The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Craft house to remain standing
Trustees will take more time to decide if building in Stanton Park is worth keeping for future uses
A building at Bill Stanton Community Park known as the craft house will remain standing, at least into the foreseeable future.
Trustees reached that decision during a recent meeting after discussing the possibility of demolishing the house.
The house, located between the banquet and recreation halls on the eastern side of the park, is a remnant from the days when the property served as a Catholic Youth Organization camp.
Madison Township bought the 32-acre property at 5585 Chapel Road in 1998. In recent years, trustees have focused on knocking down a lot of old camp buildings, ranging from cottages for campers to a house for nuns.
“We’ve done a really good job of cleaning up the park and getting rid of a lot of buildings we don’t use, and making it look more like a park and less like a camp,” Trustee Kenneth Gauntner Jr. said during a meeting of trustees on Feb. 9.
Gauntner then asked fellow Trustees Max Anderson Jr. and Peter Wayman, along with township Administrator Tim Brown, if it would make sense demolish the craft house.
“That is probably the last building on that property we have no use for,” Gauntner said. “It would give us a better view of the lake, and give us more open space.”
At this time, the house is only being used to store equipment for a soccer league, Gauntner said. He noted that the soccer gear could be transferred to a garage located in the western section of Stanton Park.
Brown, however, pointed out that the garage and craft house are the only two places at the park for indoor storage.
“I would hate to tear something down that’s not falling apart, and then have a need for it,” Brown said.
Wayman said he also recalled that a major renovation of the craft house was completed shortly after Madison Township acquired Stanton Park.
Specific details about the project were provided by township Service Department Supervisor Paul Cook, who also attended the Feb. 9 meeting.
About 15 years ago, the Friends of Stanton Park group upgraded the house by installing a new roof, windows, siding and doors, as well as repainting the interior, Cook said.
Wayman said the project was funded for the most part by donations.
In addition, Wayman recalled that Fred Close, then a member of Friends of Stanton Park, played a key role in improving the craft house.
Close, a Madison Township
resident who died in 2018, was an active community volunteer and gifted artist who enjoyed teaching children about art. Wayman said Close envisioned using the refurbished house as a place “where he could bring kids from (larger cities in
the region) to come out into the country and use that as a craft building.”
Gauntner said he wasn’t aware of the major improvements that had been made to the craft house.
In response to Gauntner, Wayman reiterated that the
craft house is in decent condition, and said he didn’t favor tearing it down right away.
“It’s something we can certainly weigh in and look at, if not this year, maybe next year or something, if we decide go that route,”
Wayman said. “I’d like to maybe hang onto to it and see if we’re going to have a use for it or not.”
At that point, trustees agreed to let the craft house to stay in place, for the time being, at Stanton Park.