Living in Luella's House:
Discovering History in Our Lakewood Home
An older home is filled with stories. I often wonder about the people who lived in our Lakewood house so many years ago. If these walls could talk... They can't, but Luella Platten McNamee can. She's one of the original occupants who moved in when the big oak by our garage was just a twig and the mahogany woodwork inside was fresh and gleaming. I sometimes wish I had a time machine so I could go back and see what our house looked like when it was new and meet the people who lived there. Luella has given us a taste of that. Her memories and stories, and those of her descendants, have made our house feel more special than it already is. More on this special lady just ahead, but first some history.
Beginnings
Our home was built in 1919, as the country was recovering from World War I, getting ready for women's suffrage and the dawn of the jazz age. At that time Lakewood was much like Medina and Avon are now. Farmers were selling off their land to developers to handle the influx of people from crowded Cleveland who longed to head out to the new suburbs.
A cement contractor, Matthew M.P. Platten, and his wife, Julia, wanted to move their large family of nine children to Lakewood, where the land was cheap and the streets were new. If you've walked around Lakewood much, you've probably seen his name. His brass horseshoe with the MP Platten brand on it still exists in a half-dozen or so sidewalks that were poured when Woodrow Wilson was president.
The Plattens decided on the Waterbury development between Detroit and Franklin, which was part of the old Nicholson estate (the original Nicholson house, built in 1835, still stands at Nicholson & Detroit). The site for the home was on an "island" defined by two rare curvy Lakewood streets following the pattern of the old Nicholson creek. In the '20s and '30s the island got the moniker of Pill Hill since a number of doctors had homes there. The Plattens built a wonderful six-bedroom home with a good-sized kitchen, dining room and living room. The house also had first and second floor sun rooms.
The place is solid, with oak floors and thick planking underneath. Since Matthew was a contractor, I'm sure he hired the best carpenters, plumbers, and bricklayers to build his home. We're told that the large fireplace in our living room was designed and built by the same contractor who did the fireplace at the old Elks club on Detroit, now the Winking Lizard. If you're curious about seeing the fireplace, just enter the Winking Lizard and turn left into the dining room. You can't miss it.
Jump ahead to the '80s
My wife, Luanne, and I happened upon the Platten house when looking for a larger home in 1983. No kids yet, but we figured they'd come along soon and wanted a house ready for them. When we saw the house for the first time, the real estate person said it was too big for us since we didn't have any kids. We gave the home a cursory look and moved on. We looked at another 50 + houses and kept thinking about this special place. No other house spoke to us like this one. We went back to look at the six-bedroom home again. We really wanted it now. We stretched our finances and moved in February 1984.
Taking a longer view
Sure enough in 1985 we were expecting. The baby was due in July of '86. Becoming a Dad started me thinking more about family and history and about the different families who had lived in this home, especially the Plattens. Were they happy in this house? Was Mr. Platten a nice guy? How did the original kitchen look? Was Mrs. Platten a good cook? Why did the house originally have electricity in all the rooms except for the bathrooms, which had gas jets? Why was the house big, but the closets and bathrooms small? What was the house like with 9 kids running around? How did the feel of the house change as the Platten kids grew into young adults and then left for their own careers and families? Did anyone die in the house? Did anything bad happen in the house?
A link to the past
I looked up Platten in the phone book. About a dozen of them were listed. By luck the first one I called was Bill Platten. Bill is a nephew of the family that lived in this home and told me, "You called the right guy. I'm kinda the family historian." I started peppering him with questions and got some answers. The Plattens were a large Catholic family. Mrs. Platten was a good cook and a nice lady. Most closets and bathrooms were small in those days. People didn't have as many clothes as we do now and why would you want a large bathroom anyway? It didn't make sense in 1919. What did make sense to some in those days was to not have electricity around all that water in the bathroom. Then the big one: Do you have an original photo of the house? "Yeah," said Bill. "It was taken in 1920." I picked it up from him a few days later.
Eureka! That's our house. It looked pretty much the same as it does today except the porch has been enclosed. That was done in 1969 by a previous owner. And there weren't as many trees around. Just like today, builders would clear the land and then plant seedlings on the property after the house was built. Old timers from the neighborhood tell us that twig of a tree pictured next to the porch was a big oak when it went down in the tornado that hit Northeast Ohio on July 4, 1969.
Bill Platten had only whet my appetite. I wanted to know more about the house and the Plattens. He told me he'd pass my request on to Luella Platten McNamee, the youngest daughter in the Platten family.
