Stranahan House, West River Road, Perrysburg, Ohio
It was a spark plug that started the whole thing. In 1973, Duane Stranahan, of the Champion Spark Plug dynasty, decided that his carriage house really needed to get with the times. It was too charming to just convert it into an ordinary modern garage. It was part of the original 1932 estate built for a Toledo banker near the banks of the Maumee River. Even though it was built in the era when the automobile was king (and enabling captains of industry to build manor houses in the countryside) it wasn't a "horseless carriage" house. It still includes three bays for them. But in case you were wondering, there's also a newer four car garage with a mechanic's pit for those spark plug changes. Stranahan wanted to connect the original carriage house to the main house, but to do it in a cool way. After all, this was 1973. He had grown up in a pretty traditional house and outgrown that look: { 577 Foundation } Just like our house's story last week, the previous home
