A Stone Springhouse

Bloom Township, Seneca County, Ohio

The springhouse was a common building type in rural 19th century Ohio. This structure, built over a water source, was used to store perishable goods before the refrigerator gained widespread use.

Note the tapering of the window trim, presumably to admit extra sunlight into the somewhat dark interior. Even auxiliary structures had at least some architectural detailing in the 19th century.

The creek, just visible in the top photo, was once diverted through the basement of the springhouse. Water flowed through an opening where the concrete is now.

The springhouse's roof is supported primarily by tree trunks with intact bark. Like that of a nearby log house, the roof retains its wood shingles. These shingles are attached without sheathing.

Turner House

Oxford Township, Erie County, Ohio

I don't know a lot about this house's history. It appears on the 1874 Erie County atlas, which lists R. Turner as the owner of the 70-acre farm. Typical of the frame buildings constructed in the area during the mid-19th century, the home has been unoccupied since at least 1972. Though it lacks much architectural detailing, the proportions, six-over-six windows, and interior finishes indicate a slight Greek Revival influence.

The front door is barely visible behind these obscenely large hedges.

East facade. Note the six-over-six windows and remnants of paint beneath the eaves.

The interior retains its simple, original woodwork. Two-panel doors, like the one on the right, were popular during the Greek Revival period.

This barn stands just east of the house, and is still in use. The slate roof is very unusual for an outbuilding.

Ohio Log Buildings

Two summers ago, I first read former OHS curator Donald Hutslar's book, The Architecture of Migration: Log Construction in the Ohio Country, 1750–1850. Historic log buildings had always fascinated me, and the book inspired me to learn as much as possible about them. Unfortunately, very little specific research on the subject had been completed between the mid-1980s, when Hutslar published The Architecture of Migration, and 2011. Given that I had a resource — the Internet — not available to people in the 1980s, I devoted some of my free time to the cataloging of log buildings in Ohio. At the time, I didn't quite realize how involved a project it would become.

I've included much of my research in an ArcGIS map.


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Blue pushpins indicate extant (standing) log buildings.
Red pushpins indicate demolished log buildings.
Yellow pushpins indicate standing buildings that I suspect are of log construction.
Orange pushpins indicate demolished buildings that I believe to be of log construction.

White circles with centered Xs are used when log buildings exist (or existed), but the location is unknown.

Only structures that survived into the 1950s and later are included for the sake of simplicity.

Introduction

I am a student, and I love to document the rapidly disappearing vestiges of Ohio's past.

My passion for historic architecture began a number of years ago as a mostly scientific interest, oddly enough. Old buildings were abundant, classifiable, interesting to photograph, and required neither complicated lab equipment nor a formal education to study. I initially didn't care about historic buildings because of a love of their history; rather, I gained a greater appreciation of history as a result of my research on architecture.

For now, this blog will act primarily as a mirror of my Flickr page. I hope to include a wider variety of content in the future.