Location: 724 Ashland Avenue

This lovely home was built in 1868 by Rev. G. W. T. Wright, minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church located on Vermillion Street between Fifth and Sixth. Wright paid for the house and he used it for the church’s parsonage. Hastings grocer Thomas Joseph Reed purchased the house in 1879 after Wright was transferred to another parish. Around 1909, Ignatius Eckert, a retired area farmer, bought the house. Mr. Eckert died in 1943 at age 74 and after Mrs. Eckert died in 1956, Jerome McNamara bought the house from her estate.

The house is an excellent example of the Italian Village style of architecture. Designed on a square-shaped plan and constructed entirely with wood, it has a low hipped roof that it topped with a cupola. A delightful porch across the front is partially bracketed and supported by beveled columns.