A few days later a slim, statuesque woman showed up at our door. "Hi, I'm Luella Platten," she told me. "I grew up in this house. Bill Platten told me you wanted to know more about it." This was 1986. Luella was 75 years old, but she carried herself like a much younger woman. She had a comfortable air of confidence about her.
1919 comes alive
First the picture and now a girl who grew into a woman in our house! Luella would have been 10 or 11 years old when they moved into the home. She lived there for 20 years until she was married in 1939. Luella and I walked around the outside. As I mentioned before, the biggest outward change to the structure was that the porch had been closed in and converted to a family room. Luella said her mother loved the porch and spent much of her time sitting out there in spring, summer, and fall, weather permitting. According to Luella, mom would do a lot of kitchen-type work on the porch, like peeling potatoes and cutting up vegetables for that day's evening meal. She no doubt had thousands of conversations on that terrace with friends and neighbors since the house is on a corner lot that sees a lot of pedestrian and car traffic.
Our house shares a five-garage courtyard with our neighbors. Luella looked at this area fondly. She remembered spending a lot of time in this open space playing jacks, kickball, catch, and other games. Other than new doors, our garage isn't much different from what it looked like in 1919. I can better imagine what it looked like because Luella says her dad had a Model T Ford and parked it in the garage. I don't know if those cars had electric starters in 1919 so I try to imagine M.P. Platten coming out to the garage on a cold morning and starting his car with a hand crank.
We headed inside where Luella confirmed that the contractor who built the Plattens stone fireplace also built the one at the Elk's Club. We talked about the living room and some of it's past furnishings and uses. "This is where the couch was," she said. She explained how she and her boyfriend and future husband, Larry, would sit there and talk for hours. "My mom had a rocking chair over here," she told me. "The one phone we had sat on a pedestal right here by the door to the kitchen." On to the kitchen. Where was the stove? The original kitchen had the stove on the other side of the room right next to the chimney so it could be vented to the outside. Did they have an icebox and where was it? The icebox was where I thought it might be because the floor has a wooden plug that's about two inches in diameter where the drain for the ice ran into the basement.
Death in the house
We have four bedrooms on the second floor. Luella showed me the room that she shared with her sister. Then I showed her the room that we had just fixed up for the baby we were expecting. "Oh, this is the room that my dad died in," Luella said. "What? Your dad died in here?" I asked. The thought of her dad, M.P. Platten, dying in our house startled me. I'm not sure why. He died a natural death after a long bout with "angina", as it was called in those days. Heart problems. He passed away in my soon-to-be new son's room in 1943. Hmm. Should we move our son to another room? I thought about it for awhile. The answer: of course not! M.P. Platten had a good life. He provided well for his family, built them a beautiful home, built a successful business that some of his descendents are still running, and died a natural death in his own home with his family around him. It doesn't get much better than that. Thinking about all this made me more aware of how death is just a part of life. If you have an older home it's seen a lot of history. Around the turn of the century people used their homes for many of the occasions we stage out of our houses today. Births, deaths, confirmations, weddings, and funerals used to be events that happened in your home. When they happen in a home, they make that home more special.
Regrets
Back to Luella. We chatted a little more during her 1986 visit. I asked her more questions, but unfortunately did not write anything down. I was younger and felt there was always time to do more research about the house. However, life got in the way. That little baby Chris came along in July of 1986 and the spare time I used to have was gone. Bryan came along in 1991. Both are wonderful blessings! Our time, talents, and treasure were invested in our family. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I would occasionally think of my brief contact with Luella, the classy lady who grew up in our house. I'd think of picking up the phone to ask her how she was doing. Would she like to see her girlhood home again? Or, I'd have another question about our house that I wanted to ask her. But something else would always come up and my questions were put on the back burner.
They remained on hold for almost 20 years as our careers changed, we started a business, and our sons grew from babies to boys to young men, seemingly overnight. What happened to the time? Recently, I would think of Luella and wondered if she had passed on. After all, she was 75 in 1986. Why didn't I ever call her?
A stranger at our door
In November of 2005 my wife and I had both just finished some major projects for our business and our church. As a result our house was a bit in disarray. The normal picking up and putting away hadn't been happening for a couple of months. It was a Sunday afternoon and the doorbell rang. Luanne called to me upstairs, "Bob, there's a man at the door who says his mom grew up in the house."
Our visitor was Dr. Larry McNamee, the son of Luella Platten McNamee and his namesake father, Larry McNamee. He wanted to see the house his mother grew up in. Larry is a handsome man in his early 60s and has a good practice as a radiologist. He remembered our home from when he was a young boy when he would come to the house with his mom and dad to visit with grandma and grandpa Platten. Dr. McNamee said he wanted to reminisce, so we took him through the house. Although it's a good size, his boyhood memories made the house seem much larger. Here was a guy who had a link to our home's past. Maybe he could fill in some gaps.
