PIQUA — Included in the 2022 Piqua-Caldwell Historic District’s Historic Holiday Home Tour will be the William Cron House located at 711 N. Wayne St., Piqua.

This home sat vacant for several years before Nikki and Jason Townsend purchased it in 2021. Since acquiring this historic property, the Townsends have launched a full restoration with the goal of bringing this piece of Piqua’s history back to its original glory.

The William Cron house was initially built in 1887 for William Cron of the Cron Furniture Manufacturing. Just ten years later the house was sold to J.G. Battelle, president of the Piqua Steel Mills, who later started Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus.

The two-story home was built in the Queen Ann Style but was later remodeled and greatly enlarged in 1903 and again in 1911 by Alan Hance to include elements of the Neo-Adamesque style. This magnificent structure features wood herringbone floors throughout the interior and hand painted Asian murals on the walls of the dining room. The exterior features two massive chimney stacks with stone caps that pierce the green tile roof, and a classic revival porch with paired fluted Doric posts and spindle balustrade that wraps around to a porte-cochere.

Tickets to see this home along with four other historic properties are now available online at www.piquacaldwellhistoricdistrict.org and at Readmore’s Hallmark in Piqua for $25 per person. The tour will take place on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 5 to 8 p.m.