Series on the Isaac C. Woodward house continues
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ann Frondorf traveled from Florida each year to spend her summers living at her ancestral home, the Isaac C. Woodward house in Luzerne Township. By 1963, when trouble loomed in the form of a property-seeking Luzerne Township School Board, Ann had done an outstanding job of restoring the 19th century home to its former appearance. The western side of the red brick homestead had a centered front porch that faced High Street Extension, while a back porch ran the full width of the eight-room house. Inside the house, a large center hall ran from the double front doors to a single back door. On one side of the hall were a kitchen and a dining room separated by a kitchen pantry from which back stairs led to the second floor. On the other side of the central hall were a living room and a parlor that were separated by French doors.
The four rooms on the first floor featured 14-foot-high ceilings. In the kitchen was a large antique open fireplace, and the other rooms each had a marble fireplace.
From the center hallway near the front double doors, a majestic staircase ascended to a large second floor hall, which had two bedrooms on each side and a bathroom at the front of the house. The bedrooms, which all had floors of stained wood and plaster walls that were in very good condition, were interconnected by another smaller hallway on each side of the house near the outside walls.
In 1965, during the legal wrangling between the school district and the Woodward heirs, real estate professional Wylie Rittenhouse appraised the house. In testament to Ann Frondorf’s restorative touch, Rittenhouse wrote, “In my opinion, this dwelling has an actual age of approximately 100 years old, but due to superior construction and maintenance, it has an effective economic age of approximately 35 years.”
During the early twentieth century, there were two smaller red brick houses behind the house, originally intended to accommodate farm workers or other staff. Each had two rooms upstairs and two downstairs. There had also been a large wooden barn further back on the property to the right of the house.
By 1963, one of the two small houses no longer existed, and the large barn had burned down. Yet though the passing years had seen many alterations in the homestead’s appearance, there may have been one constant witness to a century of changes.
“The place had a ghost!” former tenant Marianne Stuart Schuhle of Chesterfield, Va., assured me. “I think it was Captain Woodward, but I am not sure. He made the rounds once in a while and scared Grandma, but most of us just ignored him and told him to go back to his boat!”
After receiving that information from Marianne, I mentioned it to Ann Frondorf.
“Yes,” she said, “the house had a ghost. In the mid-fifties, I was staying there alone for a while, cleaning it up a bit between tenants. While I was there I encountered the ghost, and I have never been so scared in my life.”
“You saw him?” I asked.
“I felt him,” Ann said. “I was halfway up the staircase when I felt this icy blast of wind rush past me on the stairs, causing my clothes to blow violently. There were no doors or windows open to cause it, no natural explanation for it, and it was a very frightening experience. Needless to say, I called a relative and said, ‘I’m coming to spend the night!'”
Despite Ann’s other-worldly encounter, she spent parts of seven summers in the late 1950s and early 1960s living in her great-grandfather’s home, basking in its reborn beauty.
“I remember some wonderful picnics and gatherings over there,” said neighbor Dave Gratz, who lived across the street. “Ann and her friends and family had a great time during those summers.”
And then the idyll was shattered.
In 1963, the Luzerne Township School District decided to build a new elementary school to replace the old brick building in Hiller. The site the school board coveted was an unspecified portion of the 78-acre Woodward farm.
When Ann Frondorf and her husband William became aware of the school district’s plan, they engaged attorney Robert L. Webster to deal with the school district.
On Dec. 11, 1963, Webster received a letter from A. J. Kuzdenyi, solicitor for the Luzerne Township School District. The letter contained a puzzling comment about the Woodward house. It read, “Pursuant to our recent conversation relative to the matter of the proposed school site, our board would be desirous of acquiring ten to fifteen acres of land directly behind the brick dwelling, and would not expect to acquire the dwelling unless it was given assurance that the dwelling would not be used for private purposes. A suggestion has been made that the building be given to the Brownsville Historical Society for museum and/or historic purposes.
“I trust that you will communicate with your clients with respect to the above proposal at your earliest convenience. The board is very desirous of moving ahead with their school building plans as rapidly as is humanly possible.”
It appears from this letter that as of late 1963, the school board was willing to build the new school on acreage that lay behind the Woodward house, leaving the historic homestead untouched – on the condition that Ann Frondorf and Jo Hess agreed that no one could ever again use the house as a residence, which Ann had been doing for the past seven summers.
On Dec. 13, 1963, Webster wrote to Ann Frondorf at her home in Jacksonville, Fla.. Webster wrote, “I have suggested to Mr. Kuzdenyi that you and your sister might be willing to donate acreage to the School District if the District were to forego its expressed intentions to appropriate the homestead property. Mr. Kuzdenyi has discussed this matter with the School Board, and I have received a written reply, a copy of which I enclose herewith.
“You will note that the School Board is somewhat concerned about the future use of the homestead property, fearing that it might become a potential eye sore, and to guard against this, the School Board suggested that the homestead property be transferred to the Brownsville Historical Society for perpetual historical use.”
Four months later, the school board reaffirmed that it did not wish to take the Woodward house. On March 18, 1964, Webster wrote to Ann Frondorf, “The School District of the Township of Luzerne has contacted me through their attorney regarding their plans to condemn ten (10) acres of land in the Park Plan for the construction of an elementary school. However, after several conferences with various members of the School Board, it has been resolved that the homestead property should not be included in the area to be condemned.”
“Under the circumstances,” Webster continued, “this would appear to be the best alternative that we could follow if we expect to save the homestead property from condemnation action.”
At this point, it appeared that the Woodward house would be safe from condemnation by the school board. Yet 11 months later, documents indicate that the situation had taken an ugly turn. While architectural planning for the new school building had continued while the board negotiated with Ann Frondorf and Jo Hess to acquire a portion of the Woodward property, the negotiations did not produce a settlement.
On Feb. 3, 1965, Ann Frondorf received another letter from solicitor Kuzdenyi. It contained the chilling news that the school board had had a change of heart.
“The Board of Directors of the Luzerne Township School District,” Kuzdenyi’s letter stated, “is contemplating the taking by Eminent Domain, for school purposes, of a tract of land containing 15.0006 Acres, which will include the farm house and other improvements, as shown by sketch which is herewith enclosed, since it is our understanding that you do not wish to negotiate further for the acquisition by the Board of this site. Should you desire to resume negotiations for the sale of the entire tract, as indicated, please so advise.”
The school board, which had previously sought only 10 acres and had not planned to take the house, had become displeased with the lack of progress in the property negotiations. Now the board was threatening to take 15 acres of the 78-acre farm and the century-old farm house too. Faced with the explicit statement that the power of eminent domain might be used to seize the property, Bill Frondorf sent instructions to Robert Webster.
“You may tell Mr. Kuzdenyi,” Frondorf directed Webster, “that we are very willing to negotiate – to date we have had no offers of any kind. What we are asking now is $10,000 for ten (10) acres that the Board wanted last August, or $30,000 for the house and fifteen (15) acres. Also we would like to have a road to give access to the balance of the land. As I stated before, we would be glad to meet with the Board to discuss this.”
Bill Frondorf’s proposal of $30,000 as a settlement price for 15 acres plus the house might seem to imply that the Frondorfs had conceded the inevitablility of their losing the house. Nothing could have been further from the truth. As summer approached, an all-out effort was launched to prevent the school district from condemning the farm house. Next week as our series concludes, matters reach a climax when the community rallies to convince the school board that the century-old Woodward house should be preserved.
Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201, glenatun@hhs.net or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to Mark O’Keefe (Managing Editor – Day), 8 – 18 East Church Street, Uniontown, Pa. or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com. All past articles are on the Web at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/