523 Park Avenue
When you leave Lincoln High School from the “commons area” heading west on Park Avenue, for a brief moment it is like going back in time. The almost one hundred year old brick road that was laid by hand is flanked on both sides by large majestic houses that are as beautiful today as when they were built one hundred years ago. The nuclues of the group is the house at 523 Park Avenue sitting on the corner of Park Avenue and Sixth Street.
The large brick house was built by Benjamin Franklin Ross in 1909. Mr. Ross also built the Ross building, now more commonly known as the Barnes building. A couple of years after Benjamin Ross passed away, his widow sold the house to Dr. Lewis & Mabel Ullom around Thanksgiving of 1923. The grand estate was later owned by Carlo Zabadlija, who later sold the house to Kenneth & Regina Turner in 1975. Before selling the house Mr. Ross’s widow, Margaret, sold the building that would later become the Sons Of Italy building to Morgan Rowlands in 1916. Margaret also sold the house across Park Avenue at 515 Park Avenue and two additional lots to her daughter Matilda Davidson in 1918 and the Ross building to Harry Caplan.
If you have any memories about this house, whether it be who lived here, the time you broke your arm falling out of the tree in the backyard, or even the New Years Eve party you may have attended here, please take a minute to share those memories with us. Please leave a comment below or email us your memories by CLICKING HERE.
I remember seeing a picture of the Ross house and may have it. My grandmother, Irene Ross Timmins, lived there for awhile I believe. She had two sisters, Edna and Frances. Auntie Ed’s husband, Howard Jones owned the hardware store in town. I remember going there on Thanksgiving day (he’d open the store for us) to start our Christmas wish list. The store looked magical that time of the year!