Ohio House, Lone State Structure From 1876 Expo

One of 25 Constructed for the Philadelphia World's Fair

Jun 1, 2009

The Ohio State House, as it was commonly called in 1876, is the sole survivor of the state houses built for the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia.

The states participating in the 1876 Philadelphia World's Fair – officially know as the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine – aimed to put a positive spotlight on their products. Most of the buildings were made of wood or of construction materials that were no match for stone. Those buildings are long gone.

The exterior of Ohio House was built using limestone and sandstone from 20 quarries in Ohio. Stone masons carved the names of many of the quarries in the stone. Some of the stones were flat or flush. Others were were rough-hewn or rusticated.

The Designer and the Builder of the Ohio State House

For the Centennial Exhibtion held on 285 acres in Fairmount Park, each participating state paid for the erection of its state building. California and Nevada shared a house, as did Kansas and Colorado.) Heard and Sons,a firm based in Cleveland, Ohio and headed by Charles W. Heard, designed Ohio House in the Victorian Gothic style. Philadelphia master builder Aaron Doan and Company built it.

Ohio House was "forty feet square inside, was two full stories and an attic in height, and was fitted up with the reception and reading-rooms and the offices of the '[Ohio] State Commission," wrote James Dabney McCabe. McCabe's illustrated history of the exhibition, which was a celebration of the United States of America at 100, noted that in the rear of the building was a 60-foot-long annex made of wood. It no longer exists.

Uses Since 1876

Since the centennial fair, Ohio House has served a number of uses:as a storage area, as a private home, as a visitor center for the 1976 Bicentennial and as the office for the Friends of the Japanese House and Gardens. In its latest life, it is the Centennial Cafe at the Ohio House, an eatery.

The current transformation of Ohio House is made possible by Philadelphia's Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust. Created by the city in 1992, the Trust supervises the architectural preservation of historic public properties in the city and then leases them to private enterprises.

The Cafe Opens

David Groverman of Ohio House Partners opened the cafe in December 2007 following a restoration guided by the trust. Although he and his partners did not have to replace the slate roof, he said that the present roof is not the original and that it was probably replaced for the Bicentennial. The trust, of course, is a source of historical plans and records, and Groverman states that the original slate roof was in a checkerboard pattern.

The wood siding was replaced, replicating the original and its colors, said Lucy M. Strackhouse, executive director of the trust. The trust did a paint analysis on Ohio House to determine its original colors.

The Centennial Cafe at the Ohio House is a cozy place serving breakfast, salads, sandwiches, pastry and other light fare. It offers free Internet Wi-Fi access. Located in historic Fairmount Park, the cafe is easily accessible by auto or public transportation.

The cafe is located at 4700 States Drive (near the 1700 block of Belmont Avenue), Philadelphia, PA 19131.

The copyright of the article Ohio House, Lone State Structure From 1876 Expo in Art Galleries/Museums is owned by Linda N. Riggins. Permission to republish Ohio House, Lone State Structure From 1876 Expo in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.