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Culture
The Way They Were
Lancaster museums offer visitors a glimpse into Ohio heritage
Serving bowls from the kitchen at the Georgian Museum show the patina of age.Step across the threshold at the Georgian Museum to discover how a privileged and prominent family once lived.
The Georgian, replete with marble fireplaces and elaborate woodcarving, was built in 1832 as the home of Samuel Maccracken, a wealthy businessman who helped finance the Ohio canal system.
“What makes the Georgian Museum unique is that it’s furnished as a house would have been in the 1830s,” says Joyce Harvey, president of the Fairfield Heritage Association. “A lot of Fairfield County handcrafted pieces are there, as well as actual pieces that would have belonged to the Maccracken family.”
Among the family furnishings on display is a hand-carved couch that conceals a safe for stashing valuables.
The Georgian – actually built in a Federalist style – is one of many architectural jewels in the area. Downtown Lancaster, established in 1800, displays a variety of architectural design influences, such as Philadelphian, New England style and even some from the American South. The city contains four National Register Historic Districts, including Square 13, with a stellar collection of 19th century houses that were part of the town’s original development.
The Georgian Museum and the Sherman House Museum, boyhood home of Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, are owned by the nonprofit Fairfield Heritage Association. The two historical museums, along with other architectural and cultural sites, draw thousands of visitors to downtown Lancaster annually, Harvey says.
“Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine this past year (2006) named the Sherman House as one of the 50 best historic homes you should visit,” Harvey says. “Only two houses in Ohio, Edison’s birthplace and the Sherman House, were listed.”
As growing numbers of history-minded tourists put Lancaster on their must-see itinerary, special events are springing up to meet the demand. The Georgian Museum, for example, periodically offers traditional afternoon tea service, with scones, shortbread and pots of tea served on sterling silver trays.
The association now has walking history tours of downtown Lancaster. It also provides tour escorts for groups as well as audiotapes for solo walking tours. Annual pilgrimage events featuring historic homes and buildings also attract a wide following.
One of the town’s most popular attractions, the Sherman House Museum on East Main, was built in three sections, with the earliest construction dating to 1811. It is listed with the federal government as a Registered National Historic Landmark.
Visitors walk through a series of rooms filled with period furnishings, including a Victorian parlor, a study once used by family patriarch Charles Sherman, and upstairs bedrooms, one of which is outfitted with items from Gen. Sherman’s Civil War field tent. Other displays include furniture owned by President Ulysses S. Grant and given to Gen. Sherman and his wife.
“It’s a wonderful historic site for Civil War enthusiasts,” Harvey says.
Lancaster Mayor David Smith says the city’s historical preservation efforts are paying off. And he predicts there will be even more historic interest in the downtown area in years to come.
“We’ve been encouraged by a lot of different property owners and tenants [improving] their façades and working with the Historic Lancaster Commission on architectural guidelines,” Smith says.
Part of these efforts are aimed at reversing the effects of a “modernization” effort in the 1960s and 1970s, which stripped original details from many of the buildings and added nontraditional elements, Smith says. One success story is that of the Orange Carpet Lounge. The historic building was outfitted several decades ago with orange carpet on the walls and loud orange paint on the front of the building, Smith says. The property owner has since restored the original facade and installed period awnings and lighting fixtures.
“The front of his two-story building is now very handsome,” Smith says.
Meanwhile, Fairfield National Bank is restoring a Main Street property to reflect the style of the early 1900s.
“Good things breed other good things,” the mayor says.
Story by Cristal Cody
Photo by Brian McCord
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