Touring Historic Houses In Ohio

[Music] historic houses have certain traits that make them tourist attractions sometimes a house served as a prominent place in history or the house was designed by a well-known architect or maybe a famous person once lived there almost every Community contains one or two of these houses and today we're touring a few notable houses here in Ohio starting with the Pak Castle maic which has been a tourist attraction in West Liberty for decades it may be in the middle of nowhere but it's packed with history see for yourself [Music] [Music] we're out in Ohio Farm country south of bell fountains a rich agricultural area and we've seen farm houses and barns but we're stopping at a really interesting place that looks like nothing else it's called maachi castle and there's quite a story behind this building I think we'll have a pretty interesting [Music] visit hello Margaret hi Jeff how are you good to see you hi thank you nice good to see you nice to see you Jeff it's been so long since high school 60 some years back in Connecticut who knew we'd end up in Ohio and I certainly didn't I didn't either and interesting places in Ohio such as maachi castle and your family the pet family is a Cincinnati family is that right that's right uh Benjamin and Elizabeth married in Cincinnati in 1803 when Ohio became a state sold land in Cincinnati and bought land here and established a 1700 Acre Farm here with a lot of help and so they cleared the land and began uh it was a diversified Farm very complex this particular house wasn't built that early was it it was later no this house was built by his son Abram so Abram was 6 years old when the family came here and he built this house when he was about 50 years old the Limestone uh and the wood actually all came from the land the Quarry for the limestone is only a mile from us and without too much work it was an outcropping so they didn't have to mine they could just go into the Hillside and get it out took a lot of uh time they took him seven years to build the house what year 71 1871 71 okay and it changed over time I'm assuming there might have been adaptations additions very little change really what changes are the objects that people of each generation use makes sense and you'll see array of those so we don't have it restored to one time period we have objects from multiple time periods well I'd love to see more the interior has to be fascinating given the exterior so I understand you can take me on a tour I'd love to and Jim you've got some work to do I do to keep the place going I will say hello again before you leave see you later lead the [Music] way well I don't think I've seen trim quite like this in any historic house I've been in people comment on it all the time it's such a surprise I think these really extreme TR angles are interesting to people and we believe they were inspired by another interior detail in the drawing room which I'll show you later and this room is what well I see books the library the office and Library this section of the house was really all about Abram Abram was a farmer he was a progressive farmer published uh materials about farming and also was very involved in the Grange so this gave him a place to do the accounting and also to study so there was another Castle another house there was by another name well a similar name maach is this one makoi is the other one both derived from the Shaunie name for this place and Abram and his older brother Don had been children when they moved to this land then in mid AG they each built these Mansions just a mile apart and the other house maachi uh is owned by somebody else now not it's not in the P family that's true actually that's happened more than once so after Don died his widow sold the home many other people had it my parents and Uncle purchased it in the 1950s and we ran it for 60 some years and then in 2019 we sold it to a family who was doing a wonderful job restoring it well I'd love to see more let's go to the drawing room okay what a beautiful room it's a wonderful space the drawing room of course would be where you would go and enjoy company after dinner or have family weddings funerals Christmas parties all sorts of things the paret floor made out of multiple types of wood and put in interesting geometrical shapes is one of its real features it really is beautiful and I can see where the diamond design may have come from that was in the library you can see this it's almost like a cathedral in here it is it has these wonderful Gothic arches that then take your eye to the ceiling where you find a frescoed garden it is spectacular it is really beautiful this is a big case full of interesting artifacts this case this cabinet changed the story of his family's life because this was brought in when it became a museum in the early 20th Cent uh Abram's son William collected these pieces over the course of many decades he found a lot of them here on the farm he purchased others others came later well this is a interesting fascinating display case but it's a Well furnished room there's more to see there's lots of furniture and these pieces come from different time periods belonging to different Generations well there's a chair over here made of horns is that right that's right according to our records it was made in San Antonio and we're not sure who bought it or when they got it but it was photographed in this room in 1916 and it was part of the original souvenir booklet when this first became a museum it's wonderful to know that these kinds of chairs became extremely popular in the early 20th century and came to be associated with Teddy Roosevelt well I'm guessing something with that many horns probably would have had to come from Texas well what else is there there's lots more to see here well we have the Cherry sideboard that belonged to Benjamin and Elizabeth her second piano from Boston from the 1940s the portrait near us are of Elizabeth and Benjamin his mother and father and they were a fascinating pair of people who never lived in this house never saw this house they lived in a modest Lo home nearby but with these nice objects in it well there's a nice group here of what looks like original Furniture yes this is a parlor Suite the type of style popular in the late 19th century uh before Abram died when he and ellan lived here