Around Town 10/7
A House Comes To Life in Coudersport
By Christopher Miller
Steeped in Potter County history, the F. W. Knox Villa, also known as “Old Hickory,” is experiencing a breath of fresh air and a renaissance of sorts.
The Villa is an Italianate style home located on Main Street in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. The structure was completed in 1880 and was the home of Franklin W. Knox, a prominent local lawyer and businessman.
Borrowed from a blog written and maintained by Holly Mauser, the new owner of the property, “he had seen a similar style home in Pittsburgh and decided to have one constructed for himself. Sourcing a variety of wood species from the surrounding forests, he was able to make his dream home a reality. After F. W. Knox’s death, the house passed hands numerous times and found a new role as an inn and tavern. After shuffling owners numerous times, the house eventually fell into what many would call a state of disrepair. Seeing a hidden treasure rather than a dying relic of the past, we became the newest owners of the property in the late summer of 2016.”
This home is so steeped in local history and popularity, that it was even built of the most local and abundant of materials: locally sourced timber such as Butternut, Chestnut, Cherry, Maple, Black Birch, Pine, Oak, and Hemlock from the forests of Potter County. A walk through the home corroborates this claim 10-fold.
The amount of detail in this home is simply astounding, and it is still under construction and closed to the average passerby, except for this lone, curious reporter with The Record newspaper.
The random species of local woods were incorporated into trim, moldins, and floors. Oak was used to construct the double spiral staircase, alternating strips of birch and maple were used to create the dining room floor – no detail too small was overlooked. A striking feature contained within is an icy blue marbleized fireplace, perhaps an homage to the Coudersport Ice Mine, which is an oddity in itself when one can find solid ice underground in the heat of the summer.
Upon completion, the Villa was estimated to be at least $10,000 which is equivalent to about $267,650 in 2021 dollars, accounting for inflation.
But this story is far from over; not even close!
Throughout the last 140 years and the numerous hands with which this house has passed through, one thing is constant: the striking image of this old house along Main Street in Coudersport.
Enter Holly Mauser, and the Mauser Family of southeast Pennsylvania.
“We have been coming to Potter County ever since I was born, my family has a cabin here,” Holly Mauser explained in an interview with The Record. “Many of our weekends were spent up here and not in the Lehigh Valley where we are from…we come here for snowmobiling, jet skiing, and I remember seeing this house, but never wanted it, I actually ignored it completely because it looked too far gone.”
The four hour drive from the Lehigh Valley would scare most people away, but for Holly it was a part of her childhood. “We were always coming here, so there’s a lot of small town love, and it has a charming feel to it…growing up in the Lehigh Valley is a much different lifestyle, this has an old-fashioned feel similar to the town square in Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls): you can go anywhere here and you actually see people you know – that is so absurd!”
The house is actually known worldwide by it’s striking appearance as the look of a haunted house (it’s been on a nationally-sold book cover, tattoos, and shared widely along social media groups as being abandoned). There is an image that comes to mind of a “haunted house,” thanks to decades of horror and ghost movies, that a haunted house must be….old, gothic or victorian in appearance and falling down or condemned. But is it a
haunted house?
“Despite our home’s age, it doesn’t have a haunted/spooky feeling to us – maybe there is one (ghost) and I hope it’s happy with what we are doing,” Holly said, jokingly. “This house has a good feeling, I do not feel creeped out when I enter the basement or anywhere else in the house at all hours.”
However, Holly did receive a letter from a previous owner who owned the property in the 1950s. That letter said something a bit different than Holly’s experiences (so far) in the house.
“The letter said that there was a woman in black that was seen in the hallways, but we have not experienced that here…people want it to be haunted, and maybe it is, but we do not experience such things”…yet.
The striking architectural details in and outside of this house certainly catch the eye of the passerby. “My dad works with companies who digitally scan (hard-to-find details) to get exact measurements to reproduce the items; it is nerve-wracking getting it out in one piece and out to be restored and replaced,” Holly said of one of the 70+ original windows around the house. “We work with (Potter County) local businesses as much as we can, but sometimes we have to bring some of these details back to the Lehigh Valley where my dad has working relationships with mills and other building professionals.”
As with any home, new or old, the projects never cease to end…I can tell you that from experience as well. What has been Holly’s (and her family’s) inspiration to keep going with projects? “I’m not sure…I never feel like you will stop having inspiration, it’s just natural now to do things, so any things have to happen that, wow…I picked out handles, fixtures; there is never going to be a time where where we will be fully done with the house, it will just…happen…at some point.”
Considering the house has over 5,000 square feet of living space, 8 bedrooms, 7 full and 1 half bathrooms, 70 arched windows, and is along the Allegheny River in Coudersport, it is a mammoth project even for the experienced builder.
“The house is so big, where things have fallen from the tower windows like a paint brush and I know where it landed on the roof I will never be getting that one back,” Holly laughed. “For being so old things have gone well with our rebuild, but the house is so big…I constantly forget what floor I am on, I had a pencil here and all of a sudden it is gone and I cannot find it again…I think I need to Apple tag everything so I can eventually find it all!”
Even though the Mauser’s now own the house, some heirs of Mr. F. W. Knox still live nearby; he had many children back in the day. “Relatives are still living nearby, and some have stopped here to say hello, the biggest thing are past bartenders or bar-goers (from the Old Hickory bar that used to be in the basement), people have had weddings here, and we hope to meet more people when are done with the project.”
“The funny thing about this house is that when I was a child, I did not think about buying it, I wanted another home I fell in love with in Coudersport,” Holly said laughing. “When we looked at this house I saw WE HAVE TO GET THIS HOUSE, and oddly enough – I have never had this feeling with any homes I had looked at in the Lehigh Valley.” “We hope Franklin Knox would be pleased with the changes we are making,” Holly said.
“My dad could spend more time back home working, but he spends a lot of his time up here at this house, he has even brought some of his crew up here for long work-weekends,’’ Holly explained. “We want to share it with others, it could really make a good community gathering spot.”
When it comes to the overall future of the house and grounds, the skies are the limit. Holly spoke of possible future events such as Santa Claus and pictures on the front porch, having a role during the Eliot Ness Fest, a mega-Halloween party and Trick-or-Treat where in fact, they had a candy chute set-up last year due to COVID.
“The older kids were a bit more reserved and spooked out by walking up to the house, but the younger ones just ran right up, it was very funny,” said Holly.
As for future plans for the house, Holly was able to divulge a bit as to what will take place. “I want to share the house for small events and for lodging,” she explained. “You can walk everywhere in this town due to the central location of this house such as restaurants, and maybe in the future we can partner with them to deliver for food for events, so there is really no need for us to have a breakfast (as in bed and breakfast) feature here,” but a full kitchen is in the works for the first floor overlooking the Allegheny. “If you want to come up and take a hike, come on out, if you want to walk around town and shop, there’s that too – hunting is really big here…your husband can go on the hunt, and you can hunt for deals downtown!”
“There were times we asked ourselves why we did something the way we did it and it has been difficult at times…we changed our vacations up here to working on the house, but you cannot be motivated by the prospect of gaining money from a project,” Holly said while speaking on the question of recommendations for people looking to take on a project such as hers.
“If we were flipping this house just to sell it again it would be too frustrating doing it, so find a project you love and you will have so much fun with it!”
If you would like to follow the progress of The F. W. Knox Villa (Old Hickory) you can find it on the popular social media sites. A blog has also been started and updated regularly for your reading pleasure.
Blog: http://www.fwknoxvilla.com/
Facebook: @fwknoxvilla
Instagram: fwknoxvilla