First things first. "Is your mom still living?" I asked sheepishly. "Yes", said Larry, "but she's very sick." His voice started to tighten. "She's 95 and she'd like to see the house again." As our eyes welled up, Luanne and I responded, "We'd be honored to have her here."
We made plans to host Larry, his wife Sharie, Luella and other Platten relatives for dinner. I can't say how excited I was about that- I love our house and my family and I wanted to share it with other people who also see this house as a home.
Film!
As Larry was leaving we stood and chatted some more on the front stoop. Almost as an afterthought he said, "You know, we've got a black & white 16mm film with my mom and dad walking down these steps on their wedding day." What? A film of our house from 1939? And it shows Luella and her husband and other people from the wedding party? "Larry, I must have a copy of that," I said. Dr. McNamee assured me it was no problem and we made plans.
That visit has yet to occur because Luella has not been well enough to see her girlhood home again. So we did the next best thing. I videotaped the house, working over the whole exterior and every room of the house. Our backup plan was to visit Luella and extended Platten and McNamee family members at her home in Rocky River.
Just like family
It was a great couple of hours. Luanne and I got to meet Larry's gracious wife Sharie and half a dozen members of the extended family. They're all very down-to-earth and comfortable to be with, just like the house where their ancestors lived. I got to see Luella again. This was special for both Luanne and me. Being with Luella and her descendants felt just like one of our own family gatherings. I think it's because we've lived in the same special place. Our family of me, Luanne, Chris and Bryan are rooted in this home that we've lived together in for 22 years. Only the Plattens and a couple other families who've lived in this house for any appreciable time would understand this particular sense of place.
At 95, Luella is frail, but still pretty. She was very appreciative seeing the video of the house where she grew up. I also received a wonderful 3-minute film of Luella and her wedding party in front of our house on her wedding day in 1939. It's priceless family and house history.
We now know a lot more about our home's history. Those shadows from the past have more substance. They were just like us. In our house they loved, argued, laughed and cried. They welcomed new members into this life, and grieved when others have passed on to their next home.
A house, a home I called this article Living in Luella's House. It is her house, but it's also mine and Luanne's. And it's also our two sons' house, because they grew up here, just like Luella did. It was a special place for her as it is for us. Luella's House is our home.
Bob Becker and his wife Luanne run their own Lakewood-based video production company. Bob is also a talk show host at WTAM radio. You can contact him at highlandview@sbcglobal.net
Beginnings
Our home was built in 1919, as the country was recovering from World War I, getting ready for women's suffrage and the dawn of the jazz age. At that time Lakewood was much like Medina and Avon are now. Farmers were selling off their land to developers to handle the influx of people from crowded Cleveland who longed to head out to the new suburbs.
A cement contractor, Matthew M.P. Platten, and his wife, Julia, wanted to move their large family of nine children to Lakewood, where the land was cheap and the streets were new. If you've walked around Lakewood much, you've probably seen his name. His brass horseshoe with the MP Platten brand on it still exists in a half-dozen or so sidewalks that were poured when Woodrow Wilson was president.
The Plattens decided on the Waterbury development between Detroit and Franklin, which was part of the old Nicholson estate (the original Nicholson house, built in 1835, still stands at Nicholson & Detroit). The site for the home was on an "island" defined by two rare curvy Lakewood streets following the pattern of the old Nicholson creek. In the '20s and '30s the island got the moniker of Pill Hill since a number of doctors had homes there. The Plattens built a wonderful six-bedroom home with a good-sized kitchen, dining room and living room. The house also had first and second floor sun rooms.
The place is solid, with oak floors and thick planking underneath. Since Matthew was a contractor, I'm sure he hired the best carpenters, plumbers, and bricklayers to build his home. We're told that the large fireplace in our living room was designed and built by the same contractor who did the fireplace at the old Elks club on Detroit, now the Winking Lizard. If you're curious about seeing the fireplace, just enter the Winking Lizard and turn left into the dining room. You can't miss it.
Jump ahead to the '80s
My wife, Luanne, and I happened upon the Platten house when looking for a larger home in 1983. No kids yet, but we figured they'd come along soon and wanted a house ready for them. When we saw the house for the first time, the real estate person said it was too big for us since we didn't have any kids. We gave the home a cursory look and moved on. We looked at another 50 + houses and kept thinking about this special place. No other house spoke to us like this one. We went back to look at the six-bedroom home again. We really wanted it now. We stretched our finances and moved in February 1984.