that's how this room would have been furnished with pieces like this this has been a wonderful tour of the first floor the library was wonderful and this is even more spectacular here in the drawing room but there must be something upstairs there's an upstairs with bedrooms and other collections the upstairs tells the story of the next Generations let's go learn that story very good marker why are there channels on either side of the stairs they were dust channels they made it possible to sweep the dirt from either side and then it would go right down the dust channels using gravity to help clean the house I love it popular for later generations is a place to race cars well the hall itself is quite a space another wonderful painted ceiling yes with nice Greek features nice wide Hall this was originally the master bedroom suite so Abram and Ellen are had a bedroom and an upper parlor however the story of this family over time is that more and more of the family were started to live here so by 1900 it had moved to uh 20 people living here and at that point it was necessary to have another bedroom in fact that's where my father was born that room right there MH quite a story yeah well everything is is well furnished I mean all the Furnishings tell stories what other things will people see in if they look at the different bedrooms well in the bedroom you'll see more items related to the children who grew up here in the 20th century some interesting things related to personal Stories the woman who was hurt in a train accident and how her nephew helped her regain strength with a physical therapy machine and then in one of the room we have a military collection that shows items that people brought home from battle starting at the American Revolution and ending with the Korean conflict we also have an archive in one of the rooms and that's where we study the papers we have probably 20,000 documents related to individuals in this family and all of that was here in well in both houses either house but it was all here it was all here it was just like people who take their birthday cards and put them in a box somewhere and so they were all stuck in dressers and drawers and boxes and we've just been very slowly taking them out and studying them And archiving so it's been a treasure hunt over the years it has been well we've seen the first and second floors I guess that's about it for our tour oh no wait there's one more thing I'd like to show you I'm happy to do [Music] it hello again Jim hello Jeff how was your tour it was terrific what a house isn't it amazing it is it's just remarkable so tell me about the tower uh it's such a big feature on the building it is a big feature and it uh they used it to demonstrate some of their stone work You' see the capitals over each window are different mhm but it has no real function other than part of the building as a tower so you didn't look for enemies approaching over the fields that sort of thing these were different times so the Legacy here is just remarkable and it's Fallen to you as a member of the family to make sure this continues how how have you done that over the years well we did it ourselves for a long time but 25 years ago we created a nonprofit Foundation called the makach foundation and through it we raise money for educational purposes and so this space we're in is a perfect example we use this all the time as a workshop space it's a great place for kids to come Jim actually teaches them how to Chisel Limestone we're always working to connect disciplines and particularly the relationship between art and nature that's that sounds like a really good series of programs so so it's you have various programs various functions you could host weddings for example we do host weddings we host birthday part parties we hold special events throughout the year that are free and we also then do school and youth programs adult groups and almost anything somebody wants that we think we could manage to make happen well thanks very much for a great tour I loved seeing the place I was pleasure to show you Jim good to see you again was great to see you Jeff thanks so [Music] much there's not much more I'll need to say once I introduce this next house we're touring except that it was once home to a famous astronaut who grew up right here in Ohio we head now to the John and Annie Glenn Museum in New Concord where the tour is beyond this [Music] [Music] world today I know that I seem to be standing alone on this great platform just as I seem to be alone in the of the Friendship 7 spacecraft but I'm not there were with me then and with me now thousands of Americans and many hundreds of citizens of many countries around the world who contributed to This truly International undertaking voluntarily and in a spirit of cooperation and understanding as our knowledge of this universe in which we live increases may God grant us the wisdom and guidance to use it wisely [Music] traveling to any Museum there are countless items on display but a lot of times they have things in their storage or in their vault that the public doesn't usually get to see well today we're at the John and Annie Glen Museum in New Concord Ohio where they have items in their vault that they're going to bring out for us to look at and I'm looking forward to seeing what they have [Music] well hi hope hi welcome to the John Danny glim Museum well thank you so much for inviting me to look at some of the items you have here but before we take the tour can you tell me a little bit more about this house yeah so originally the house um wasn't in this position they've actually moved it twice uh when John was 2 years old his dad built it about a mile east of here above an S bridge then when they widened Route 40 in the 40s they moved it to sit on 83 um it's out there for quite a few years until we got it in 2001 to make a museum but it was in a residential area so we moved it down here to make it just a little more accessible so in the timeline of John Glenn when did he live in this house so he lived from 2 to 20 years old here he enters the military after Pearl Harbor and then you could say he lived here I mean it's where his parents were and when he came home he he would be here but um they often would move around to different places or he'd be stationed somewhere uh with his wife and kids well can