Harris Dental Museum

Bainbridge, Ross County, Ohio

A circa 1815 residence; between 1825 and 1830, the building housed the country's first dental school, operated by John Harris. Platted by the redoubtable Nathaniel Massie in 1805, Bainbridge retains a number of early structures.

Currently, this house functions as a museum operated by the Bainbridge Historical Society. It's a fascinating slice of American history, well worth a visit for individuals traveling US Highway 50.

The interior.

My favorite element of early 19th century vernacular architecture is perhaps the enclosed corner staircase; once commonplace, such staircases are, for obvious reasons, becoming quite scarce "in the wild."

In The Architecture of Migration, Donald Hutslar discusses a similar Clear Creek Township, Warren County door: "The doors in this house were made of boards interlocked by tapered and dovetailed battens. This joinery technique was used for table tops in the 18th century and before. Similar doors exist in a log house near Austintown in Mahoning County."

A Double Pen Log House

Ross County, Ohio

Reportedly, this building stood in the Paint Creek valley between Chillicothe and Bainbridge; its precise location, alas, remains a mystery. During a telephone conversation, Donald Hutslar mentioned rumors of a double pen log house in the vicinity of Chillicothe; perhaps this is that structure.

Photos from Log Cabins & Castles: Virginia Settlers in Ohio, produced in 1991 by Ohio Landscape Productions; depicted is Hubert Wilhelm, formerly a professor of geography at Ohio University. Note the whitewashed interior logs.

In central Ross County, at least three other double pen homes survived into the 20th century: the 1828 McConnell residence (presently the Chillicothe Country Club), the now-abandoned Thomas House, and a Huntington Township dwelling (depicted in The Architecture of Migration) which burned in the 1930s.