listed for $5 million<\/a>. The island was once owned by Rutherford B. Hayes, a northwest Ohio native who went on to become the nation\u2019s 19th president.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s your opportunity to buy an exclusive piece of history,\u201d said Jon Deegan, one of the two Howard Hanna realtors marketing the property alongside Kyle Recker.<\/p>\n
Hayes purchased the island years before his presidency, using it as a summer retreat from Washington. Realtors describe it as his version of a private getaway long before such escapes became common.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey bought it a couple of years before he was president,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cIt was his version of Mar-a-Lago. They would come from D.C. like a lot of people did back then. The Ohio Valley was a rich getaway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The island has changed hands only once since Hayes\u2019 ownership. In 1966, it was purchased by the Mercer family of Rocky River near Cleveland, making the current listing just the third ownership opportunity in 150 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many other islands are you going to see come up for sale in your lifetime where you can say, \u2018I own an island in Lake Erie?\u2019,” Recker said.<\/p>\n
The property features mature trees, a private dock and shoreline access, and sits just minutes by boat from the mainland. Despite its proximity to shore, the island offers seclusion that has drawn attention from far beyond Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the other day we had interest from Hamburg, Germany,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cFrom a company that sells islands all over the world. There are multiple active people interested.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sale also comes with an unusual perk: the potential to rename the island. With approval from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the future owner could give Mouse Island a new identity and a new chapter.<\/p>\n
For nearby residents, the possibilities are easy to imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d probably just build a big old mansion over there,\u201d said Catawba Island resident Rowan Astley. \u201cJust be a cool vacation island to go kayaking to or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Mouse Island remains unchanged, waiting to see who will write its next piece of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The seven-acre island was once owned by Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th U.S. president and a Fremont native.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-86101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-erie","9":"tag-erie-headlines","10":"tag-erie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}