OUR FIRST HOUSE

When Bishop James Hickey and the trustees of Saint John College of Cleveland closed the college in 1975, I was dean of the college’s graduate program. The bishop asked me what I planned to do. I told him I wanted to remain in Catholic education in Cleveland since I had a Ph.D. in educational administration from Western Reserve University. He told me there was no room for me in Catholic education in the diocese.

I was not surprised because he and I had many angry but private confrontations about the closing of the college without due process. He had become the bishop of the diocese in July, 1974 and four months later closed the college which had provided teachers and nurses for the diocese for 47 years. I told him personally that this was a grave abuse of authority. He did say that I was free to seek a position in private or public education anywhere in the country and that I was always free to come back to the diocese and take a pastorate if I so chose. While searching for a job, Father Vincent Haas said I could remain living with him at Saint Colman Rectory.

For a year or two I worked under Lawrence Perney, assistant superintendent of East Cleveland Schools. Larry and I had been in graduate school at Reserve. He hired me to work with the high school faculty in designing a new type of high school. That experience brought me into contact with the high school teachers at Shaw and the experience gave me a better insight into public education. It also gave me a good salary.

Then one afternoon, I got a call from Siena Heights College in Adrian, Michigan. The college was looking for a director of the graduate program, and I had sent them a resumé. The search committee had reviewed it and asked me to come in for an interview. I did so and was offered the position, which I accepted.

Since Adrian had two colleges, rental properties were scarce and rents high. For tax purposes buying a house made more sense than renting. Someone suggested that I make contact with Jane Davis, a top realtor in Adrian. I told her that I wanted a house on a lake that was not too far from the college. She laughed and said that everyone was looking for that kind of house. But one afternoon she called and said that she found something I might like. It was a house on Lake Adrian and was about two miles from the college.

That afternoon I met Jane and the owner of the property, Dr. Beverly Allen, a professor of French at Adrian College. The house was not visible from Spielman Road. A long winding driveway led to a garage that sat behind the house. When I got out of the car, I saw the house on the hill overlooking Lake Adrian. The view was magnificent.

Jane Davis, the realtor, met me at the door and introduced me to Dr. Allen, a gracious and charming widow who was selling the home. Her husband, who had also been a professor at Adrian College, had died a few years earlier. All the Allen children had married and were now on their own.

On the main hard wood floor was a huge bay window that provided a great view of the hill and trees and the bushes that sloped down to the lake. The east side of the main floor was a floor- to- ceiling fire place fashioned from colorful rocks collected in Upper Michigan. A long dinner table stood in the middle of the room and overlooked the lake. At the west end of the main floor was a large kitchen. On the lower level were three bedrooms and the laundry room.

I said to the owner, “Dr. Allen, if I buy this home I want you to know that I am not going to change a thing. It’s beautiful.” When I said that, I did not know that she and her husband had hired an architect from the University of Michigan to help design and build the home on a location on that hill where it would receive the maximum light and heat during the day. Nor did I know that Adrian College had used her home to entertain prominent guests such as Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt when the former first lady came to Adrian. Nor did I know that she and her husband had carefully planted some thirty kinds of trees and bushes on the three acres of property to enhance the beauty of the property. It even had on it a four foot high flowering root called “Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick Tree.” The Allens loved nature and the diversity of the environment.

When I met the next day with Jane Davis, I asked her what was wrong with Dr. Allen’s home.

“What do you mean, George?”

“Jane,” I said, “if that house was in Cleveland, it would sell within a week. She’s had that property on the market for over a year and has reduced it twice from the original asking price and it still has not sold. Why?”

“Because this is Adrian,” Jane said. “People in this area are so conservative, they won’t buy her home. It’s too modern. It does not have pillars and a front porch which many buyers in this county think houses should have.”

After a few minutes, Jane asked me how much money I could raise to buy that home.

“Jane, the most I can raise for a down payment is $15,000, but I’m wondering if I can even afford to take on a mortgage for what that house is worth.”

“I’ll get back to you tomorrow,” Jane said.

When she called the next day, she said, “Dr. Allen has come up with some creative ways for you to buy her home. She has offered to hold a promissory note from you for part of the down payment. She really wants you to have that house. Of all the people who have looked at her home, you are the only one who told her that you would not change a thing. Then and there she decided that she wanted you to own that home on which she and her husband had lavished so much care and love.”

We were able to close the deal for $58,000. My dispensation papers from Rome had arrived so my fiancée Anita Dixon and I were free to marry. John Kiefer, the Dominican chaplain at Siena Heights loved our home and suggested that he and Jesuit Father James Gill, our very good friend, concelebrate our wedding Mass at the dining room table overlooking Lake Adrian. And that is exactly what we did.

It’s hard to believe that thirty-one years ago this July 24, 2008 we spoke our wedding vows in that home.

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