Ransom L. & Julia Foot House, 31263 Lake Rd., c. 1853
The 11th in a series of articles to be published as a walking tour of Lake Road by the Bay Village Historical Society in 2025.
Very little information has been previously written on this charming small home. The County Auditor lists the construction date very specifically as 1853. If so, it would have been constructed on a large undivided 195-acre parcel owned by Ransom Foote heirs which included the c. 1828 David Foote house on the north side of Lake Road (now demolished).
Ransom Foote Sr., the son of David, died in 1846 leaving his wife, Catherine, widowed with 10 children. According to the 1850 Census, 22-year-old Ransom L. Foote was living with his 44-year-old mother, 92-year-old grandfather David, and numerous siblings. He married Julia Farr in 1853.
The 1860 Census finds he and Julia and their two daughters living nearby but in a separate home from the rest of the Foote family. This suggests that this home may have been constructed for Ransom and Julia at the time of their marriage. Eventually later generations of the Foote family carved off separate parcels.
In 1912 Bessie V. Miller, probably a niece, owned this home and 1.29 acres with an access easement to the beach.
William Krause
William R. Krause, retired as the Assistant Planning Director of the City of Westlake in 2020 after over 30 years with the city. He also served on the Bay Village Planning Commission for 9 years. He was a trustee for the Bay Village Historical Society from 2020 to 2021 and a former board member of the Westlake Historical Society. He was chair of their Lilly Weston Committee and was a member of the Reuben Osborn Learning Center Steering Committee. He is currently a Trustee of the Western Reserve Architectural Historians and the Gates Mills Historical Society. He has been married to Debra for 41 years and is the father of three grown children, grandfather of six and co-owner of a Yellow Lab named Sadie.