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STAFF REPORT CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS Application Number: 1999-0812 Property Location: 710 Cushing Street Property Owner:-Je�ian e�7A��z. , Landmark or District Designation: Local Landmark Rating: S/11 Key Number: Survey Number: STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE/HISTORIC CONTEXT The original house was built circa 1896 for Philip H. and Lydia M. Woolman. It was located on Lot 932 of the St. Joseph County Agricultural Society Addition, platted in 1871. The Woolmans purchased the lot for $725.00 in March of 1896 and probably built the house soon thereafter. Philip Woolman made his living as a masonry contractor. The Woolman's resided there until 1904 when they sold the house to Margaret M. Gish for $3800.00. Ms. Gish used the house as a rental until 1910 when she sold it to two brothers, Jacob and Louis Levy. Louis Levy and his wife, Bessie, hired a popular local architect, Walter Schneider, to redesign the residence. Mr. Schneider simplified the style of the house borrowing heavily from the Prairie Style of architecture, effectively leaving the owners with a modernized and efficient residence. Louis and Jacob Levy were co-owners of Levy Brothers, a wholesale grocery business at 223 S. St. Joseph Street. The Levy brothers owned the house until 1942 when it was sold to Marian P. and Dr. Francis A. Turfler. Dr. Turfler was an osteopathy, he received his degree in 1932 from Kendallville College of Osteopathy. The Turflers resided here until the late 1940s when the moved to the country and had the house remodeled into to two separate apartments. In 1951 the house was sold to Horen Garabedian who moved into one apartment with his mother, Eva, and rented the other. Mr. Garabedian worked for the Studebaker and Studebaker -Packard Companies in the 1950s. He also served in the U.S. Army from 1942 until he was discharged in 1945 as a disabled veteran. Horen Garabedian passed away in 1980 and Eva passed away in 1982 leaving the house to Hazar Garabedian, Horen's brother. Hazar was an employee of the Oliver Farm Equipment company. Upon his death the house was passed to the current owner and another relative of the Garabedian family, John Oxian. 1