MARION — When Lucas Howes and Lexi Thumann purchased the historic Cobban House a few years ago, they envisioned a few coats of paint, some floor work, and “minor mechanical stuff.”

The couple, who had experience renovating and rehabilitating a couple handfuls of relatively newer, single-family homes, wanted to get into multifamily housing. But most apartment buildings were prohibitively expensive for the young professionals.

So with a vision for fixes to bring out beauty in the Civil War era building, they set out to restore it to its former glory. But as the mansion’s renovation got underway, it turned into million dollar project as the couple replaced or restored much more than expected in a quest to “restore it to how it was as far back as it was built,” said Thumann — removing drop ceilings and popcorn ceilings, removing carpet, refinishing hardwood floors and taking apart hardware piece by piece.

With 45 percent of renovations covered by state and federal grants for historic restoration and preservation, the $220,000 building purchase quickly became an expensive but feasible million dollar project when tallied up with about $800,000 in renovations.

“I knew it needed a lot of work, but I could see that the features of it could be great,” Howes said. “After I got into it because it was (financially) possible, I started to fall in love with the building itself.”

With just a few photos and a computer to envision changes, Thumann was “along for the ride.” Over a three-year renovation, the house’s historical refinishing quickly became greater than the sum of its parts.

“What happened with it is not what my vision was,” Howes said. “It’s better.”

The 1866 house, built by George A. and Marcia B. Cobban, was one of the earliest Marion mansions in a gateway to the historic Pucker District that became “a desirable street for people of wealth” along Eighth Avenue, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. In a district reportedly named for the “attitude of some of its residents,” the tree-lined avenue was paved with asphalt in the early 1900s because residents did not want a noisy brick pavement “to disturb the peace of their neighborhood.”

George Cobban earned his fortune as a wholesale women’s shoes salesman.

Built in the Italianate architectural style popular in the 1840s and 1850s, the nearly 6,000-square-foot home grew over time with an 1890 Queen Anne tower addition, and another addition in 1938. It was part of the first boom of impressive dwellings in the area; two others followed in the late 19th century and from the 1910s to 1930s.

Coinciding with neighborhood changes over the 20th century, the building was turned into apartments over 100 years ago — on trend with the transformation of many historical mansions into multi-unit dwellings over the mid-20th century. After 1940, the neighborhood transformed from a wealthy upper class neighborhood to more of one for the middle and working class.

Today, it has 7 units ranging from one to three bedrooms each, where rents will vary from $995 to about $1,300.

A wealth of eye-catching features have been enhanced throughout the building. Door handles and metal hardware features, many irreplaceable, were disassembled and restored by hand by Howes. Massive double-hung windows exude the opulence of the era with a flood of sunlight in many rooms, and modern amenities work around quirks of old homes, balancing the challenge of serving today’s needs with honoring a historic aesthetic.

For many tenants, Howes said modern amenities are a priority. But with this restoration, they can have their cake and eat it, too.

One unit, previously a haybarn, features original brick walls and a barn door style cover that makes functional use of a window previously used to deliver hay bales.

Thumann furnished chandeliers collected over months through antique stores and thrift shops that hearken back to another time, even if they weren’t specifically designed for homes in the 1800s. Woodwork around doors draws the eyes to details that highlight a bygone era of craftsmanship.

“We didn’t want it to look like a museum, but like glimpses of the past,” she said. “We wanted the vision to be historic but with a twist of modern, and functionality.”

Now, they live in a unit downstairs, where a sun room invites quiet moments to harmonize with the spirit of simpler times.