Henry and Regina Wischmeyer House, 26565 Lake Road, c. 1872
The 17th in a series of articles to be published as a walking tour of Lake Road by the Bay Village Historical Society in 2026.
The book “Retracing Footsteps” by Catherine Burke Flament has a wealth of information about both Henry and Regina and their families because many of them are buried in Lakeside Cemetery.
Henry was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1832; Regina in Wurtenburg, Germany, in 1834. Regina’s family immigrated in 1850; Henry in 1854. They were married in 1854 and Henry (and therefore Regina) was naturalized in 1860.
They lived on the west side of Cleveland when Henry first purchased 50 acres of land on both sides of Lake Road in 1862. The tax value jumped in 1872 and the Wischmeyer Family Papers at Rose Hill Museum indicate that this was the year the family moved to Dover.
By the 1880 U.S. Census their family includes Adelaide, 21; Louis, 15; Matilda, 13; Olga, 11; Henry, 7; and Julius, 5. The 1900 Census indicates that Regina had a total of eight children, five of whom were alive in 1900. Louis had been killed by a Lakeshore Electric Interurban train in 1899.
Henry Sr. died in 1902 and Regina in 1918. A foster daughter, Mabel, was the last Wischmeyer to live here.
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 42 years and is the father of three grown children, grandfather of six and co-owner of a Yellow Lab named Sadie.