, the Queen Anne Victorian-style structure remains an elegant residence, and has been selected by the Women's Board of Lakewood Historical Society for recognition during the coming Christmas season.

Holiday wreaths, soon to be crafted and sold by Women's Board volunteers in an annual fund-raiser, will be available with miniature reproductions of the historic Grace Avenue home as an ornamentation.

The mansion was built between 1893 and 1895 for Harvey E. Hackenberg, a public-spirited entrepreneur who rose to become one of the chief executive officers of National Carbon Co., once our dominant area manufacturing firm.

The home, which originally cost $28,000, comprises 17 rooms, a third floor ballroom, a hand-carved staircase from Norway, a wide front porch supported on Tuscan columns, a corner fishscale tower, and a carriage house in the rear with living quarters for a hired man.

Hackenberg was born in 1864 in Northumberland, Pa. He attended the local high school and at age 17 moved to Cleveland andbecame a clerk for Tuttle, Masters & Co., iron ore merchants.

In 1883, when lighting by electricity was little more than in the experimental stage, he joined Bouton Carbon Co., maker of electric lighting carbons.

Five years later be began his career with National Carbon, where he climbed the executive ladder until in 1912 he held the posts of vice president, secretary and treasurer.

Hackenberg was a member of the former Lakewood Tennis Club which once occupied the northwest corner of Detroit and Bunts, and whose brick building there became the Lakewood Elks Club 74 years ago.

In 1903 he wed Addie May Lawrence, a niece of the late Washington H. Lawrence, who was president of National Carbon until his death in 1900.

Not long after the marriage, Hackenberg and his wife were divorced. He moved away while she remained in the Grace Avenue mansion with their son, Harvey Jr.

However, it was reported she was so ashamed because of the marital split-up (in those time, divorces were considered scandalous and disgraceful) that she became a recluse and did not show her face outside in daytime for nearly a half century, up until her death in 1953.

Hackenberg died unexpectedly at an Edgewater Drive address in Lakewood in 1923 at age 59. After his mother's death, Harvey Jr. stayed on in the Grace Avenue mansion until 1960, when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Haas for a reported $11,000.

The edifice changed hands two more times before youthful partners William Cockrell and Tom Miavitz bought it in 1981 for $60,000 and undertook extensive redecorating to restore and enhance its Victorian authenticity. The resourceful co-owners also were successful in getting the home placed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Current owners, Marianne Ludwig, who is active in Lakewood community affairs, and her husband, Jon Boylan, a federal bank examiner, purchased the mansion in 1985 and have continued to maintain its distinctive charm and keep it in good repair.

Asked recently what were her future plans, Marianne replied, "To enjoy the home."

Anyone wishing to buy the Woman's Board wreaths of fragrant Maine balsam boughs and the accompanying Grace Avenue mansion miniature replicas, handpainted by Lakewood artists Sari Cantlin and Debbie Cleary, may obtain an order form at most leading stores in Lakewood and Rocky River, or call the Historical Society at (216) 221-7343.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post October 31, 1991. Reprinted with permission.

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