YSU allowed a gift to deteriorate

YSU allowed a gift to deteriorate

I was distressed to hear on WYSU-FM news one morning that YSU had moved the Sacherman/Thompson House years ago to its present location on Lincoln Avenue and would soon demolish it. My husband, Robert Sacherman DDS — and definitely not the university — paid to move the building at 237 Lincoln to a lot 300 feet away in order to save it.

Bob and I wanted to preserve this beautiful Victorian building that had been his office for 30 years. Even though moving it was over a $50,000 expense (including legal issues), we believed the many assurances from YSU that it would be put to good use in the near future.

In the following years mentions were made by YSU of using it as a faculty gathering place, using it for the campus union, and later on using it for students enrolled in the new YSU Historic Preservation program, announced in April of 2000 by the then President Leslie Cochran. Although registered as a historic building in Ohio, and even awarded $25,000 to help repair this house as well as the Peck House on Wick Avenue, Cochran decided to forgo any restoration. In the “waiting room” there was green flocked wallpaper made for me in Cleveland. A Spanish chandelier was purchased to hang in the high-ceiling room, and Victorian furniture was featured. All the original solid walnut shutters were in place upstairs and in the waiting area.

Instead, Cochran and/or the board of trustees allowed it to decay.

When a new president, Dr. David Sweet, took over, we were again hopeful, since this president was dedicated to urban planning as well as historical peservation. Countless efforts were made for two years by my husband, by Atty, Alan Wenger (whom my husband engaged), and by the local preservation society, but they were to no avail.

Today, the house has deteriorated into an eyesore. Not one of the hand-tooled porch railings is left (we had two made, to complete the set). I imagine the interior is now filled with mold.

Our new YSU president, Dr. Cynthia Anderson, can look back at the many years of university records and view the fine Vindicator articles by Ron Cole, Lynn Nichols and in the YSU Jambar to learn about the Sacherman/Thompson house. But, what is the use? There is nothing left. A YSU trustee, Harry Meshel, might allow the Peck House on Wick Avenue to be saved, but in a Dec. 3 article, he recommended the older Sacherman/Thompson House be demolished.

Both my husband and I, who are now in our ’80s, gave of ourselves to the university, he as a board member of WYSU-FM and myself as part-time teaching faculty for many years. My opinion is that the YSU theme all these many years has been not to preserve, but to save money. My point has been to set the record straight.

Carol Sacherman, Liberty Township