NEW FRANKLIN, Ohio — If you’re thinking of buying lakefront property in northeast Ohio, how about your own private island?
A family is selling the property at 4999 Laddie Drive in New Franklin, which includes a house and approximately eight acres. About five and a quarter of those acres are an undeveloped island, a short walk across a land bridge from the house. The asking price is $1.3 million.
For Karen Kell, the house and island remind her of childhood. Looking out over the channel from the backyard, she recalled ice skating and watching sailboats out on nearby Turkeyfoot Lake.
“We just always felt fortunate to be here,” Kell said.
Kell’s father built the house and others in the development back in 1963, and the property where she and her two siblings spent much of their childhoods includes that private island. Kell said it was once a peninsula, but when the channel was created in the backyard, the peninsula became an island.
“It’s really like having your own little park, in a way, when you walk over there,” Kell said. “It’s very peaceful. You can be out of the hustle and bustle. You can get away from your cares. If you’re inside the house, you just need to take a walk and it’s right there.”
Kell’s parents have both passed away, and she and her siblings have decided to sell the property.
“Frankly, none of the three of us can afford this home, and we’re all of a certain age where we don’t need a home this size,” Kell said. “This seems like a good time to do it, so some people can come in and enjoy it, infuse it with a little bit more work. My folks loved this place, put a lot into it. But as they got older, needs changed and the house really could use some new energy, and we’re hoping an infusion of children, as I said, to liven up the place and utilize some of these fun things that we enjoyed.”
One of the many parts of the property Kell will miss is the playhouse in the backyard. She said her father built the playhouse at their former house in Clinton before she was a year old, then transported it to New Franklin on a flatbed truck.
“We’ve wanted to keep everything in the house,” Kell said. “I actually thought of moving this [playhouse] to my little quarter-acre Akron city lot, and it’s just, some things you have to say goodbye to, and you just have to get the perspective that other people are going to enjoy it, other kids are going to have fun here.”
The house has been on the market since May 9, and Jaunae Carter of Howard Hanna, who is one of the realtors working to sell it, said there have been some inquiries, but that, at $1.3 million, “you’ve got to have a unique buyer, especially here in Ohio.”
“Kind of like when you go to the store and you see something and you’re like, ‘Oh, I need that,’” Carter said. “That’s the kind of buyer that we’re looking for for this, someone who, maybe they didn’t know they needed an island in Ohio, but they’re going to say, ‘Hey, I need that island.’”
She said a buyer would have a number of options when deciding what to do with the property, including building a house with up to four bedrooms on the island itself or renovating the house that already sits on Laddie Drive.
“The person that would probably buy this is someone who’s looking for just peacefulness,” Carter said. “I get the feeling of just serenity when I come out here. The first time that I got to view the listing, I felt so serene, and I feel like anybody who comes here is going to feel that.”
