Compared with the many painted ladies along Kanawha Boulevard East, the house at 1506 might seem a little Plain Jane.

That's because the house known as Cedar Grove harks back to an earlier era, before owners in Charleston's toniest neighborhood started trying to outdo one another with their ostentatious homes.

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The French doors of "Cedar Grove."

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The Ruffners owned much of the East End back then. The family farm extended from Greenbrier Street down to Ruffner Avenue (an appropriate name) and from the Kanawha back past Washington Street.

Today, though, the house is squeezed in among its neighbors, one door up from Ruffner Avenue. Even longtime residents might be unaware of its presence, or historic significance.

"It kind of gets lost between the larger homes along the Boulevard," said Billy Joe Peyton, a neighbor and history professor at West Virginia State University. "You'd hardly notice it unless you were looking for it.

"I would count it among the half-dozen significant earliest homes in Charleston," Peyton said, along with Holly Grove, the Craik-Patton House, the MacFarland-Hubbard House, and the Glenwood and Littlepage homes on the West Side.

Unlike his father, Augustus Ruffner went into the lumber business. He operated a sawmill on the Elk River, according to Ruth Woods Dayton's classic 1947 reference, "Pioneers and Their Homes on Upper Kanawha."

You can see his appreciation for wood at his house, where he incorporated fine scrollwork and detailing inside and out. Check out the ornamentation around the front porch and the trim surrounding the French front doors, or the odd curlicues cut into the fascia boards under the eaves.

Despite its age, little changed from the way Augustus Ruffner built it. That's probably because it has changed hands just three times.

The Ruffner family owned Cedar Grove for about 100 years, well into the 20th century, when Augustus' descendents sold it to a Mrs. C.O. North, Dayton wrote.

Lawyer John Kennedy Bailey said he learned about the house and its owner, Jeane North, after he moved to Charleston in 1995. "She lived here for many years," he said. "After she passed away, a couple named David and Deborah Musser bought it."

The Mussers stayed only a couple of years, he said, from 2004 to early 2007. Bailey, who lives nearby, said he became concerned when he learned the house was for sale and zoned for office use. "I didn't know what I might get."

He decided to buy it himself, but as a new lawyer just starting his solo practice, bank mortgages weren't readily available. A family loan helped seal the deal.

"It was a stretch, but I'm really glad I did it. It was too good an opportunity to pass up." He paid $260,000, pretty cheap for riverfront property. A lawyer up the street paid more than $400,000 for her house, he said.

Since moving his law offices in, Bailey has done very little with the house. He stripped layers of drab paint off the floors, revealing handsome wide pine boards, and painted a few rooms. He left the old floor plan intact, and intends to keep it that way.

"I was a history major in college. I've always liked old things, old houses. I want to leave things pretty much the way it was. Anything I do is light."

Bailey has done a little research into the history of his house. "This was a Ruffner home, as well," he said, pointing to the house just up the street. "I found a deed from the late 1800s."

Compared with the many painted ladies along Kanawha Boulevard East, the house at 1506 might seem a little Plain Jane.

That's because the house known as Cedar Grove harks back to an earlier era, before owners in Charleston's toniest neighborhood started trying to outdo one another with their ostentatious homes.

Augustus Ruffner, the fourth son of salt merchant Daniel Ruffner, built his two-story brick house in 1834, a year after he married Mary Elizabeth Rogers. Although built substantially of brick, it was more of a farmhouse and sat a bit downriver from his dad's home, Holly Grove.

The Ruffners owned much of the East End back then. The family farm extended from Greenbrier Street down to Ruffner Avenue (an appropriate name) and from the Kanawha back past Washington Street.

Today, though, the house is squeezed in among its neighbors, one door up from Ruffner Avenue. Even longtime residents might be unaware of its presence, or historic significance.

"It kind of gets lost between the larger homes along the Boulevard," said Billy Joe Peyton, a neighbor and history professor at West Virginia State University. "You'd hardly notice it unless you were looking for it.

"I would count it among the half-dozen significant earliest homes in Charleston," Peyton said, along with Holly Grove, the Craik-Patton House, the MacFarland-Hubbard House, and the Glenwood and Littlepage homes on the West Side.

