Remarkable Ohio

Counties

Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

145-18 Curtis-Preyer Stone House 1819-1835 / Lake View Wine Farm 1864-1892

Side A: The Curtis-Preyer Stone House takes its name from two families associated with its early history. Richard and Clarissa Dille Curtis purchased 70 acres in the Connecticut Western Reserve from veteran Elias Lee in 1819. The Euclid Township “Turkey Knob” settlement soon thrived around Dugway Brook, springs sites, and an American Indian crossroads. The Curtis, Dille, Lee, and Stillman families, related by marriage, helped each other succeed by harnessing the creek to power their grist and saw mills and selling quarried stone and felled timber. Sometime between 1819 and 1835 Curtis built his stone house using the Berea sandstone quarried on site. The roof was created of ax-hewn “pegged” tree timbers, and the thick stone walls fashioned of uncoursed, chiseled stones. A central chimney fed seven fireplaces and a bake oven.
Side B: Johann (John) Peter and Charlotte Andreae Preyer bought the Old Curtis Farm in 1864 and established Lake View Wine Farm. A “King’s Forester” in Bullay, Germany, Preyer left his war-torn homeland to join other German immigrants in Ohio grape growing and wine making. Preyer added more vineyards to what had been a dairy and fruit farm. The “Dugway” settlement grew into the hamlet, “Fairmount,” that boasted several small quarries as well as a grist mill, cider mill, general store, post office, cobbler, smithies, churches, school, and planked toll road with covered bridge. In the early 1900s, after the Preyer occupation, the stone house was remodeled to include the front porch and dormers seen today. The Curtis-Preyer Stone House is reputed to be the oldest extant building in Cleveland Heights.
Sponsors: Cleveland Heights Historical Society; In Memory of Herbert & Margaret Jakob; Ohio History Connection
Address: 14299 Superior Road, 
Cleveland Heights, 
OH, 
44118
Location: In front of Curtis-Preyer House
Latitude: 41.5121339
Longitude: -81.5714892