What makes a Ridgewood house different to sell
A Ridgewood house is usually an architect-designed Revival home from the 1920s, and buyers judge it on how much of that original work survives in good repair. The district runs east and west of Market Avenue North, about 20 blocks from downtown Canton. George A. (Jake) Leonard and the Leonard Agency developed it in three connected allotments between 1918 and 1940.
The names behind the houses are local. Charles E. Firestone, who also designed Timken High School and Fawcett Stadium, drew twelve Ridgewood buildings. Herman Albrecht designed 14, John Sherwood Kelly 18 and Louis Hoicowitz 13, many of Hoicowitz’s with turrets. The model home for the allotment, by Kelly, went up in 1919 at 234 19th Street NW.
Styles you’ll see on the walk from 19th Street to 25th Street:
- Tudor Revival: half-timbered upper floors, stone first stories, leaded casement windows.
- French Norman Revival: wall dormers, hipped roofs and multiple roof levels.
- Georgian and Colonial Revival: brick walls, pedimented entries, shuttered double-hung windows.
The repairs that worry Ridgewood sellers
The features that make Ridgewood special are also the expensive ones to fix. Slate roofs, beveled and leaded glass, hand-cut stone and tapestry brick all need specialists, and a buyer’s inspector will note every one that is failing. Houses this age also bring knob-and-tube wiring questions, old boilers and plaster that has cracked over a century.
Because nearly every house here predates 1978, federal law requires you to give a buyer the lead-based paint disclosure and, unless they waive it, a 10-day window to test. Our guide to lead paint disclosure when selling a house walks through it. If the list of needed work is long, see selling a house that needs work.
What the historic listing does and does not do
Being on the National Register does not limit what you, as a private owner, can do with your house. The National Park Service states that listing places no restrictions on a non-federal owner using private funds, short of projects that receive federal help. That means you can sell to anyone, including a buyer who plans to renovate.
Two things are worth checking anyway. Canton has its own Landmark Commission, which meets as needed at City Hall, 218 Cleveland Avenue SW, so ask the city whether your address carries any local designation. The Historic Ridgewood Neighborhood Association, which dates its start to 1918, also publishes preservation guidelines and a realty page on its website.
Brick streets, street lights and who buys here
Ridgewood’s streets are part of the sale. Except for 25th Street NW, which the city paved in 1924, private contractors laid the streets with brick from Canton’s Metropolitan Paving Brick Company. The ornamental street lights came from another Canton firm, Union Metal Manufacturing. University Avenue and 22nd Street NW curve on purpose, to slow through traffic.
That setting pulls in owner-occupant buyers who want a historic home and will pay for one in good condition. So if your house is updated, listing it is often the stronger move, and we’ll say so. A direct sale earns its place when the house needs the kind of restoration most retail buyers won’t finance, when it is an estate full of belongings, or when you want a fixed closing date.
For the wider picture, see our Canton page and the Canton housing market guide. If you want a number on a Ridgewood house that needs work, ask for a written offer.