we go start the tour yes of course right [Music] so welcome to the master bedroom so this is where Mr Mrs Glen would stay uh John's parents and the few things I want to show you in here Mrs Glenn's rocker uh she was a really great seamstress she did a lot of sewing um and so this rocker has this Nifty little compartment here that held all of her stuff and the reason it has the knitting on there is we're set up to 44 so she's actually knitting bandages for uh the your hospital over in Cambridge she would get the thread from the Red Cross and she would knit as much as she could to keep them stocked up why is it so short so this is actually really helpful when she was hemming skirts she wouldn't have to bend over as far to get to the bottom of them so it it put her down a little lower it might be a little awkward to get in and out of but it was really convenient for what she was using it for this is her her sewing bird and it looks a little funky but the mouth you would put your extra spare pieces of cloth in and this part up here you'd put your pins and things and it would just tighten onto the edge of a dresser or something that way you're not losing those things what a great item is there anything else in here of hers is this pretty much what you have yeah so this is all original to her including her sewing basket there but this is really all that that's hers in this room this is great do you have another place to show me yes of course [Music] so now we're in JN Glenn's Boyhood bedroom there are quite a few interesting things in this room uh first of which is the typewriter there um so this wouldn't have really sat in his bedroom it was more useful down at Mr Glenn's plumbing company they would use it to type up the the receipts and things John did recall that the one didn't work so he always had to use the lowercase L anytime someone had a one in in their cashing out we also have his Boyhood tricycle here this is something he would ride in parades all the time and actually last time it went through a parade it was put on a wagon and pulled down Main Street back in 2002 for the Memorial Day Parade um which was also our opening day so we got to sort of bring history out to the community that day for that we also have this radio here and that isn't actually John's though he did own it for a little bit it's Annie's when she was a freshman in college she got the Ms and she was quarantined to her bedroom and so John made sure that he saved up enough money by selling rhubarb uh to buy that for her and he actually snuck it through the window to her well is there anything else in this room that was John's yes so there's uh this train set over here the way that they did Christmas was a little bit different than we do it today because they didn't have a whole lot of money what they did is they bought him the track and the starter engine one Christmas the next Christmas he would get the next car maybe a little bit more track the next Christmas and so on and they did that for quite some time definitely not how we do Christmas today right no well this is a great room I'm sure you have more to show me yes I [Music] do so this is our Annie Gallery it's the newest Gallery in the museum this was our Co project but um we do have her wedding dress here and his Marine blues that he wore it is a pretty simple dress was that kind of the time yes yeah she didn't feel like she was in a position especially during World War II to really being extravagant with the way that she did her wedding they actually had a ceremony in her church and then their reception was just in her parents garden now did Annie ever live in this house no she didn't um but we felt that it was important to honor her memory and it was important to tell the story of Annie Glenn in the John and Annie Glen Museum and so we added this in for her yeah she was a very important figure in his life so do you have some items here to show us then yes I do um one of them is this lovely little dish Annie actually made it um but the change it is weirdly enough John's actual pocket change this is where he would come in and set his change every day when he came home um we also have um these notes here so Annie she had a severe stutter uh her father did two and when she gets old enough and feels secure enough um she goes to Holland's College of communication and research and they uh enter her into their Speech Therapy Program where they treat it more like a physical issue than a mental one and so we have some of the notes that she took during this and this one specifically talks about the different words that she tended to stutter over uh words she might have to find a synonym to use one of the first things she did once she got through that entire program is she called John and he was just sobbing on the other end with joy because he knew how hard it had been throughout their life for them so it really helped solve the problem to go do that yes it really did um and as soon as she gets her voice she starts using it she goes to John's engagements for him she goes and does speaking actually name an award after her for those that have communication issues but uh they still continue to be in the public that's a great story um and I see this beautiful dishes over here yes so these they got when John was not even a astronaut yet he was in the Air Force and he was doing some test pilot Tre he was on a show called Name That Tune um with Eddie hodin was his partner there but they actually won so they won $25,000 uh in today's money it's $1 134,000 that he took home wow um yes so what he does is he buys Annie an organ for their home because she loved to play the organ and with the leftover money she he buys her their first uh set of good dishes so that's what those are I feel like I have a good snapshot of their life together do you have anything from his space career oh I absolutely do all right let's go see [Music] it so this is many of our rooms that feature John's space career and what he did this here is not unfortunately the suit that he took into space but it is the one he changed into when he came back so he ends up splashing down into the Atlantic sort of as a cushion to get him back into Earth when he gets helicoptered out and onto a boat he changes into this he did get to choose his Footwear and though those might look really familiar they look a