A magical place: Wesley and Julie Hurless settle in as new owners of Shady Bend Manor

OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Coshocton County ‒ Wesley and Julie Hurless fell in love with Shady Bend Manor on their very first visit to the 150-year-old Italianate mansion.

"When we first walked through here back in December, we were just in awe, not just of the house itself but the property in general and all of the really cool, extraordinary things, and just how magical this whole place is. We were pretty captivated by it," said Wesley.

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The couple took possession of the property in January, which consists of the house and nine outbuildings, all sitting on 4.5 acres on Coshocton County Road 9, about two miles west of Newcomerstown.

Ornate 19th-century house

The house has about a dozen or more rooms, with high ceilings and ornate woodwork, typical of a 19th-century house. Some light fixtures in the dwelling are original, having been converted from oil to electric. The first-floor bathroom has a stained glass window, while the second-floor bathroom has a walk-in marble tub.

Wesley is a carpenter. "As a wood guy myself, I have an immense appreciation for the amount of work that went into all this, the turnings and stuff. It's just unbelievable," he said.

The house has experienced some disasters over the years, including two fires and a tornado.

It still needs some restoration work. One of their goals is to repaint the walls in traditional Italianate style colors, tan and other earthy shades.

"We have a lot of the parts that came from the house," Wesley said. "We have probably more parts than we know what to do with." There is a semi-trailer on the back part of the property filled with stuff from the house.

Wesley and Julie also hope to restore the gardens that were once on the property.

Built by farmer and politician John Hardy

Shady Bend Manor was built between 1869 and 1874 for John Hardy, a local farmer and politician. He was born in New York state in 1825, the son of Irish immigrants, and came with his parents to the Newcomerstown area when he was 12. He worked for a while as assistant engineer on the northern division of the Ohio & Erie Canal. He was elected to the Ohio General Assembly twice, in 1877 and 1879.

He married Emily Stewart of Tuscarawas County on June 26, 1864. They lived there until John died on Sept. 20, 1897, and Emily died on June 6, 1908. They had no children.

The house was designed by architect Jacob Snyder of Akron. Snyder also designed the Hower House at the University of Akron and the former University Hall at Ohio State University, which was demolished in 1971.

All the bricks used in construction were fired on location, and all the timber was cut on the property. "Everything that is original in this place is from here, as far as the guts of the house and the hardwood," Wesley said.

Several changes of ownership

Shady Bend Manor went through several owners after the deaths of John and Emily Hardy. One of the longest owners of the house were Charles and Linda Downer, who had it from 1968 to 2019.

"We're fortunate at the time that we bought the house a lot of the work, the real expensive work, was done, like the roof or the central air conditioning," Wesley said. "There was mold remediation done.

"There's a lot of carpentry work left to do. Some of the baseboards need replaced or put in. When Charles Downer rewired the house, he took the baseboard out and ran the wires in the wall. The walls are solid brick, so he had to chisel the brick out to run the wires up to the receptacles. In order do to that, he had to take the baseboard off. We have a good bit of it, but we're missing a lot of it too."

'We hear and see a lot of weird things'

With a house this old, people would be curious to know if it is haunted.

"I would say most definitely," Wesley said. "We hear and see a lot of weird things."

On Memorial Day weekend, they returned home from a visit to a daughter, and the power was out. As they were relaxing, they heard a strange noise.

"Out of the blue, we heard a woman say hello," Wesley said. "It sounded like it was coming from the kitchen or dining room. I looked at her (Julie) and said, did you hear that? She said, yeah. I said, what do you think it was? She said, I think a female said hello."

On another occasion, Julie found the vanity in the downstairs bathroom pulled about three or four inches from the wall. It weighs 80 pounds. "I can't for the life of me figure out how it did what it did," he said.

They have heard knocking on a door, something Charles Downer had also reported.

"I'm not a big ghost guy. I don't know whether I believe in it or not, but we've experienced some really neat things," Wesley said.

Open house planned

Wesley and Julie Hurless plan on opening Shady Bend Manor to the public on Labor Day weekend. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. that Saturday, and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday for tours. There will be a $10 admission charge, with the proceeds being used for continued restoration work.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: A magical place: Wesley and Julie Hurless settle in as new owners of Shady Bend Manor