Unlike his father, Augustus Ruffner went into the lumber business. He operated a sawmill on the Elk River, according to Ruth Woods Dayton's classic 1947 reference, "Pioneers and Their Homes on Upper Kanawha."

You can see his appreciation for wood at his house, where he incorporated fine scrollwork and detailing inside and out. Check out the ornamentation around the front porch and the trim surrounding the French front doors, or the odd curlicues cut into the fascia boards under the eaves.

Despite its age, little changed from the way Augustus Ruffner built it. That's probably because it has changed hands just three times.

The Ruffner family owned Cedar Grove for about 100 years, well into the 20th century, when Augustus' descendents sold it to a Mrs. C.O. North, Dayton wrote.

Lawyer John Kennedy Bailey said he learned about the house and its owner, Jeane North, after he moved to Charleston in 1995. "She lived here for many years," he said. "After she passed away, a couple named David and Deborah Musser bought it."

The Mussers stayed only a couple of years, he said, from 2004 to early 2007. Bailey, who lives nearby, said he became concerned when he learned the house was for sale and zoned for office use. "I didn't know what I might get."

He decided to buy it himself, but as a new lawyer just starting his solo practice, bank mortgages weren't readily available. A family loan helped seal the deal.

"It was a stretch, but I'm really glad I did it. It was too good an opportunity to pass up." He paid $260,000, pretty cheap for riverfront property. A lawyer up the street paid more than $400,000 for her house, he said.

Since moving his law offices in, Bailey has done very little with the house. He stripped layers of drab paint off the floors, revealing handsome wide pine boards, and painted a few rooms. He left the old floor plan intact, and intends to keep it that way.

"I was a history major in college. I've always liked old things, old houses. I want to leave things pretty much the way it was. Anything I do is light."

Bailey has done a little research into the history of his house. "This was a Ruffner home, as well," he said, pointing to the house just up the street. "I found a deed from the late 1800s."

The Ruffners divided the property into three lots, he said - a narrow lot on the corner that ran from the river to Virginia Street and one for the house on the other side.

He'd like to know more. "I don't know if they made the bricks locally," he said.

The original kitchen was probably out in the back somewhere, he said, along with the outhouse. Bailey was not sure if any of the former occupants were buried in the family cemetery up the street, now called Ruffner Park. "Hopefully none are buried out back," he said.

He looked puzzled when a reporter asked where the slaves might have lived.

Peyton, however, said slaves were common in pre-Civil War Charleston. "The Ruffners all owned slaves to work their farm."

Census data Peyton found from the mid-1800s confirm this. The 1850 Census shows Augustus and Mary owned five slaves - a female age 45, a female (12), a male (16), a male (8) and a male (6).

Ten years later, after Augustus died, the Census shows Mary owned seven slaves - a 50-year-old female, a female (21) and males aged 47, 35, 27, 20 and 18.

"Clearly these were working adult males," Peyton said. "Unfortunately, the slave census treats enslaved African-Americans as property only, without names listed.

"A typical Southern plantation layout would have put the slaves living somewhere behind the main house. The field hands would have had cabins out in the fields." Those who worked in the main house or kitchen would have lived closer, he said.

"We don't really know. That's something I'm interested in, learning more of the African-American experience."

The Ruffners began subdividing the family farm in the later 1800s, selling off lots and laying out much of the East End as we know it today.

"The reason the 1500 blocks of the Boulevard, Virginia, Quarrier and Lee are so long has something to do with the way the Ruffners owned and divided their holdings," Peyton said, "and not wanting to put cross streets in their property from Elizabeth Street to Ruffner Avenue. Which made them what we consider, at least in the United States if not the entire world, the longest blocks."  

Bailey, 40, expects to keep his historic house for awhile. There's room in the basement for his wife, Holly, to make her glass beads, and for son Jack, 3 1/2, to run around in the side yard. He rents one room to lawyer Stephen Sluss and says there's another office for rent.

"I just love the East End and am here to stay," he said. "It's the sort of office I thought I'd have later. It just came along earlier than I expected. But I don't see myself being anywhere else."

Peyton, chairman of the city's Historic Landmarks Commission, thinks Bailey and Cedar Grove are a good match.

"I think he's going to be a good steward of the property," he said. "I'm really glad he bought it."

Reach Jim Balow at ba...@wvgazette.com or 348-5102.