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NEWS and NOTES THROUGH the efforts of a group of Colum- bus citizens, organized as the Kelley House Committee, Inc., and the Franklin County Historical Society, the famous Alfred Kelley mansion, located at 282 East Broad Street, has been carefully dis- mantled and removed to Franklin Park, where it is to be reconstructed and re- stored. At Franklin Park the stonework of each wall has been laid out on the ground in the same position it had vertically. Each of the three thousand stone blocks in the structure was marked to indicate its precise position. Some three hundred photographs were taken, and careful measurements and drawings were made, to record all exterior and in- terior architectural features. Walter L. Davis, construction super- intendent of the Ohio Historical Society, and Cyril H. Webster, who was on the staff of the Society as building superin- tendent of the Ohio State Museum before his retirement in 1958, supervised the dismantling and recorded the structural and architectural details. Members of the Columbus chapter of the American Institute of Architects served as con- sultants. The Alfred Kelley House was one of the largest and finest homes built in the Old Northwest at the height of the Greek Revival period. Erected in the 1830's, it was then the most imposing house in Columbus, and was until its dismantling one of the few examples of Greek Re- |
vival domestic architecture still standing in the heart of a large city. Its design is one of dignity and simplicity, featuring four Ionic porticoes and an unusual, if not unique, masking stepped parapet. The structure was built of Ohio standstone, probably brought to Columbus by canal boat. The house had many important his- torical associations. As the home of one of Ohio's ablest statesmen from 1838 to 1859, it was the center of hospitality for all important state and local political leaders. Sixty delegates to a convention in 1840 were entertained there at the same time. Alfred Kelley was one of the "fathers" of the Ohio canal system and supervised much of its construction. He became the architect of Ohio's financial and tax structure during his service in |
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the general assembly and on the canal commission. At mid-century he turned his energies to the introduction of the railroad to Ohio. THE Ohio Historical Society will hold its seventy-seventh annual meeting at the Ohio State Museum, Columbus, Friday, April 27. The theme of the meeting is to be the Early American and Ohio Decorative Arts, and a special feature will be the opening of a new decorative |