Taking a longer view
Sure enough in 1985 we were expecting. The baby was due in July of '86. Becoming a Dad started me thinking more about family and history and about the different families who had lived in this home, especially the Plattens. Were they happy in this house? Was Mr. Platten a nice guy? How did the original kitchen look? Was Mrs. Platten a good cook? Why did the house originally have electricity in all the rooms except for the bathrooms, which had gas jets? Why was the house big, but the closets and bathrooms small? What was the house like with 9 kids running around? How did the feel of the house change as the Platten kids grew into young adults and then left for their own careers and families? Did anyone die in the house? Did anything bad happen in the house?
A link to the past
I looked up Platten in the phone book. About a dozen of them were listed. By luck the first one I called was Bill Platten. Bill is a nephew of the family that lived in this home and told me, "You called the right guy. I'm kinda the family historian." I started peppering him with questions and got some answers. The Plattens were a large Catholic family. Mrs. Platten was a good cook and a nice lady. Most closets and bathrooms were small in those days. People didn't have as many clothes as we do now and why would you want a large bathroom anyway? It didn't make sense in 1919. What did make sense to some in those days was to not have electricity around all that water in the bathroom. Then the big one: Do you have an original photo of the house? "Yeah," said Bill. "It was taken in 1920." I picked it up from him a few days later.
Eureka! That's our house. It looked pretty much the same as it does today except the porch has been enclosed. That was done in 1969 by a previous owner. And there weren't as many trees around. Just like today, builders would clear the land and then plant seedlings on the property after the house was built. Old timers from the neighborhood tell us that twig of a tree pictured next to the porch was a big oak when it went down in the tornado that hit Northeast Ohio on July 4, 1969.
Bill Platten had only whet my appetite. I wanted to know more about the house and the Plattens. He told me he'd pass my request on to Luella Platten McNamee, the youngest daughter in the Platten family.
A few days later a slim, statuesque woman showed up at our door. "Hi, I'm Luella Platten," she told me. "I grew up in this house. Bill Platten told me you wanted to know more about it." This was 1986. Luella was 75 years old, but she carried herself like a much younger woman. She had a comfortable air of confidence about her.
1919 comes alive
First the picture and now a girl who grew into a woman in our house! Luella would have been 10 or 11 years old when they moved into the home. She lived there for 20 years until she was married in 1939. Luella and I walked around the outside. As I mentioned before, the biggest outward change to the structure was that the porch had been closed in and converted to a family room. Luella said her mother loved the porch and spent much of her time sitting out there in spring, summer, and fall, weather permitting. According to Luella, mom would do a lot of kitchen-type work on the porch, like peeling potatoes and cutting up vegetables for that day's evening meal. She no doubt had thousands of conversations on that terrace with friends and neighbors since the house is on a corner lot that sees a lot of pedestrian and car traffic.
Our house shares a five-garage courtyard with our neighbors. Luella looked at this area fondly. She remembered spending a lot of time in this open space playing jacks, kickball, catch, and other games. Other than new doors, our garage isn't much different from what it looked like in 1919. I can better imagine what it looked like because Luella says her dad had a Model T Ford and parked it in the garage. I don't know if those cars had electric starters in 1919 so I try to imagine M.P. Platten coming out to the garage on a cold morning and starting his car with a hand crank.
We headed inside where Luella confirmed that the contractor who built the Plattens stone fireplace also built the one at the Elk's Club. We talked about the living room and some of it's past furnishings and uses. "This is where the couch was," she said. She explained how she and her boyfriend and future husband, Larry, would sit there and talk for hours. "My mom had a rocking chair over here," she told me. "The one phone we had sat on a pedestal right here by the door to the kitchen." On to the kitchen. Where was the stove? The original kitchen had the stove on the other side of the room right next to the chimney so it could be vented to the outside. Did they have an icebox and where was it? The icebox was where I thought it might be because the floor has a wooden plug that's about two inches in diameter where the drain for the ice ran into the basement.
Death in the house
We have four bedrooms on the second floor. Luella showed me the room that she shared with her sister. Then I showed her the room that we had just fixed up for the baby we were expecting. "Oh, this is the room that my dad died in," Luella said. "What? Your dad died in here?" I asked. The thought of her dad, M.P. Platten, dying in our house startled me. I'm not sure why. He died a natural death after a long bout with "angina", as it was called in those days. Heart problems. He passed away in my soon-to-be new son's room in 1943. Hmm. Should we move our son to another room? I thought about it for awhile. The answer: of course not! M.P. Platten had a good life. He provided well for his family, built them a beautiful home, built a successful business that some of his descendents are still running, and died a natural death in his own home with his family around him. It doesn't get much better than that. Thinking about all this made me more aware of how death is just a part of life. If you have an older home it's seen a lot of history. Around the turn of the century people used their homes for many of the occasions we stage out of our houses today. Births, deaths, confirmations, weddings, and funerals used to be events that happened in your home. When they happen in a home, they make that home more special.
