The Historic Building of the Month in Bowling Green is the home at 216 East Court Street. Not far from Bowling Green’s downtown Main Street Historic District, standing taller than any of the surrounding structures, is the Wood County Courthouse. Just across the street from the courthouse are four residential homes, including 216 East Court Street. From the front lawn of this handsome, green-painted house, one can imagine watching couples young and in love venture into the courthouse to obtain a marriage license, teenagers picking up their first vehicle titles, and lawyers and clients hurrying to make their court appearances.
Historically, 216 East Court Street has borne witness to several moments of significance for the county that took place on the courthouse lawn just across the street. The house has seen two presidents campaign on the courthouse steps: William Howard Taft in 1912, and Ronald Reagan, on behalf of George H.W. Bush, in 1988. 216 East Court Street also viewed two Ku Klux Klan rallies in the 1990s. For as much history as this property has beheld from its vantage point, it also holds a great deal within its walls.
The home, called the “Nearing House” by many in Bowling Green, is named after its first owner, Wood County Judge Charles Rockwood Nearing. The parcel it stands on had originally been owned by another prominent citizen, Alfred Thurstin, a landowner and farmer in Wood County whose dealings in real estate stretch back to the city’s earliest days, in the 1830s. In 1904, Charles Nearing’s father, the attorney Guy C. Nearing, purchased the property and built a house on it at 220 East Court Street…