Historic homestead sold at auction for more than $1M

Byron resident Al Risch was the other successful bidder at an event that drew 150 people and about 35 bidders to the Dining Hall at the Greene County fairgrounds this week, plus one on the phone from the Virgin Islands.

“I wanted to preserve what it was,” Risch said of the plot next to his current home on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road. “I was exceptionally happy because I’m a veteran and got it on Veterans Day.”

The $45,000 bid from the 11-year veteran of the Army and Air Force boosted the total realized by former owners Polly and William Chick to $1.12 million.

Polly Chick, who inherited the land her parents bought from the Wolff family during the Depression, said she was pleased with the selling price.

“It’s wonderful that somebody else will enjoy living here,” she said of the homestead at 1594 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road.

In addition to a two-story stone home, the homestead has a stone springhouse, an old brick smokehouse, and a former chicken house that was expanded into an antiques studio by Polly Chick’s mother.

The extra acreage around the home built by John Wolff in the first decade of the 19th century should provide a buffer for the new owners, which “makes it more pleasant,” Polly Chick said. “You could enjoy living here for 20 years before everything encroaches.”

Because the homestead and adjacent lands are on both sides of Dayton-Yellow Springs Road near I-675, the sale was advertised as land that might be suitable for development.

Harvey said that he was surprised that some of the five tracts offered weren’t bought by developers and attributed that to “still uncertain times.”

The new owners, husband and wife physicians Donald Gronbeck and Mary Krebs Gronbeck, couldn’t be reached for comment. But Harvey confirmed that they’re planning to live in the property and make it their home.

Dr. Donald Gronbeck practices at Yellow Springs Primary Care. Dr. Mary Krebs Gronbeck also practices in the Dayton area.

The open houses leading up to the Tuesday auction “uncovered a wealth of (Wolff) family members,” Harvey said, many of whom he expects to see at a separate auction of the home’s antique furniture and household items at 10 a.m. Dec. 13 at the Clark County Champions Center.

“It will be a circus,” he said. “I look for a huge crowd there.”