Turning back the pages of time ... Heart of home tour in Ogden Central Bench Historic District

Alan and Cindy Toone went to a reception, and ended up buying a house. Not just any house, but a renowned eyesore.

"It's so rare that somebody could look past what they see, and not judge the book by its cover -- because the cover was hideous," said Travis Pate, board member of the Weber County Heritage Foundation.

The Toones almost didn't look past the cover.

Searching for a parking spot near the reception, at Ogden's Eccles Community Art Center, Cindy Toone noticed three historic homes with "for sale" signs. They called a realtor, and found one house already under contract.

"We walked through another one that was beautifully renovated, all ready to move in, but what's the challenge in that -- where's the fun?" she said.

Toone didn't want to check out the third house.

"It was big and pink, and had a box on the front, and was really not very good looking," she said.

But they did go inside, and were bitten by the restoration bug.

"We got the fever -- and it was a fever," she said. "Every night we'd come home and talk about it."

They've been working on the home, at 2529 Jefferson Ave., for eight months, and it's going to be open on Saturday for the Weber County Heritage Foundation's 2010 House Tour.

Tour participants shouldn't expect an ugly duckling that's turned into a beautiful swan. The Toones are taking the home back to the bones, and won't start fixing it up until after the tour.

"All too often, when we see finished and polished sheetrock, we fail to see the work that brought it that far," said Pate. "That's why we chose to invite a house-in-progress, so people could see that it is approachable -- it is doable."

Checkered past

The Toone home has a checkered past.

"From what information we've been able to cobble together, the house was originally owned and built by William V. Helfrich, a man that was treasurer of Ogden City," Cindy Toone said.

A web search on Helfrich brought up New York Times articles from 1894, reporting that an Ogden sheriff picked Helfrich up in New York City and returned him to Utah, to face charges of embezzling $10,000 of Ogden City funds, taking $2,000 from the Weber County School Fund, and keeping $1,000 entrusted to him by an Ogden woman.

"We're hoping to find $10,000 buried in the house somewhere, but I would imagine he probably put it right into building the house," Cindy Toone said.

The four-story building, with ornate details including a turret and carved wood, would have cost a lot to build in 1892.

According to Pate, ownership of the home transferred to New England Loan and Trust through a sheriff's deed in 1896. It was then purchased by Ogden hotel owner and banker Patrick Healy. Later, it sold to W. Karl Hopkins, who served as superintendent of Ogden City Schools.

When Hopkins died in 1956, the home went to a man who divided it into seven apartments, adding more rooms with the boxy addition to the front of the house.

Puzzling it out

When the Toones removed the addition this year, Pate said it was "much to the glee of the entire neighborhood."

"Everybody gets disgusted with the guy, for doing what he did to the house," said Alan Toone. "I have no problem with it -- he was just trying to make a living."

More importantly, Toone is pleased with the former owner's remodeling philosophy. Instead of throwing out old home parts for new, he reused everything.

"He left me a lot to work with," Toone said.

Cindy Toone agrees, noting that others who bought historic homes on Jefferson Avenue found them stripped of old doors and hardware, and it's difficult to find appropriate replacements.

"About 95 percent of what was built with the house is still here," she said, including the ornate brass door knobs and hinges. "The amount of material that is over 100 years old, still in the house, is amazing."

It may be in the house, but it's not all where it used to be. Windows and doors, wood trim and built-in hutches were moved around, as needed, for new apartments. Alan Toone says putting things back where they belong is like working a puzzle, but he has noticed patterns.

"The main floor has oak trim," he said. "The second floor has redwood."

Decorative touches on doors tell where they belong, as do the patterns in carved wood rosettes on doorways and mantles. Rosettes in the entryway feature a leaf, while those in the east parlor have a flower and those in the west parlor have a square pattern.

Discoveries

The Toones have been making discoveries as they've stripped walls to modernize electricity and plumbing.

"One of the things we've discovered was the original skeleton keys on the back of a door that was between two walls," said Cindy Toone.

The door is one of three 5-foot-wide pocket doors separating parlors. They've also found window latches shaped like Aladdin's lamp, and evidence that the home was originally set up to use either electric or gas lighting. Doors, with glass insets etched "Healy," were also in the house.

The latest find was the air separator for the boiler.

"We couldn't figure out why they had an ugly, phony fireplace, and when we tore it out we uncovered that beauty," he said of the boiler part that's hand-painted with flowers.

No regrets

Alan Toone has a standard answer for when the home will be finished, or even done enough to move in: "I don't know."

Toone is in commercial construction, and does the restoration work on weekends, so it's going to take awhile to redo the interior and remove the pastel paint from the exterior sandstone and brick.

He says he has no regrets about taking on such a big project.

"My attraction is the turret," he said. "It's the only house on the street, with the exception of the Eccles Community Art Center, that has something this dramatic."

The Toones still live in Bountiful, but they're already enjoying Ogden.

"I know more of our neighbors here than in the neighborhood where we've lived for 10 years," Alan Toone said, adding that many have come to ask about the house and even help. "Everybody's curious."

HISTORIC HOUSE TOUR

The Weber County Heritage Foundation Historic House Tour is a chance to peek inside some of Ogden’s stunning old homes. The heart of this year’s tour is in the Ogden Central Bench Historic District — with stops between Grant and Eccles avenues, and from 23rd to 27th streets — and many of the homes are on Jefferson Avenue. From 1882 to 1928, the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood was home to some of Ogden’s wealthiest families, earning it the nickname “Bankers’ Row.”

Tour homes are open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Tickets cost $15, which includes a heritage foundation calendar, and can be purchased at the Eccles Community Art Center, 2580 Jefferson Ave. Tourists who sign up for a single membership in the foundation, with dues of $25 to $35, get one free ticket; family/corporate memberships of $60 or more receive two free tickets.

Richa Wilson, Regional Architectural Historian for Region 4 of the U.S. Forest Service, will offer lectures at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon at the art center. Her presentations will explain the architectural styles and characteristics of the homes on the tour.

The Historic House Tour is a fundraiser for the Weber County Heritage Foundation. Last year, the foundation was able to donate $10,000 to the Ogden High School restoration project.

For more information, call 801-621-2850.

Click here to see an interactive Flash map of historic Ogden homes.