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.