lot like Converse they're actually a different brand called Randy pedix there's a very famous photo of him with his feet kicked up and you can tell that the logo there is just a little bit off from your normal convers or check Taylor that must have been the style of the time then yes absolutely so what's behind you right now so this is a third uh size replica of his actual shuttles and so it is a a good way to sort of understand how big and how small JN is in comparison to the ship he was in how big was he um so he was 5'11 to be a Mercury astronaut you had to be taller than 5'7 but shorter than 6t so that you could actually fit in the capsule so he just barely squeaked by with that 511 that's amazing that he fit in that so this is sort of a representation of the items that the public does get to see but do you have anything in your Vault that you could show us yes let's go all [Music] right so this is another gallery that deals with John and his space career and the thing I wanted you look at first in here are these little wires in this case and they're really unassuming but they were really important when it came to monitoring his vitals during all of his training and during his orbits but to have that data be accurate they actually had to place them in the exact same place every single time and so what they did is they tattooed little dots onto Jon as to where they went when we first opened JN came to a volunteer lunch in and someone even asked him if he still had those tattoos uh he said he absolutely did so they they lasted they were the only ones he had he didn't have I love Annie or anything but just those dots that's a really interesting story now I see a globe here can you tell me a little bit about that yes so this is the thing that we pulled out of our vault for you and what it is is it's a globe that's marked with his three orbits John or a colleague of his marked it so that his family here in New Concord would know where he was and be able to visualize where he was when he was orbiting the really Nifty thing about this globe is his takeoff and touchdown points are really accurate so they sort of knew ahead of time uh where he was really going to land and they marked that pretty well how did you get a hold of this piece um so this was donated by The Glenn family along with a lot of those original pieces that we have from them other pieces we have in the museum were just the community coming together to support us some came from Ohio history connections just from all around so you talked about how the community has also donated these things do you have items that you're still looking for in your collection yeah we're happy to take anything that anyone's willing to donate to us we do have tons of newspapers and signatures but if you have a physical item from John or his life that is always really helpful we're happy to add things into our exhibits now you're obviously open to the public to look at the Museum but what are some other events that you do in the community so we host space days here uh where we have a bunch of little kids come through and they do space activities they get a tour of the house it's themed every year um and it's a a dayong camp for them we do do walkthrough tours during most community events so the Christmas parade or for the fireman's Festival here in town we we do events with that too now why is it so important do you think to sort of hold the legacy of John Glenn here JN had a major impact in a lot of Americans lives and honestly on the foundation of America itself being built up during the Space Race every time I hear a volunteer come through and they tell a story of how he impacted their life he was kind to them made them feel good as a person that's what we want to do here is continue that Legacy of um his kindness well thank you so much hope for showing us around the Museum and bringing something out of your Vault I hope people come for themselves to see all the great items that you have yeah and thank you for coming I I hope you get a chance to come back [Music] through houses can come in all shapes and sizes even though the bigger ones tend to get more attention German Village here in Columbus is packed with houses of all varieties which led one viewer to inquire which one was the smallest let's see if curious seab bus can track it [Music] [Music] down Wu's curious seabs answers your questions about our region its history and its people Columbus's historic German Village neighborhood certainly has its fair share of stately Mansions but the area is better known for its small cozy brick Cottages that leads to today's question from Sher Ray she wants to know what is the smallest home in German Village and how many square feet is it now the reason so many of the houses in German Village are small is that when the area was first populated it was actually south of the city limits the land was cheap and was parceled into smaller lots that brick masons Brewery workers and other German immigrants could afford in the mid 19th century the area thrived for decades over a 100 years years later however the neighborhood was in Decline and under threat from Demolition and new construction but thanks to heroic preservation efforts and the creation of the German Village Society the neighborhood was revitalized and designated as a historic district by the city that means there are restrictions on what can be built so homeowners devised creative ways to add more space to the storic buildings while preserving the unique character of the neighborhood though many homes have been added on to some pristine Cottages remain more or less as they were decades ago which brings us back to the question of the smallest house while German Village is famous for Brick the smallest home is actually a quaint wooden Cottage according to County records the house is just 504 Square ft documents at the German Village Society show that the building was constructed around 1911 it spent its first few years as a doctor's office and became a residence and Rental property in 1915 which it remains to this day do you have a question for Curious C bus head to wosu.org/cotr stories on the WSU mobile app and you can follow us on soci media we'll see you back here next week on Columbus [Music] neighborhoods has the town in our world the naughty Lady of sh

2024-05-10 09:20

Other news