The Lewis E. Buckley House, also known as “Stonehurst,” is a Victorian Folk Farmhouse built in 1886 in the Ward Village neighborhood of Concord Township. Lewis Buckley was a general store owner and the Ward Village postmaster in the 1890s. He lived in the house until 1901 with his wife, 3 children (including 2 twin boys born in the house in December 1888), and a schoolteacher boarder.
Mr. Buckley sold the home in 1901 to the Bishop family, headed by Mr. Jehu D. Bishop. Mr. Bishop was the brother-in-law to Pennock E. Sharpless, proprietor of the P.E. Sharpless Company, and Mr. Bishop was the foreman at the Sharpless plant in Ward. According to the verbal account of Mr. Bishop’s eldest daughter, Jehu was credited with bringing a man from Europe after the Spanish-American War that showed the P.E. Sharpless Company how to make cream cheese. Mr. Bishop also had a small mushroom growing company in the back of the property for a few years before he sold it to Jacob Styer in 1913. The Bishop Family were the longest residents at the property, and affectionately named the home “Stonehurst”after it’s distinct limestone foundation and first floor exterior walls.
The home still contains many original elements, including original inlaid oak floors, stained glass transom windows, a decorated fireplace mantel, and an ornate hand-carved wooden staircase.
Concord Township Historic Inventory Resource #107
