When Frank and Connie Robinson bought their house on Mercer Avenue in Sharpsville in 1981, they had no idea the house had historical significance.

Now their house is featured in "Houses from Books: Treatises, Pattern Books and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738-1950, a History and Guide," by Dr. Daniel D. Reiff, professor of art history at the State University of New York Fredonia.

Reiff, who spent a day in 1988 photographing and studying the Robinsons' house, refers to it as the "John W. Jackson House," after the man who built it in 1903.

Jackson invented the Jackson Oiler in 1891, which was an oil can with a long spout used for trains, Reiff said. The Robinsons have one of Jackson's oilers on display in their study.

Reiff and the Robinsons found each other after they read an article of his about mail-order and pattern-book houses.

"We knew it was one of the houses he was looking for," Mrs. Robinson said.

Reiff said the Robinsons' house is significant for several reasons. It is a good example of a well-preserved Queen Anne cottage, it is a good early example of a house designed by the Radford Architectural Co. of Chicago, the interior trim on the doors, windows, fireplaces and staircases are in perfect condition and the original blueprints for the house have been preserved.

"That's a great rarity for the original plans to have survived," Reiff said.

The house was built from mail-order plans from the Radford Architectural Co. Reiff said people would order the plans from a catalog and then hire a local contractor to build the house. He said such mail-order catalogs are still available today.

Besides the blueprints, most of the typed specifications for the house have been preserved as well, Reiff said. Robinson said the specifications are very detailed, including how the paint was mixed and what kind of nails were used.

When the Robinsons bought the house 20 years ago from John W. Jackson's daughter, the house had been divided into three apartments. They decided to restore it.

"Thank heavens we had the blueprints and specifications," Robinson said.

The first floor of the house is made up of reception hall, or foyer; a living room, which was once the master bedroom; a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room and a study.

Mrs. Robinson said the reception hall is her favorite room.

"I love it here in the morning," she said. The patterns in the glass windows reflect rainbows into the house almost all day long, she said.

The Robinsons took down the walls in the bathroom and discovered they had been hiding the original wainscoting. They also replaced the boxed-in bathtub with a white claw-footed tub.

Because there were no kitchen cupboards in the original blueprints, the Robinsons just hung a hoosier on one wall. Another wall, which created two kitchens when the house was divided into apartments, was removed and made into a pantry.

All the lighting fixtures in the house are original. When the Robinsons moved into the house, the globe light in the dining room was intact but the four fixtures surrounding it were missing. Mrs. Robinson, by coincidence, found four matching fixtures in a basket of items she purchased from an antique shop in Adamsville.

The Robinsons also restored three porches at the rear of the house, including two small porches on either end, one of which was enclosed when they bought the house, and a sun porch in the middle. The floor plans show just a small stoop where the sun porch now is, Robinson said.

The study, which features an ornate fireplace, was the original living room. Like the reception hall, the windows in the study reflect tiny rainbows all over the room.

Formerly, the second floor was closed off with a wall and a door. When the Robinsons pounded on the wall upstairs, it sounded hollow. After investigating further, inside the wall they found the original banister, wrapped in newspapers dated 1936.

Upstairs are three bedrooms and a second bathroom, which was added in the 1930s. One of the bedrooms, Mrs. Robinson said, was a kitchen when they first moved into the house.

Reiff said the Robinsons' house is featured prominently in his book with 10 illustrations. Other Pennsylvania buildings Reiff has mentioned in his book are in Erie, Johnstown, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Meadville, Ambridge, Union City, Clarion, Riceville and Rogertown.