Architects Joseph Yost and Frank Packard in Licking County, Ohio

PLEASE NOTE: This blog contains a number of pictures so give it several minutes to download. The pictures download haphazardly.

This blog showcases the known designs of Columbus architects Joseph Warren Yost & Frank Lucius Packard in Licking County, Ohio. These two architects were in partnership during the years 1892-1899; each practiced separately before and after this period of time. The history of these structures has not been studied. The blog’s purpose is to generate local appreciation of these treasures, inspire research/promotion of them, and save/value those that remain. The Yost & Packard firm, nationally recognized, would likely be considered one of Ohio’s most significant.

Publishing a blog with missing pictures feels like a defeat…and two are missing. Here’s hoping readers of the blog may provide them.

Missing Picture #1

It was common in the early part of the 20^th century to see a house built for a physician as both residence and patient office. Yost & Packard designed such a house for Dr. William B. and Augusta Chambers in a central location: downtown Newark at 40 East Locust Street. In separate sets of years, four different doctors and their wives occupied this space until its demolition to make way for the 1958 construction of the Route 16 expressway through town. A search of Licking County sources yielded no picture.

Missing Picture #2

Yost & Packard’s Portfolio of Architectural Realities promotional publication of circa 1898 includes twelve “barns.” These would have been significant structures that in some or perhaps all cases provided housing for a caretaker since this was the horse and carriage era. An example of a Y&P-designed circa 1890’s barn (still, amazingly, housing a carriage) is pictured in this blog. That picture will have to suffice for now as the barn designed for “Charles Genehart…Newark, O” is likely gone. Genealogy websites such as Ancestry and FamilySearch yielded just one Genehart in Ohio. A Genehart search (and a search of all names beginning with letter J) of Licking County directories at the Licking County Historical Society came up empty as well. But…there was a Charles Guckert living in Newark. Here’s the logic leading to the conclusion that “Charles Genehart” was actually Charles Guckert.

• The large list of various designs in the 1898 publication has other name misspellings. The list was likely compiled by an office worker reading from script. It’s also possible that Yost or Packard just got mixed up with the information being supplied.
• The Guckert barn sounds like it was show-stopper per an article in the Newark Advocate of 8/3/1893 that stated this during its construction: “It has been the source of much comment and speculation.” That article appears later in this blog along with a current photograph of a very early 1900’s massive barn at Bryn Du in Granville designed by Frank Packard.
• Charles Guckert and his wife were living in Newark in the 1880’s. The 1887/88 directory lists an address of 335 North Fourth Street. Joseph Yost designed two schools, the jail and the children’s home in Newark in the 1880’s so his name would have been known. He also designed a stunning home for Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Sinnett in 1890 in Granville just up the road from where it’s been determined the Guckert barn was built (thus more name exposure of this architect).
• Based on the amount of farmland Guckert acquired along both sides of Centerville Street (now Newark-Granville Road), he had the means to afford a prominent architectural firm such as Yost & Packard. His brother Anthony must have been a person of means as well. Per his obituary pictured in this blog, his Newark furniture manufacturing business A. Guckert & Company was one of the largest in eastern Ohio. No information could be located on Anthony’s enterprise and perhaps that is due to the fact that by 1878 he had moved the operation to Pittsburgh. It’s a curiosity as to how a street in a neighborhood constructed in what looks like the 1960’s has a street named Guckert Avenue. The significance of Frank and Magdalena Guckert of 41 Mound Street and their seven children (Anthony, Charles, Frank, John, Nicholas, Philomena and William) must have been apparent to someone.

I would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in contributing to this blog: Judy Cruikshank, Mead-Needham Museum; Jack Goodman, Licking County Library; Donna Gregory, Licking County Historical Society; Sasha Griffin, Denison University Archives; Athena Koehler, Bryn Du Mansion; Theresa Overholser, Granville Historical Society; Tim Priest, Johnstown Historical Society; Janet Procida, Granville Historical Society; Rev. Matt Van Winkle, Johnstown United Methodist Church; Elizabeth Wilson, Granville Public Library.

Published 2/24/2022 by Don Foster. donfoster73@gmail.com

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Granville

Johnstown

Newark

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