I went to an interesting house that’s for sale to talk to the owners about what made their house special, but in the end, the owners were just as special as the house.

We talked more about their long and interesting lives.

This house, facing the lake and across from the park in Lakewood, has what we call character. Mature plantings and flowers abound from every square foot on the grounds: roses cascading from trellises, tall and prolific rhododendrons, and hydrangeas fill the generous yard.

And like the yard, the house is full of the things that tell a story about this couple’s interests and passions: mainly lots of beautiful stained glass and miniature things like what’s inside of the elaborate Santa doll house.

The Pearson’s moved into the cottage-style house in 1974 with their two children, and for Jean Pearson it was sold the minute she laid eyes on it. It reminded her of the farmhouse she’d grown up in on 600 acres in Smithfield, Pa.

Their house, built in 1864, burned down five years after they moved in, but they had it rebuilt just as it was and they’ve lived there for 45 years now. It’s good it’s a big house because they needed something roomy to fit their family and friends and their hobbies and their business and their holidays.

This house is a family anchor, the kind of house that’s worked its way into a family’s soul, every inch a reflection of the people who inhabit it. It has framed their lives, providing the backdrop for three generations of people who will never quite feel at home anywhere else.

But the Pearson’s themselves are just incredible people-the sort of people who can move easily between careers and interests because they’re both so capable. They started making stained glass because Jean took a two-week course before moving to Lakewood in the 1970’s and the couple just taught themselves along the way. Now their stained glass hangs in places like Beirut, Lebanon, Sweden and Cape Cod. And in multi-million dollar homes and many churches. They can’t even count all the windows they’ve made.

Jon Pearson has lived a life defined by athleticism and leadership, and Jean’s life has been about creativity, family and community. But yet, you could easily interchange those adjectives and assign them to the other.

They’ve worked together a lot, whether it be the stained glass business or developing a swim program for infants that had them interviewed by NBC Nightly News. Jon went from playing soccer in the army, to building and staffing YMCAs, to coaching multiple sport teams in Panama High School, to teaching drivers education for 35 years. He builds doll houses, makes glass windows, and was once a double volleyball champ with a traveling team from Meadville. He was also a varsity basketball and soccer player at Slippery Rock University once upon a time, and according to Jean, “Can’t sit still unless there’s a football game on.”

Jon also served as chairman of the planning board in Lakewood for 20 years.

Jean is a skilled stained glass artist, a collector, and a craftsman of braided rugs and quilts. She started and taught an exercise class, worked with Jon on several endeavors and businesses, and bakes her own bread. She’s also been very active in the community.

Their house on East Terrace is for sale now and anyone sharing their back porch with them on a sunny summer day can’t fathom them leaving.

Neither can they.

“I thought I’d be carried out of here in a pine box,” Jean says. But health issues and the pursuit of practicality have won the day, and they feel it’s time to move on, find a smaller place, and have less to tend to. But you get the feeling the next house will have big shoes to fill.

There aren’t many pieces of real estate in the county like this one. It’s the view–all sweeping vistas of green from the park across the street and there’s the lake, a liquid layer within short reach of the front steps. It’s a clear, unobstructed view of a little piece of heaven. I can’t think of any place better to watch the Fourth Of July fireworks.

And it’s a corner house-right on Chautauqua Avenue and East Terrace, so they have a lovely and ample lot that’s had 45 years to grow some fairy dust. No one will worry about privacy in this yard. No one will want for views or space or nature.

They’re hoping a family will buy the house and follow in their footsteps for another half a century.

Jean, especially, will have a hard time saying goodbye. That’s the thing about eras. Eras end and life asks us to move on, even when we aren’t truly ready.

There’s an open house today at 4 East Terrace from 12-2 p.m.. Stop in and say hello to an interesting piece of Lakewood and to the family that defined it and loved it through the years.