A historic Victorian in Salem, OH, has had only a handful of owners since it was built in 1895. But the home comes with loads of stories.

The 18-room house is listed for $349,000 and after just 17 days on the market, the property is pending sale.

The sellers “are only the fourth owners, so that shows you the home has a lot of character, and the people who have owned it have had it for long periods of time,” says listing agent Matt Heikkinen, with Nexthome Go30 Realty. “It’s one of the gems of the entire area.”

The storied home was even featured on HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk.”

Heikkinen says the home was originally a wedding present from a real estate and steel baron to his sister and her groom.

The 4,860-square-foot home has four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and numerous unusual attributes.

“It has many qualities—like, there are certain rooms you wouldn’t see in a modern house,” such as the solarium between the first- and second-floor staircase landings, Heikkinen says. “It’s a big room that lets in all this light. It has two walls that are floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a wood-paneled ceiling.”

Another room with a sink is under the main staircase. This was so the people who handled horses and carriages could clean up before coming into the house.

The vintage space is also a perfect place to throw parties.

“The whole third floor is awesome for entertaining, even in today’s world,” Heikkinen says. “It was originally one giant room they called the ballroom; and they would have parties, and formal dancing would take place. Today, it’s a rec room.”

An old rope-and-pulley system that once hoisted a grand piano up to the third floor is still there, although the piano is not.

“I was told that one of the owners got sick of having [the piano] up there … and she told her help to just chop it up with an axe and throw it out the window, because her husband wouldn’t get rid of it,” Heikkinen laughs. “So [the husband] left one day, and she did it while he was gone. It’s one of the cool stories of the house.”

Another fascinating detail involves the home’s wallpaper, which is original.

“In the dining room, the wallpaper depicts Charleston, SC, in the mid to late 1800s and the business that was done through the port,” Heikkinen explains. “You see all the ships and the bay and some of the jobs taking place at the time.”

The wallpaper in the foyer is also original.

“An historical wallpaper specialist somehow found out about the wallpaper in the house and placed values on it,” he says, noting that a previous owner had it insured for up to $200,000.

The home has many more stories, but potential buyers will be relieved to learn that none involve ghosts or hauntings.

Heikkinen says the current owners have made some updates to the home but haven’t gone too far.

“They have done a really nice job of not messing with the historical integrity of the home,” he observes. “They bought it because it was an historic home. It spoke to them.”

Heikkinen says the home would be great as a single-family dwelling—or as a rental or bed and breakfast.

“There are some updates that need to be done to just freshen it up for this generation but still respect the integrity and historical value of the house,” he says. “Finding homes that are in such great condition, with so many high-end features that haven’t been messed with over the years, is getting hard to find. There are fewer and fewer of those types of properties out there.”

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