The David and Beth Toland home bespeaks old world grandeur.
Off the master bedroom is a sitting room, complete was a fireplace.
In the mind’s eye one can picture a gentleman in a smoking jacket settled in reading the nightly paper.
Then there’s that eye-catching Venetian chandelier in the dining room, whose elegant glass arms hearken back to when ladies wore evening gowns and gloves that inched past their elbows.
That the Tolands have made their home at 1395 1300 St. also feel contemporary is testimony to the house’s timeliness. Built in 1898, “it’s ready to go another 100 years,” Beth said.
The Toland home is one of five area homes participating in Sunday afternoon’s homes tour to benefit the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility. The tour is from 1 to 6 p.m.; tickets are $10 and may be purchased at any of the homes or at Duane’s Flowers, Classy Attic or at the animal shelter in LaHarpe.
The home’s three fireplaces are perfect venues for Christmas decorations and family keepsakes. In the downstairs parlor the family’s handmade Christmas stockings hang in front of the gas log fireplace. David’s mother, Nancy Toland, knitted the personalized stockings.
In the den, another gas fireplace allows for garland and lights that make the room extra cozy. Perhaps the smallest room in the house, but still ample, the family uses this as their TV room. A comfortable sofa and personalized chairs for the Toland’s two children, Caroline, 4, and William, 17 months, indicate that’s where the family snuggles in for movie night.
Over the years the rooms have undoubtedly taken on different purposes.
What could have been a music room is now used as an office.
And that sitting room off the master bedroom? It was the maid’s room which also explains why a second and narrower stairway leads directly to the kitchen.
The office sits just off the main entrance to the house. Its southwest corner is shaped into a semicircle lined with benches. Today it’s perfect for the family’s primary Christmas tree. The freshly cut tree lends a heady fragrance to the room as its peak brushes the 11-foot tall ceiling. Kid-friendly decorations hang from its boughs. The oversized balls are shatter-proof, Beth said, which explains her relaxed manner as William takes one from a low-hanging branch.
Upstairs, the sun pours through southern windows showing why the kids delight in their spacious playroom, complete with its own Christmas tree. Each child has their own bedroom. The master bedroom has two large his-and-her closets, something of an anomaly for older homes.
An upstairs sitting room also sports another Christmas tree that looks especially fetching in the columned alcove.
The house sits on 3.5 acres and has a deceivingly rural feel even though it’s only minutes from town. Located on the corner of Patterson and Marshmallow Lane out by Russell Stover Candies, the birds can be heard in the still of a morning.
“It’s great for star-gazing,” Beth said of its lack of “white” noise caused by city lights.
DESPITE ALL the amenities, the Tolands have their house listed for sale. Why?
The young couple moved to Iola in February of 2008 after seven years in Washington, D.C. At that time, the housing market in Iola was relatively tight and the large house and its spacious yard was especially appealing after the close confines of the city.
But the Tolands also appreciated the ability to walk or take mass transportation in the city and it’s that ease in getting about that they wish for again, especially for their children.
“We’d like our children to be able to walk to school,” Beth said of their desire to live within Iola’s city limits.
Beth works at Allen County Community College as its early childhood education coordinator. David is executive director of Thrive Allen County.
Over their short time in their home, the young couple have worked tirelessly, including refinishing its hardwood floors, rebuilding the front porch — which wraps around to the south — and renovating its two bathrooms.
“It’s been a labor of love,” Beth said, and not without some special surprises, such as when they uncovered the house’s original limestone columns when tuckpointing the foundation.
The Tolands view Sunday’s tour as win-win: An opportunity to help ACARF as well as give more exposure to their home.
“We’d do it anyway,” Beth said of the ACARF tour, “But it’s definitely made us pay a bit more attention to detail this way.”
