By 1808Delaware
In a city where the past remains visible on almost every trip through town, Delaware’s older houses are more than survivors. They are part of the city’s everyday landscape. Long before subdivisions pushed toward the edges of town, neighborhoods grew around streets such as Sandusky, Liberty, Lincoln, Central, and Winter.
Houses were built within walking distance of downtown, Ohio Wesleyan University, churches, schools, shops, and one another. More than a century later, many of those same streets remain central to life in Delaware.
For this Sunday’s “Standing Since,” we found five Delaware homes currently on the market that were built before 1950. In fact, every one of this week’s selections is more than a century old.
Lincoln Avenue Before the Civil War Had Quite Ended
Three bedrooms | Three bathrooms | 2,764 square feet | $689,900
Of this week’s five houses, this one reaches furthest into Delaware’s past. Built in 1865, the home on West Lincoln Avenue dates to the year the Civil War ended. Its 2,764 square feet give it the scale expected of one of the substantial older residences found near Delaware’s historic core. The house also demonstrates just how long a well-built residence can remain part of an evolving city. Generations have watched Delaware change from this neighborhood, while the house itself has remained.
An 1880 House Given Another Century
Four bedrooms | Three bathrooms | 2,081 square feet | $435,000
Sometimes preservation is about leaving something untouched. Sometimes it is about finding ways to make an old house work for another generation. This 1880 Bernard Avenue home falls squarely into the second category. The property has undergone extensive restoration, but its history has not simply been covered over. Original oak flooring was recovered and refinished, while lumber from the house was repurposed for trim and stair treads. Original brick and hand-hewn structural elements remain visible inside. At just over 2,000 square feet, the house sits only a short walk from downtown Delaware and about a block from Ohio Wesleyan University. It is an example of an old house being asked to do something it has already done remarkably well: adapt.
A Farmhouse That Became a City House
Four bedrooms | Three bathrooms | 2,125 square feet | $489,900
The story of this North Liberty Street house is also the story of Delaware growing around it. Built in 1901, the property is described in its listing as one of the city’s original farmhouses. Today it sits within the historic Northwest Neighborhood, surrounded by a city that bears little resemblance to the landscape its first occupants would have known. The house has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and 2,125 square feet, along with a sizable yard. Extensive renovations have brought new systems and finishes while retaining the farmhouse form. That transformation from farmhouse to neighborhood residence is exactly the kind of story “Standing Since” is meant to capture. The building stayed put. Delaware came to it.
Sandusky Street in the Early 1900s
Four bedrooms | Two bathrooms | 1,674 square feet | $269,500
Few streets tell Delaware’s story as visibly as Sandusky Street. This four-bedroom house dates to 1912 and stands north of downtown along the corridor that has served generations of Delaware residents. At 1,674 square feet, it is smaller than some of the grand residences associated with the street, but that is part of its interest. Historic neighborhoods were never made up exclusively of landmark houses. Their character comes from the accumulated effect of residences large and small, commercial buildings, institutional structures, sidewalks, trees, setbacks, and porches. A house like this helps keep that rhythm intact.
A 1901 House on East Central
Four bedrooms | Two bathrooms | 1,368 square feet | $179,500
Central Avenue changes character as it moves through Delaware, and that variety is part of what makes it one of the city’s defining east-west streets.This 1901 house occupies a compact lot and contains 1,368 square feet, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Its scale is practical rather than imposing, representing another important part of Delaware’s early 20th-century housing stock. These houses mattered because cities needed more than architectural showpieces. They needed places where ordinary households could live close to work, schools, stores, and the rest of community life. More than 120 years later, this one is still doing precisely what it was built to do.
More Than Old Houses
There is an extraordinary chronological range hidden inside Delaware’s neighborhoods.
One of this week’s houses was standing in 1865. Another dates to 1880. Two were built in 1901. The newest of the five dates to 1912. Since then, Delaware has gained highways, shopping centers, subdivisions, industrial parks, and thousands upon thousands of residents. The physical footprint of the city has expanded enormously. Yet these houses remain.
That continuity matters, particularly in a rapidly growing county. Growth continually creates something new, but places acquire identity through the things they carry forward.
For buyers, an older house can mean maintenance, surprises, renovations, and compromises that newer construction may not require. It can also mean original materials, established streets, mature neighborhoods, and a physical connection to a community that cannot simply be manufactured. That is what makes these properties worth noticing. They are not museum pieces. They are still houses, still changing hands, still being altered, repaired, restored, and lived in.
They are still standing.
