Participants in the 14th annual Bexley House & Garden Tour will not only raise funds to help local students attend the college, they will also learn about the architecture of each house and the history of prominent previous owners.
The tour, presented by the Bexley Women’s Club, will take place on June 5 from 10am to 4pm and will feature the interiors and exteriors of six houses, two private gardens and a municipal park. Proceeds go to college scholarships for high school seniors residing in Bexley.
During a May 12 presentation at the Bexley Public Library (BPL), BPL’s local history librarian, David Distelhorst, and local architect, Amy Lauerhass, described the historic nature of the homes on the tour.
Featured properties include 2080 Clifton Ave., the headquarters of the Bexley Historical Society & Museum, adjacent to the Jeffrey Mansion recreation facility and park.
In the early 1900s, the building was part of the estate of industrialist and early Columbus mayor Robert Jeffrey, and originally served as living quarters for the Jeffrey family’s house manager and chauffeur, Distelhort said.
“In 1941 the Jeffrey family donated the mansion and grounds for a park to the town of Bexley,” said Distelhort. “By this time the town of Bexley had the caretaker as a resident and later the overseer of Bexley’s recreation department lived in the cottage.”
In 2006, the facility opened as the Bexley Historical Society & Museum, Distelhort said.
“The museum will be open on the day of the tour,” he said.
Two other historic buildings featured on the tour originally belonged to Capital University administrators and faculty: 2406 N. Havenwood Drive, a 1929 home owned by the then faculty dean of Capital, and 726 Montrose Ave., a 1922 home owned by a longtime faculty member, Distelhort said.
The Montrose Avenue home “was the home of Simon A. Singer, professor and head of the mathematics department at Capital University, who was with Capital for 19 years,” Distelhort said.
The Montrose Avenue home has undergone stylistic changes as owners changed over the decades, such as the addition of an enclosed porch in the 1960s, Lauerhauss said.
“I look at homeowners as caretakers for this period,” she said.
The library offers free services to help homeowners research the history of their homes, Distelhort said.
“One of them is the collection of abstracts and titles. Summaries and titles are documents that were needed in the transfer of property for much of the 20th century,” he said. “They are summaries of documents on file with Franklin County, Ohio, tracing a property’s history back to the early 1800’s, noting when title was transferred and by whom. They are excellent sources for researching the history of a house.”
Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the tour. Food trucks will also be there. Visit bexleywomen.org/house-garden-tour for tickets and information.
editorial@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekNews