374 bartley

A footnote to today's News Journal article about last night's Council Caucus mentions what Mayor Culliver called petty criticism by Doug Versaw about the city purchasing a house at 374 Bartley Ave with NSP funds. The house in question is currently in contract with a listing price of 59,900. The purchase price of 59,432 was mentioned in the NJ article. The house has been on the market about a year and a half but is not abandoned or distressed. Culliver warned that criticism could jeopardize the city's application for round 2 NSP funds of $5 million. It seems contradictory to suggest that the criticism is petty but at the same time could be substantial enough to jeopardize the future funding.

prescott house

The Ohio Historic Preservation Office has determined that 331 Prescott appears to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places based on its association with Joseph Allonas and his contributions to Mansfield's industrial growth, etc.

The result of this determination is that the city is directed to engage consulting parties (the Historical Society, Dowtown Mansfield) in exploring alternatives to demolition.

If no "savior" owner is found or plan for redevelopment, the property could eventually be demolished, but as it turns out progress has already been made to secure a new owner and land bank it.

preservation advocacy

I began an effort back in June to get Community Development and the mayor to acknowledge the Historical Society and Preservation Commission in the process of reviewing demolitions. Such participation is codified in city ordinance in the case of the Preservation Commission, and in the federal Preservation Act in the case of the Historical Society and other groups that have standing in preservation matters.
No real progress was made in this endeavor until the Ohio Historic Preservation Office, HUD, and Ohio Department of Development joined forces and suspended the city's first round of $1.6 million Neighborhood Stabilization Funds pending the city responding to these groups, including Downtown Mansfield which stepped up as a group with standing in preservation issues and in support of our efforts.
Even under this looming threat the city is floundering in its response. An invitation by the city to a "discussion" of a list of subjects bearing on our concerns and issues turned out to be a "presentation" last Thursday night about the necessities of demolitions in ridding the city of blight. As Saturday's News Journal article pointed out, we were pretty much muttering amongst ourselves as we left this "meeting". If the reporter had listened a little closer she would have heard the phrase "they still don't get it" more than once.
So what has the city's Community Development Department learned and what doesn't it yet "get":
They have learned that preservation interests have to be invited to participate and included in the process if a project involves federal tax dollars and would harm historic properties, even if the city has chosen in the past to ignore this and a similar process mirrored in the city's own Preservation Ordinance.
They have learned that our participation doesn't begin only after Community Development has determined that a property is historic, but begins with our participation in the determination of whether it is historic, and with the participation of the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in Columbus.
They have learned that the department of HUD and the Ohio Department of Development which hands out the federal dollars will support OHPO and our interests and intervene.
But they have not learned how to implement this process. They do not yet understand that "consulting party status" can and must be bestowed on groups with "standing" and that each must be dealt with by the city. While some individuals or groups with standing may wish to work through the Richland County Historical Society, which the city was literally forced to include in the new Programmatic Agreement, they are nevertheless not required to do so, nor would the RCHS be required to advocate for them. And the city will need to recognize this when they submit a plan to OHPO as part of the requirement to repair the process here in Mansfield.
At present, the city's hope that they have only been forced to open up the process to the RCHS will be dashed when they find out that Columbus will not accept a plan that curtails other groups with standing. It also remains to be seen whether our city administration understands that engaging consulting parties is a two-way street and that they need to share information with consulting parties.
The city has also not learned that "transparency" is only a prerequisite for this process, not its sum total, and we need to learn this distinction throughout the process of city government, not just preservation. The Preservation Act codifies public "participation"!
The city has not learned the implications that within the Mansfield community and city government there is a department that operates the biggest HUD program in the county and has had the educational resources of HUD and ODOD to help them properly implement federally funded programs over the last decade or more, and yet that department has expressed not only ignorance of the process but resistance to it, forcing preservation advocates, including the city's own Preservation Commission, housed under the auspices of that department, to look elsewhere for the expertise and support it needed.

Painting by Tim McKee

preservation advocacy and neighborhood revitalization

Thomas Palmer of Preservation Ohio attended last Thursday's presentation in Council Chambers and has written a thoughtful article that you can read here on his MyHometownOhio blog.

new journal report

The News Journal report on Thursday night's meeting ran today. Looking at my last post, and reading today's article makes me realize how desperate I've been to see something positive in the meeting, while the public perception via the News Journal makes it seem hopeless that the city administration will ever "get it". As reported, the meeting, which was supposed to help ameleorate the city's blatant disregard of the Preservation Act in the past and get NSP funding restored, was instead a propoganda presentation about demolitions.
Prior to this meeting a person whom the mayor would still talk to at the time asked him for an opportunity for us to meet with him and discuss the issues, but this presentation was all that we got. The mayor now has not returned a subsequent call from this intermediary to follow up on any possiblity of getting together.

meeting tonight

Tonight's meeting in council chambers turned out to be a "public meeting". It was anticlimatic. About 80% about the evils of vacant properties and 10% the real issues of Section 106 Review and NSP funding. Chuck Gleaves pointed out that the thrust of the presentation seemed to be that blight was evil, and he wondered whether the city thought there were people who disagreed with that and needed convincing. Dan Seckel followed up with some questions about why in all his years on the Preservation Commission there were no reviews put before the commisson, and Ms. Baker answered honestly that they had not been done. That was one of two breakthroughs with this meeting. The other was that the mayor and presenters did not interject any surprises that would sink the progress of resolving these issues, as they have been prone to do up till now.

skyline at sunup

downtown mansfield

OHPO in Columbus has informed Community Development that Downtown Mansfield's request to sign onto the Programmatic Agreement which they made on October 21 must be implemented.

finial

Ta Da! The new east gable finial going back in place today.

programmatic agreement

Downtown Mansfield's exclusion from the Programmatic Agreement, as reported in the News Journal yesterday, was an unfortunate development. I supported their involvement, and the mayor's reasons for not including them are troubling. Mark Epstein at OHPO in Columbus signed the agreement without Downtown included in order to expedite the resolution of the issues causing suspension of NSP funds. He did not sign it based on any effort to cut "red tape" and limit the number of groups involved in the process. To characterize public involvement in any government undertaking as an impediment as the mayor did, especially in an area so thoroughly codified in federal law, is, repeat, troubling. Epstein had every right to hold up the agreement and require that Downtown was included, which they had already directed the city to do.
Downtown will be working through our organization and their interests will be served. I have had an excellent working relationship with Downtown Mansfield through the Preservation Commission and Historical Society. Downtown partnered with the Preservation Commission in creation of the Central Park Historic District in 2003.
The meeting being called next Thursday to discuss NSP funding, Programatic Agreement, Preservation, etc. includes some interesting invitees. The "Woodland Group" on the list consists of the vocal opposition group which fought down the Preservation Commission's attempt to create a Woodland Historic District. This will be their opportunity to be supporters of preservation, as they professed to be.
Also interesting was the exclusion of the Historical Society from the list of invitees in the initial round of letters that went out. That has been corrected, and I have received my personal invitation.

last night's council vote

Despite the current suspension of NSP funds to the city and at the urging of Mayor Culliver, Council voted 5-4 for demolition of 147 W. First Street last night. The Historical Society had requested to participate in the Section 106 Review of that property and requested Council to table or vote the issue down. Mayor Culliver professed support of preservation at the Council meeting while urging council to vote for the demolition of the property at the same time. He explained that he had saved the property at 331 Prescott from demolition through his own response to learning it was coming down when informed by my voicemail of the situation. He said he has worked everything out with Columbus yesterday afternoon in a conference call, so the city knows what it has to do to get the NSP funding suspension lifted. He assured council that voting this demolition would not hamper that response because they can hold the demolition in abeyance until the review is approved.
The mayor gave the impression that talking directly with Columbus (HUD, ODOD, and OHPO) he had cleared the way to oppose the Historical Society request to table or vote down the demolition. The Richland County Historical Society has singled out this and one other property on a list of 57 demolitions.
-property address of 147 W. First St. corrected in this post-

demo list

Among the statements made by the mayor and Ms. Baker was that the Preservation Commission was presented with a demolition list in September. Checking back in my blog posts, I note that was actually on October 15, just two weeks ago and we have completely responded to that list in good faith, both from the Preservation Commission and the Historical Society.

news journal article this morning

Well, it's on the front page this morning. I want to go on record as saying that the News Journal article was dead on. Congratulations to the reporter Linda Martz for understanding the situation so thoroughly.
It is interesting that Ms. Baker brought up the Rennaisance because Dan Seckel was the architect and pesented the project before the Preservation Commission over two years ago, including tearing down the adjacent building. I'm not clear if Ms. Baker thinks we should have saved it or what her concern is?
This was not supposed to be the way we are going to fix this situation anyway. OHPO, HUD, and ODOD are not raising issues of how the city operated their HUD program in the past, and for Cindy Baker and the mayor to bring the issue of past operating procedure out in a public forum and now on the front page of the News Journal is a pretty ugly way to comply with a simple directive from OHPO to move forward properly and save the funding.

caucus

I went to tonight's caucus but learned that the committee meeting already going on would have been the place to be. I guess my name was bandied about quite a bit. I talked to the mayor afterwards, and he does not seem to be fully aware of how thoroughly his administration has stonewalled the Historical Society. I talked to the law director some also. I guess since they only just got the letter from OHPO on Friday it will take the Community Development Department a little longer to digest it and stop just railing against me.

the crows

Tonight the first advance party of crows is trying to roost here.
This year I'm not letting them get a foothold.
BATTLE STATIONS!

programmatic agreement

The mayor's office has contacted the Historical Society president Tim McKee this afternoon requesting that he come in and sign on to the new Programmatic Agreement. Also OHPO has stipulated that the city respond to our repeated requests for information about HUD funded projects as a condition for OHPO acceptance of the agreement.

147 w first st

147 W. First Street was the latest addition to the demolition list and due for Council vote tomorrow night. The Historical Society notified the city over the weekend that it was requesting consulting party status in the Section 106 Review of this demolition and requested that it be taken off the table for Council vote. The latest resport from Council is that it will now be taken off the table. Under threat by the Ohio Department of Development of loss of NSP funds, the city appears to be ready to execute a new Programmatic Agreement with consulting party status to the Historical Society and now Downtown Masnfield which has requested similar recognition. The subject will come up at tonight's Council Caucus.
Today marks exactly 5 months since the Historical Society's initial request to the city on June 2.

programmatic agreement

One of the ironies of the issue of getting NSP funds on a fast track has been that when the Historical Society contacted the city originally back in June, there was a new Programmatic Agreement template available that would have streamlined the approval process for federally funded rehabs. The Community Development Department had not filled the template out for submission at that time, while the County's version of the same agreement had already been submitted and signed by the Advisory Council in Washington and OHPO in Columbus. As of today, nearly six months later, the city's agreement is being held up for approval in Columbus because of the city's failure to engage the Historical Society in the Section 106 Review process. Operating under an older version of the agreement or none at all, the city has to submit every project to OHPO for approval.

demolition list response

At Friday's Trustee meeting the Historical Society concurred unanimously with the assessment by the Preservation Commission, and a letter has been sent to Codes about the demolition list, including the finalized historical research on the house at 331 Prescott.

preservation commission meeting

The City of Mansfield Historic Preservation Commission reviewed the proposed demolition list provided by the city (and linked below in a previous post). The Commission voted to send a letter to Codes identifying the properties on the list that are on the Ohio Historic Inventory but taking no exception to the demolitions except for 331 Prescott which can potentially be land banked, and 153 S. Franklin which should not have been demolished without review, and which may have also warranted saving.
The Richland County Historical Society will consider its response to the list on Friday.

331 prescott st

The following drama played out last month and I'm recapping it here because of the RCHS's ongoing efforts that are outlined in previous posts.

After learning of an Aug. 18 Council vote to demolish 331 Prescott St. we put Mansfield's Community Development Department and the Mayor on written notice that the Historical Society would have an interest and would submit historical information about the property for consideration. On Sept 7 after getting no response, we submitted a preliminary assessment. 3 days later on the 10th we learned early in the morning that the house would come down that day. Through the intervention of the Ohio Historic Preservation Office and HUD's State Environmental Oficer the house was left standing. It is still on the demolition list, however, as the city presumably follows through with Section 106 Review.

The house was built in 1865 by Henry D. Keith and sold to Joseph Allonas in 1870. Keith was judge of probate court and Allonas was the first superintendent of the Altman Taylor Company which established here in 1867. The house is Italian Villa style, originally sporting a cupola, and porches. Like Oak Hill Cottage, the main interior walls are brick from the basement to the roof. It sits less than 1000 feet west of Oak Hill, off Springmill Street. The situation with the property seems hopeful for protection with good possibilities for land banking it through a non profit.

153 s. franklin

The demolition list provided by Codes yesterday included 153 S. Franklin, which is one of three houses on the list already demolished. This old brick house is (sorry, was) listed on the Ohio Historic Inventory and was built prior to 1853 according to the OHI information sheet. This is a good example of why the Historical Society is pressing the city for consulting party status per the provisions of the Preservation Act, and putting a public spotlight on how the city is spending federal tax dollars. A Section 106 Review should have been done by the city on the demolition of this property, and Ohio Historic Preservation Office approval granted, before being demolished (or saved).

cast iron cover

I hate blog posts without photos, so here's a photo to break up the monotony of the last three!

Detail of fireplace cover in the parlor at Oak Hill Cottage

demolition list

This morning Codes and Permits sent us the list of demolitons currently in the works. This is a giant step forward at least from the aspect of being able to review the list of properties and determine if any warrant our input. It does not address the requested list of rehab projects which Codes says will have to come from Community Development. If anyone is interested in it, here is a link which is an xls file. Also per the email I got:
"Sites approved at the last Council meeting (10/6/09 have not been released for bid) are:
131 Arthur Ave., 35 W. Augustine, 14-14 1/2 W. Blanche St., 143 Hedges St., 137 W. Dickson Ave., 96 Marion Ave., 125 Ford St.,
Sites scheduled for 10/20/09 Council meeting are:
311 W. Sixth St., 64-66-66 1/2 Wood St., 68 Wood St."

historical society request for consulting party status

The previous blog post below gives background on understanding the current problem the City of Mansfield is having with complying with the Preservation Act.
In June 2009 the Richland County Historical Society requested Consulting Party status in Section 106 Review of federally funded projects under the city's Community Development Department via official letter to the head of the department. In July 2009 the Historical Society requested a list of the adresses of federally funded rehab projects and demolitions being planned via official letter. Neither request has been acknowledged or responded to by the city, although City Council has approved at least two batches of demolitions in recent meetings, and reportedly about 80 are planned, using Neighborhood Stabilization Funds.
NSP funds are on a fast track, and if not spent correctly and within the deadline framework, I understand it could influence our ability to get round 2 funds. With Community Development stonewalling the Historical Society for the last 4 1/2 months there may come a day when the city wakes up to its responsibilities under the Preservation Act, realizes they have botched the process and can't get OHPO approval for their projects, and blame the delay or failure of the process on the Historical Society.
My purpose of belaboring my blog with this sad tale is to head off the blame game when this comes to pass. We have made repeated attempts to inform the city of their legal responsibility to respond and resolve this. We have worked through coucil members, the Ohio Preservation Office in Columbus, and the Department of HUD.
It now comes down to waiting and hoping that somehow this gets worked out.

preservation act

This post will be a preamble or footnote to further posts about the City of Mansfield's HUD program and how the Preservation Act applies to their operations.
The following paragraphs are extracted verbatim from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation publication "Protecting Historic Properties; A Citizen's Guide to Section 106 Review".
In 1966, the Federal Government created a process to ensure that American citizens would always have the opportunity to learn about and influence Government activities that could affect their communities’ historic resources.
Section 106 review is your opportunity to alert the Federal Government to the historic properties you value and to influence decisions about the Federal projects that affect them.
In the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Congress established a comprehensive program to preserve the historical and cultural foundations of the Nation as a living part of community life. Section 106 of NHPA is crucial to that program, because it requires consideration of historic preservation in the multitude of Federal actions that take place nationwide. Section 106 requires Federal agencies to considerthe effects of their actions on historic properties and provide the ACHP an opportunity to comment on Federal projects prior to implementation.
Regulations issued by the ACHP guide Section 106 review, specifying actions Federal agencies must take to meet their legal obligations. The regulations are published in the Code of Federal Regulations at 36 CFR Part 800, “Protecting Historic Properties,” and can be found on the ACHP’s Web site at ww.achp.gov/regs.html.
To successfully complete Section 106 review,Federal agencies must:
• determine if Section 106 of NHPA applies to a given project and, if so, initiate the review;
• gather information to decide which properties in the project area are listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places;
• determine how historic properties might be affected;
• explore alternatives to avoid or reduce harm to historic properties; and
• reach agreement with the SHPO [State Historic Preservation Office] /tribe (and the ACHP in some cases) on measures to deal with any adverse effects or obtain advisory comments from the ACHP, which are sent to the head of the agency.
The point of Section 106 review is not to stop projects. It is to ensure that Federal agencies fully consider historic preservation issues and the views of the public during project planning.
Throughout Section 106 review, Federal agencies must consider the views of the public. This is particularly important when an agency is trying to identify historic properties that might be affected by a project and is considering ways to avoid or minimize harm. In either case, agencies must give the public a chance to learn about the project and provide their views.
In addition to seeking the views of the public, Federal agencies must actively consult with certain organizations and individuals during review. This interactive consultation is at the heart of Section 106 review. You or your organization may want to take an active role in Section 106 review, especially if you have a legal or economic interest in the project or the affected properties.
Who Are “Consulting Parties”? The following parties are entitled to actively participate as consulting parties during Section 106 review: State Historic Preservation Officers Indian tribes Native Hawaiian organizations Local governments Applicants for Federal assistance, permits, licenses, and other approvals Other individuals and organizations with a demonstrated interest in the project may participate in Section 106 review as consulting parties “due to the nature of their legal or economic relation to the undertaking or affected properties, or their concern with the undertaking’s effects on historic properties.”
Federal agencies must conclude Section 106 review before project funds are approved or permits issued. They must not sign contracts or take other actions that would preclude consideration of the full range of alternatives to avoid or minimize harm to historic properties before Section 106 review is complete.
The City of Mansfield is an "entitlement city", operating the HUD program through their office of Community Development on behalf of the Department of HUD. The city takes on the responsibility that HUD has, as a federal agency, to comply with the Preservation Act.

oak hill cottage out of doors

A slide show about the historic landscape restoration project at Oak Hill Cottage

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by alanwigton Upload your own presentation

blockhouse

One of the difficult decisions with the blockhouse restoration has been how to deal with the old dark redish brown stain on the older logs. It was obviously there to stay. My personal feeling was to treat the wood without a paint or stain and let the differences in the color of the logs tell their own story. The other extreme was to stain all the logs, which was a course that Don Hutsler of the Ohio Historical Society recommended. At this juncture the committee has chosen to paint a gray stain over the brown and leave the color of the new logs to weather, which will still allow the visual interpretation of the new vs old logs while evening out the color overall. It seems like a good compromise, and will be reviewed at the Sept 16 Historic Preservation Commission meeting. Hopefully if this can be codified, so to speak, it will stand a chance of not being undone by some future whim of the city.

new/old arbor

A new arched rose arbor was installed today across the front walk of Oak Hill Cottage...part of the ongoing effort to restore the Victorian landscape plan. The original arbor in this location shows in old photos, but obscured by foliage that hides its exact design. The new arbor has been designed to capture the essence of what we can see in the photos.

clematis

first crop

The first tomatoes from my garden!

Singing on the Square

Some old fashioned sounds downtown today, with a Mennonite choir singing (and some preaching) in the bandstand. Listen on this video. Your extra bonus is a slide show of the Square. The song..."There's a Fountain Free" by Mary B. Slade 1876. "Will you come to the fountain free?Will you come? ’tis for you and me;Thirsty soul hear the welcome call:’Tis a fountain opened for all."

another present from the crows

The crows that visited me last winter left another present besides the sand on my garage roof. (see previous post). Besides sand, they spew poison ivy seeds from the berries they eat, and they're sprouting now under every tree they roosted in, including the wild cherry tree in my yard and the oak tree on the west side of the Cottage.

time to mow

When the grass gets a little long in the west yard at the Cottage it has an old fashioned look. Prior to the 1870s the grass would have been mowed with a sythe about 4 times a year. I remember my grandfather using a sythe to cut grass (I was 10 or 11 years old) and I've tried many times but never got the hang of it. I remember him methodically stoning the blade from time to time, and when he swung the sythe the blade sliced through a narrow swath, neatly laying the grass down. I know my Dad had a sythe and used it to mow hillsides, but for some reason the image of my Grandfather mowing grass sticks in my memory.

mock orange

The mock orange along the lower edge of the yard has been blooming for well over a week but has almost no fragrance. Same over west of the cottage. Last year this old one beside the house bloomed about the time I moved in, and it's fragrance was very strong. It's just now starting to bloom and I hope it smells as good this year. Its blossoms seem more shapely and petals thicker.

crow beach

I was cleaning off the garage roof today and wondering why it had so much coarse sand on it. It was directly beneath the crows that roosted here last winter. I looked it up and crows eat large amounts of sand and gravel for digestion, and unlike many birds that retain it till it's worn out, they eject it constantly. So the sand is a feature of crow roosts.
They arived last October and I finally convinced them to move along sometime in December. They went down along the railroad tracks for the rest of the winter. I hope they liked it down there.
I also learned one of their favorite berries is poison ivy, so they spread the seeds of course.

living history portrait

Group portrait of the living history cast by Tim Mckee.

living history

Dr. Johannes Jones and Francis Ida Jones give a short discourse to visitors to the Jones family plot at Mansfield Cemetery May 24 as part of the living history event.

flower update; spiderwort

one more iris picture

I had to share this variety of iris that started blooming today.

catching up on flowers

The tree peony in my garden has been blooming for over a week. This is the peony you see in Chinese paintings...it has a woody stem and isn't cut back in the fall. The first iris bloomed yesterday and the first poppies opened up this morning.

columbine

This one single plant showed up in the little mint patch in my yard. I should have been clueless what it was, but something in my brain said "columbine", and that's what it apparently is.

wild geraniums

The wild geraniums are blooming along the north side of my house. The Vaneff daughter Antina who grew up in the house says her father brought them back from a trip to the old country (Macedonia). She says the girls in Macedonia would crush the leaves and rub them behind their ears for the perfume aroma.

historic wood windows

The National Trust tip sheet on Historic Wood Windows is a must read if you are thinking about window replacement, especially for windows made before the 1940s. Could you be reaping a net loss over the life span of the replacement window? How hard is it to repair and maintain your original windows? How does the combination of a restored single pane window and a storm window compare to a modern vinyl double pane window?

historic landscape presentation

I gave a presentation last Friday at the Historical Society membership meeting about the historic landscape study that was done in 1982/83 at Oak Hill. You can view it here.

lilacs

My lilacs are in bloom. These are original to the grounds of Oak Hill and will be used to restore the bushes that used to be around the cottage. The mock orange bushes are just barely beginning to get leaves.

crown imperial

My Fritillaria Imperialus are in bloom. Out of 7 bulbs, three got the heads nipped off close to the ground just as they started to develop. One grew up, but its blossoms didn't develop. So that left me with three, just like in the old photo I posted last year.

bloodroot

The daffodils, hyacinths, and a few tulips are blooming, but these bloodroot were the latest unexpected spring flowers to pop up alongside the shady side of the house.

spring flowers

The Vaneff House where I live, across from Oak Hill Cottage, was home since the 1920s to one of many Macedonian families in this neighborhood . I'm going to try to post the flowers as they pop up in the gardens. The yellow flower, Eranthis hyemalis (Winter Aconite), showed up first this year the first week of March in several small clumps. They are native to southern Europe. The blossoms are closed in the picture because of the cold. The little blue flowers are blooming now all over two beds and at the base of the wild cherry tree. They are Chionodoxa lucilia (Glory-of-the-snow), a native of Turkey.

total eclipse post hydrant

When Oak Hill Cottage got indoor plumbing in 1877, the contract called for 5 yard hydrants. The one showing up most often in old photos was alongside the front walk, but none of the originals survive. Kupferle Foundry in St. Louis has been making the Total Eclipse brand of yard hydrants since 1857, and we have purchased and installed this nice piece of Victorian cast iron in its original location.

urns

Cast iron urns were a feature of Oak Hill Cottage's Victorian landscape since the 1870s, but haven't been displayed for many years for fear of losing the valuable antiques. Recently the Society Board purchased new reproduction urns of similar size and style, and they are now flanking the front porch and sporting pansies until the weather warms enough for a more elaborate display.

dining room

The rear wing of Oak Hill Cottage contains the dining room and kitchen with the servant's rooms in a half story above the dining room. The low dining room ceiling of about 8 feet and the way some of the window trim is cut short because of the lower ceiling, prompted the interpretation that there was originally a high cathedral ceiling that had been lowered by the Jones family (second occupants of the house) to accommodate their need for servant's quarters.
I have never believed this! My instinct that the dining room is unaltered goes back to my grandparent's house in Kentucky which was built about the same time, and had exactly the same arrangement. From the main part of the second floor of that house, there were two or three steps down into the second floor of the rear wing above the kitchen, just like Oak Hill's short doorway in the nursery leading into the servant's area.
Secondly, I felt the evidence just wasn't strong enough to make it part of the tour dialog and spoil the ideal of an unaltered floor plan.
Today in the servant's hallway above the dining room I took up a short floorboard to have a look at the joist end that normally rests in a pocket in the brick wall. If the dining room ceiling had been lowered, you would expect to find something unusual here. Perhaps a pocket made by removing bricks, or the joist resting on a header. But instead I found a very normal looking pocket that had been created as the original wall was laid. The photo below is looking down into the space with the joist on the left.

I think this is invalidates the notion that the ceiling was lowered.

rubber tires

When I posted the pictures of the National auto I wondered if the horseless carriage and rubber tires were simultaneous developments. Now I notice in a photo that this carriage has rubber tires just like the auto. This would be about late 1890s, and the location is entering the carriage drive in front of Oak Hill Cottage in Mansfield.

1905 national

Possibly the only surviving example of an auto manufactured in Mansfield will be on display starting this season at the carriage house at Oak Hill Cottage. Built by the Richland Buggy Company in 1905, the "National" was purchased and brought back to Mansfield through the efforts of local donors and restored by Richard Taylor. For several years it resided on the second floor of the city building, but now has its own "garage" within the renovated carriage house. For more photos, go to www.oakhillcottage.org/national

errata

Further research; John Riley Robinson
Any historical research encounters a myriad of details that can be carefully sorted out or casually glossed over, and there's usually a certain amount of both in any story. I knew when I wrote the Robinson episodes below, that there would be further work to do and revisions to make.

I made a couple of trips to the county recorders office today to trace Oak Hill's title. The deeds confirm that Oak Hill was sold at sheriff's sale in 1860. It appears to be a foreclosure. The sale was to satisfy a judgment of $9,320 and the property was purchased at the sale by Farmer's Bank, then resold to Harvey Hall for $7,000 who sold it to Dr. Jones three years later for $12,000. Thus it appears when the 1860 census showed Robinson's real estate valued at $10,000 he was essentially wiped out, probably a result of the bankruptcy of the railroad in 1855. Nevertheless, his connections with the Barneys, the Overland, and Wells Fargo took him on to his silver mine venture and great wealth.

john riley robinson; part 7

Llandaff c. 1878 home of John Robinson at Easton, MD.

Seventh and final installment in a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage
According to Steve Wilson, director emeritus of the Museum of the Great Plains, the revolutionary Adolfo Ibarra occupied Batopilas on July 23, 1872, and jailed John Robinson for five days. On Dec. 17, 1871, the company had paid a forced loan of $6,000, and in July 1872, Ibarra imposed a loan of $100,000. He got $15,918, and another $3,000 in silver. The revolutionaries took over the mine and mill and took another $207,180.

After Batopilas, Robinson went on to discover and develop silver mines in the Santa Eulalia district of Chihuahua, and formed the Don Enrique Mining Co. , at Cusihuiriachick, and the Santa Eulalia Silver Mining Co., with headquarters at Hacienda Robinson. He sold the companies in 1890.

At about the time of the sale of the Batopilas mine in 1879, Robinson built a new home, Llandaff, in the Queen Anne style at Easton, MD. The estate stayed in the family for 127 years and like Oak Hill Cottage is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jane, his first wife, died in 1883 and Robinson married Katherine Taylor in 1885. John Robinson’s obituary in the New York Times, on his death May 9, 1892 sketches the broad outlines of his adventurous and prosperous life.

“Long John Robinson Dead. Baltimore, May 9 …John R. Robinson came from Florida on Saturday to his home, Llandaff Farm, Bailey’s Neck. He was then a very sick man, and died to-day, aged eighty-two years. An Easton (MD.) dispatch to the Baltimore Sun says: Mr. Robinson has been for many years a conspicuous figure in large business and financial operations in this country and Mexico. ‘Long John’ Robinson was well known in Wall Street, New York. …His first business venture of importance was the construction of the first railroad built in Ohio, that from Columbus to Sandusky.”

“He was manager of the great line of stages that was run between Fort Smith, Ark., and San Francisco. During the civil war Mr. Robinson went to Mexico and developed a silver mine which paid 12 percent a month for several years to its New York stockholders. Mr Robinson later got possession of other mines in Chihuahua…”

john riley robinson; part 6

Sixth installment in a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage
Robinson left Mansfield Feb. 27, 1861 on his trip to purchase a nearly idle 200 year old silver mine in the Sierra Madre, reaching Batopilas, Mexico in early May. Back in Mansfield, a survey of the Oak Hill property dated May 14 drawn up by surveyor John Newman indicates a sale or transfer of the property was in the process at that time.

After inspection and negotiations, Robinson purchased the silver mine for $20,000 which was considerably less than the $50,000 in the conditional purchase contract. Robinson supervised mining operations for the next 18 years, returning great profits for the investors. The partners sold out in 1879 for $600,000.

Though immensely profitable, Robinson’s venture was tragic on a personal level. Hart writes in his book The Silver of the Sierra Madre; “His sons Asher and James Willshire Robinson both succumbed to typhoid fever at Batopilas in September 1861 and June 1862, respectively. Then the passing of his two grandchildren, Fred and Lena, victims of the same disease in the same place a little more than a decade later compounded his grief.”

Edward Wilkinson, who became the founding director of the Mansfield Memorial Museum, was the nephew of Robinson’s wife Jane. His brother Samuel worked for Robinson running the silver mine at Batopilas and later at Chihuahua. Edward’s two sojourns in Mexico c. 1875 and 1885, collecting specimens of flora and fauna while working for the mine, were occasioned by this family connection.

john riley robinson; part 5

Fifth installment of a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage
Robinson’s 1892 obituary credits him with having been the manager of the "great line of stages that was run between Fort Smith, Ark., and San Francisco ". In the 1861 diary of his first trip to Batopilas to purchase the silver mine he writes forward to his son Asher “on the overland” to make ready to accompany him if he wished. Asher and another man named Tom Lavin joined the party at Ft. Smith. Lavin may have been a Lexington, Ohio local because prior to departing Mansfield on the trip Robinson writes that he visited “old man and Pat Lavin” at Lexington.

In the 1860 census, Asher Robinson’s occupation is listed as “conductor”. A conductor was the man who rode up with the driver and took care of passengers, baggage, etc. And finally, as further evidence of his work for the “Overland”, in his 1873 diary of a trip from the Batopilas mine in Mexico to New York delivering a shipment of silver, he writes that he “met some of my old drivers on the overland.”

Robinson closed Oak Hill in February, 1861 at the beginning of his venture in the Mexican silver mine. It appears he was staking his diminished, but still considerable resources on the Mexican venture. In his diary before leaving Mansfield he mentions his daughter May, who had been unwell, his son Willshire at Delaware College, and his son Asher on the Overland. The impression is that he’s closing Oak Hill but his wife and family are remaining in the Mansfield vicinity. He sells the furniture from the house to “Hall and Allen” for $445, and consigns “a lot of lamps” to “Edward and James” to sell and apply the proceeds to “payment of an S. & B. bill of $43.00 due from Asher.”

john riley robinson; part 4

Fourth installment of a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage

Historian John Mason Hart in his book “The Silver of the Sierra Madre” credits Robinson with being a member of upper management with Wells Fargo & Company, a judge, and a doctor.

The Wells Fargo association was true, but the judge and doctor attributions are questionable. Robinson does not appear to have claimed to be a doctor in the professional sense, even though the 1860 census lists that as his profession. During his first trip to Batopilas, Mexico at the beginning of his silver mine venture, he relates the following; “Attended to the sick Senoras in the lower part of the house, and administered medicine for a sore breast for one, and for a pain in the side and limbs for another. They seem to think every Yankee is a physician. If I am successful in these cases, expect to be called to attend all the afflicted of the town, particularly the female portion.”

The profession of judge seems equally unlikely. During his stopover at Ft. Davis in the diary of his first Batopilas trip he relates the following: “The corral was broken into last night and a driver was seen in the act of placing halters on the mules. The guard shot at 2 Greasers who were tearing down the wall. The driver was tried by Judge Lynch, in whose stead I officiated, and adjudged him to leave on the first stage for San Francisco or be strung up to a cottonwood tree. He chose the former.” The “Judge Lynch” Robinson alludes to was a Western euphemism for a vigilante trial. It is doubtful Robinson was a judge in any other sense than where the absence of established courts brought Judge Lynch to the bench, and the most prominent or respected man present officiated “in his stead”.

But his connection with Wells Fargo is well established. In Noel Loomis’s book, Wells Fargo, he quotes a letter from Robinson in New York in 1860 on Overland Mail letterhead. Robinson outlines his objectives of an upcoming silver mine venture in which he envisions the “introduction of Wells Fargo & Company into Mexico in their express and banking business.” He mentions William Fargo, the Barneys, and himself as the potential purchasers of the mine.

Wells Fargo was established in 1852 to provide express and banking services to California. Wells, Butterfield and Company was part of the American Express. John Butterfield was the line superintendent of this grand combine, from which the joint contractors had been recruited to build the Great Overland Mail Company, of which Butterfield was president. From September 15, 1857 these contractors had exactly one year to create the southern mail route, operating across 3000 miles, 165 stations, and seven deserts to provide twice weekly mail service to California. Wells, Fargo, & Company gained control of the Overland Mail Company in 1860, the same year as Robinson’s letter. The southern mail, the “Oxbow Route”, ceased operation in 1861 with the outbreak of the Civil War.

john riley robinson; part 3

Third installment of a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage
In building Oak Hill, Robinson may have revealed a kindred artistic spirit with the younger Sherman brother. John Sherman’s library is archived at the Mansfield Public Library today, and includes A. J. Downing’s “Cottage Residences”, probably the most influential book of its time promoting the Romantic Revival and the Gothic Revival style of architecture that was part of that movement. Sherman’s first home built in the city, like Oak Hill, was a Gothic Revival masterpiece straight out of the pages of Downing and other “taste” books of the day.

Robinson’s Oak Hill Cottage conformed in nearly every detail to Downing’s ideals; construction methods, exterior and interior trim, room layout, kitchen location, dinning room, and servants quarters, and we would expect the furnishings were equally correct in style and quality.
While the hilltop location was not Downing’s idea of the best situation for this style of house, he allowed it as a possible choice. And the existing archaeology, historical photos, and documents indicate the landscape plan conformed as thoroughly to the taste books as the details of the house itself.

No doubt Robinson utilized his new railroad, as the Jones family did in later years, to furnish and decorate the house in an up to date manner that had not previously been possible. But primarily the opening of the railroad was essential to the importation of the lumber that fed Mansfield’s building boom of the next few decades, and to the export of the products of the interior farmlands to the port of Sandusky.

The railroad never managed to make money for its investors. By 1853 it had consolidated with two other lines to become the Sandusky, Mansfield, and Newark Railroad. By 1855 it was reorganized under receivership and bankrupt. Robinson was gone from the business by then. The flour mill had also changed ownership, and Robinson’s estate in the 1860 census was valued at $10,000 and personal property at $1,000. This was a drop of $14,000 from the census of 1850, a change that might be accounted for by the bankruptcy of the railroad.

john riley robinson; part 2

Second installment of a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage

The business directory on the 1853 map of the city shows Robinson’s freight forwarding office at the same location as the flour mill.

Ten lots along N. Walnut street in the 1850 tax record are divided between seven to the railroad and three to Robinson & Riley, with the total tax value lumped together at $150,000. This is a staggering sum, considering no other property in the city topped $8000.

The flour mill, on three of these lots, was almost on the end of the line for the railroad, but not quite! A track from Walnut Street curved SE to a warehouse next to where City Mills stands at North Main and 5th Street. The descendants of that track, an old siding, can still be seen there today. This track, in 1850, served the Sherman and Emminger Sash Factory, a joint venture of Jacob Emminger and John Sherman who was still in his 20s at that time.

John Sherman’s wealth early on was associated with the railroad, a fact made clear by a brief mention in his biographical reminiscences; “I had in addition to my practice [law], engaged in a profitable business with Jacob Emminger, a practical mechanic, in the manufacture of doors, blinds and other building materials. We acquired valuable pine-lands in Michigan and transported the lumber to our works at Mansfield” [by the SC&M Railroad].

The depletion of the forests of Maine and the opening up of timber lands for the harvest of the white pine forests in Michigan had brought about a bonanza in land speculation that created more wealth than the California Gold Rush of 1849.

There evidently were strong connections between John Riley Robinson and the Shermans. John Sherman was admitted to the Bar in 1844 at the age of 21, and partnered with his older brother Charles T. Sherman, a prominent lawyer in Mansfield. One of John’s earliest jobs as an attorney was representing the railroad in the acquisition of the right of way from Plymouth to Mansfield. This would have closely associated Sherman with John Robinson, even if there was no other connection. In fact, Robinson named one of his sons Charles Sherman Robinson, indicating there was a close friendship between John and the older Sherman brother. They were equal major shareholders in the railroad and probably had other business dealing together.