Thanks to a retired Chicago area school principal, new life has been injected into the penthouse unit of a storied downtown Toledo hotel.

After six years of planning and hard work, Emily Robertson has moved into the 4,300-square-foot penthouse of the former Commodore Perry Hotel, which is now an apartment complex.

In its heyday, the 19th floor space, accessible by a private elevator, was the home of wealthy Toledo developer Willard Webb IV and his wife.

But when Ms. Robertson first laid eyes on the penthouse in 1999 after the hotel had been converted to apartments, it lacked heat, water, plumbing, and even interior walls. But she saw potential in the space.

Now, nearly six-months after finally moving in, she doesn't regret her decision to buy.

"I absolutely love it," she said. "It's better than what I saw in my head as I tried to plan this thing."

She shares the urban loft-like dwelling with John Anning, a retired city planning executive from Findlay. The two were sweethearts at Perrysburg High School who rekindled the romance after the death of his wife in 2004.

The two-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home offers a bird's eye view of downtown Toledo.

The master bedroom overlooks Fifth Third Field, and Mr. Anning recently watched a game -with the aid of binoculars.

Parts of the home also overlook the building's rooftop - which is near the nest of a pair of peregrine falcons, which provide plenty of entertainment.

Ms. Robertson spent more than $400,000 to buy and renovate the space.

A limestone entry way leads to a large main living area which is divided by a half wall. Light gold carpeting and walls are accented by furnishings with a color scheme of rust, burnt orange, and copper. The home's bar is topped by an antique elevator door found at Toledo's Architectural Artifacts.

An unusual feature in the guest bathroom is a re-finished claw-footed bathtub that Ms. Robertson lugged from suburban Chicago, where it served for many years as a reading aid in her second-grade classroom.

As a young teacher, she got the tub from a junk pile and used it in a successful effort to make a fun space for children to read.

When she began to contemplate retirement in the late 1990s, she decided she would return to northwest Ohio to be near siblings and their families.

She had hoped to move into the penthouse in 2003, but renovations weren't completed.

"This place was gutted," she said.

Getting building materials into the unit was sometimes difficult. The Commodore Perry's freight elevator stops at the 18th floor, so materials - including 400 sheets of drywall - had to be either passed up through a space in the floor or carted up a flight of stairs. The unit's passenger elevator is too small to accommodate building materials and furniture.

Ms. Robertson enjoys urban living, especially the many restaurants and other places that have opened since she purchased the unit in late 1999.

She and Mr. Anning divide their time between Toledo and his retirement home in the desert near Tucson, Ariz. "In Toledo, we have a very urban kind of lifestyle," he said. "They're very different worlds."

Contact Gary Pakulski at:

gpakulski@theblade.com

or 419-724-6082.

First Published May 30, 2006, 10:11 a.m.