History of the Man House

History of the Man House. . Mansfield founder Ralph S. Man built this home for his family between the years ca. 1865-1870. The oldest known building in Mansfield, it stands as an important local landmark. Over a five-year period, Man enlarged and remodeled the home from a one-room frontier log house to a comfortable upper middle-class residence. Colonial Revival, Greek Revival, and Queen Anne influenced detailing can be seen throughout the house. , Originally, the house only consisted of a one-room log house, built ca. 1865. In 1867, Man built a second, brick addition on the east side of the cabin containing a parlor and a dining room. An open dogtrot or breezeway ran between the two portions of the house. Around 1870, the breezeway was enclosed when Man added a second story to the house to accommodate three bedrooms. The final addition to the house came in the 1930s when the porch on the rear of the house was enclosed to create a service porch and bathroom., The woodworking in the house demonstrates Man's early training as a carpenter. He skillfully crafted the original oak floors, baseboards, the window and door surrounds, interior wood doors, the walnut handrail on the staircase with newel post, and the mantles present in the home today. , In 2020, the city of Mansfield undertook the restoration of the house to stabilize the historic structure and remove some modern modifications. A shake shingle roof, like the original, replaced a modern metal roof. A new fieldstone chimney on the west side of the house replaced the original which fell prior to 1968. Work on the interior of the home included painting the rooms in their original colors and exposing the logs from the original log house. Today, the house looks much like it did when the Man family was in residence. , Captions - , Upper Left: West side of the house before restoration , Upper Right: Left: Front of the house before restoration , Under: East side of the house before restoration