512 Holgate Avenue:

The Holgate-Lenhart House

This imposing Greek revival-style house, built in 1856, features a monumental dentiled pediment supported by four massive ionic columns saved from the second Defiance County courthouse when it was razed in 1870.  Other interesting details are a cornice with dentils and brackets, a center balcony under the front portico, box windows, and clapboard siding.  The house was built with massive oak timbers and old post-and-beam construction.  There are still three original fireplaces and three original stairways.

The house was built by William C. Holgate, who came to Defiance in the early 1830’s with his father, Curtis Holgate.  The two of them purchased what was half of Defiance and half of Napoleon at the time.

Upon Curtis’s death, William Holgate inherited his father’s estate.  He practiced law in Defiance for fifty years.  He brought the two railroads to the city, helped plan Riverside Cemetery, founded the Defiance Agricultural Society, and saved Defiance College from financial difficulties in the 1860’s by advancing his own funds.  In 1845, he drafted a bill to make Defiance a separate county from Williams County, riding on horseback to Columbus, where he stayed for three months to supervise the bill’s passage.  When he returned to Defiance, he was greeted with cheers from his fellow citizens.