Regrets
Back to Luella. We chatted a little more during her 1986 visit. I asked her more questions, but unfortunately did not write anything down. I was younger and felt there was always time to do more research about the house. However, life got in the way. That little baby Chris came along in July of 1986 and the spare time I used to have was gone. Bryan came along in 1991. Both are wonderful blessings! Our time, talents, and treasure were invested in our family. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I would occasionally think of my brief contact with Luella, the classy lady who grew up in our house. I'd think of picking up the phone to ask her how she was doing. Would she like to see her girlhood home again? Or, I'd have another question about our house that I wanted to ask her. But something else would always come up and my questions were put on the back burner.
They remained on hold for almost 20 years as our careers changed, we started a business, and our sons grew from babies to boys to young men, seemingly overnight. What happened to the time? Recently, I would think of Luella and wondered if she had passed on. After all, she was 75 in 1986. Why didn't I ever call her?
A stranger at our door
In November of 2005 my wife and I had both just finished some major projects for our business and our church. As a result our house was a bit in disarray. The normal picking up and putting away hadn't been happening for a couple of months. It was a Sunday afternoon and the doorbell rang. Luanne called to me upstairs, "Bob, there's a man at the door who says his mom grew up in the house."
Our visitor was Dr. Larry McNamee, the son of Luella Platten McNamee and his namesake father, Larry McNamee. He wanted to see the house his mother grew up in. Larry is a handsome man in his early 60s and has a good practice as a radiologist. He remembered our home from when he was a young boy when he would come to the house with his mom and dad to visit with grandma and grandpa Platten. Dr. McNamee said he wanted to reminisce, so we took him through the house. Although it's a good size, his boyhood memories made the house seem much larger. Here was a guy who had a link to our home's past. Maybe he could fill in some gaps.
First things first. "Is your mom still living?" I asked sheepishly. "Yes", said Larry, "but she's very sick." His voice started to tighten. "She's 95 and she'd like to see the house again." As our eyes welled up, Luanne and I responded, "We'd be honored to have her here."
We made plans to host Larry, his wife Sharie, Luella and other Platten relatives for dinner. I can't say how excited I was about that- I love our house and my family and I wanted to share it with other people who also see this house as a home.
Film!
As Larry was leaving we stood and chatted some more on the front stoop. Almost as an afterthought he said, "You know, we've got a black & white 16mm film with my mom and dad walking down these steps on their wedding day." What? A film of our house from 1939? And it shows Luella and her husband and other people from the wedding party? "Larry, I must have a copy of that," I said. Dr. McNamee assured me it was no problem and we made plans.
That visit has yet to occur because Luella has not been well enough to see her girlhood home again. So we did the next best thing. I videotaped the house, working over the whole exterior and every room of the house. Our backup plan was to visit Luella and extended Platten and McNamee family members at her home in Rocky River.
Just like family
It was a great couple of hours. Luanne and I got to meet Larry's gracious wife Sharie and half a dozen members of the extended family. They're all very down-to-earth and comfortable to be with, just like the house where their ancestors lived. I got to see Luella again. This was special for both Luanne and me. Being with Luella and her descendants felt just like one of our own family gatherings. I think it's because we've lived in the same special place. Our family of me, Luanne, Chris and Bryan are rooted in this home that we've lived together in for 22 years. Only the Plattens and a couple other families who've lived in this house for any appreciable time would understand this particular sense of place.
At 95, Luella is frail, but still pretty. She was very appreciative seeing the video of the house where she grew up. I also received a wonderful 3-minute film of Luella and her wedding party in front of our house on her wedding day in 1939. It's priceless family and house history.
We now know a lot more about our home's history. Those shadows from the past have more substance. They were just like us. In our house they loved, argued, laughed and cried. They welcomed new members into this life, and grieved when others have passed on to their next home.
A house, a home I called this article Living in Luella's House. It is her house, but it's also mine and Luanne's. And it's also our two sons' house, because they grew up here, just like Luella did. It was a special place for her as it is for us. Luella's House is our home.
Bob Becker and his wife Luanne run their own Lakewood-based video production company. Bob is also a talk show host at WTAM radio. You can contact him at highlandview@sbcglobal.net
Volume 2, Issue 5, Posted 01.04 PM / 08th March 2006.