From the Director...

Victoria Woodhull, born and reared in Licking County, was an advocate of social reform that continues to be relevant today.  When Robbins Hunter constructed a clock tower dedicated to Woodhull on the side of the Avery-Downer house in Granville, his intention was to memorialize her as his tribute to the nation’s bicentennial.  During the 2016 election, the museum mounted a highly successful exhibit, “Celebrating Victoria,” accompanied by a series of speakers. We concluded that public interest in her 1872 Presidential bid in the midst of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was long deserved. However, her story reaches far beyond presidential politics to lessons of American values, humanitarian concerns and sheer fortitude in the face of adversity and their relevance on contemporary society.

The Robbins Hunter Museum is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a planning grant from the Ohio Humanities Council to develop a three-year project that will focus on the multi-dimensionality of her legacy and her ability to drive social change.  We plan to host round-table discussions three times per year for three years, each time identifying one of the many areas of interest that Victoria Woodhull advocated that continue to be relevant in the 21st century.  Scholars, professionals, and knowledgeable lay individuals will be invited to exchange ideas concerning and speaking to the identified themes from their discipline’s perspective.  The main point of the discussions is to provide a platform to advance conversations stimulated by her intellectual work and to bring better recognition and understanding of Woodhull and her modern relevance to the broader public.

Beginning in 2018, we will explore her history, her role in bringing a woman’s voice to journalism, and her employment of spiritualism for oratory and rhetoric.  The second year will bring discussions of humanitarian issues, child welfare and medicine, as well as abolition.   The final year, 2020, will focus on women as leaders in business and finance, gender issues, and finally politics and suffrage.

The goal in planning this larger project is simply to bring Victoria Woodhull’s uniquely significant life back into the public’s focus, not just as a Presidential candidate but as a remarkable, laudable, and genuinely American woman whose foresight was far ahead of her time.

Welcome to our house

Editor’s Note: This article is the second of three articles on the Avery-Downer House and its architecture by William Heyer, Architect

What is so special about the front entry at the Avery-Downer House? And oh, how it is special. Let’s jump into this one! First, we must ask: what is the purpose of entrance? What does that purpose signify?

Builder, Benjamin Morgan, copied the Tower of the Winds in Athens as the entrance to the Avery-Downer house.

The front entrance primarily allows an engagement with the world: with friends, relatives, neighbors, police, enemy troops, etc. There is a story about the front entry at Belle Meade plantation outside of Nashville. During the Civil War, the owner, General William Giles Harding, was captured by the Union army and sent to prison in Michigan while Mrs. Elizabeth Harding maintained this stately Grecian mansion. At one point during General Harding’s distant captivity, a Union troop approached the house. Mrs. Harding stepped out of her front entry onto the covered, columned portico with shotgun in hand. She warned the troops not to move an inch closer and then fired a warning shot. She gained the respect she needed from the troops and managed to keep the moral reputation of her family intact, eventually allowing only a field hospital to be set up in the house. The front entry is where we engage civilization beyond our family in peace and war.

Since ancient times, the entrance to houses, temples, mausoleums, and civic buildings have symbolized an engagement with the world, the cosmos, the other side of death, the body politic. “Crossing over” has intense meaning for us. It is a transformation in one way or another, a progression into the future, a conversion, a symbol of freedom or welcome, and a way forward to things previously unknown and unseen. The great pylons of ancient Egypt were the gateway to the netherworld and the eternal memory of the pharaoh. The propylaea of Hellenistic Greece were gateways to the precinct of the gods, a symbolic threshold to the divine world. Tombs, government buildings, houses all carried on this symbolism in ways that reflected the timeless beliefs of humanity and its ultimate goals. That is why house entries are so powerful, and so decorated. We welcome the visitor with a symbol of who we are as a family and invite others over a threshold to a world that is not their own.

During the first half of the 19th century, a new emphasis on the front entry was at work. The Grecian movement, through the talent of young architects like James Dakin and James Gallier, produced amazing frontispieces for churches and houses throughout the country. They utilized the classical language through the newly discovered architectural traditions of ancient Greece. James Dakin’s drawings for frontispieces appeared in builder’s guides by Minard Lafever and were disseminated widely revealing a mastery of the classical language that was at once both ancient and new, recognizable for its precedent and exciting for its unique compositions. The frontispiece of the Avery-Downer house is clearly modeled on one of the designs by Dakin but is a unique interpretation of the classical frontispiece.

In 1842 when Alfred Avery was planning and designing his home on East Broadway, he certainly had in mind a timeless and yet personal sense of entry. The frontispiece surrounding the main north door is a masterpiece of Grecian design. It might seem redundant, interestingly, that a temple house should have an especially decorated doorway when it has the power of the Ionic temple speaking so clearly to the public. In reality, the two are quite opposite each other because the Ionic temple projects in an active way to engage the public while the frontispiece seems to fold inwards in a passive and receptive way. They both balance each other with their distinct purposes. One is strong and active, the other is gentle and receptive. This is a brilliant showcase of the refined classical tradition in American architecture.

The exquisite lotus flower foliage is picked out with gold leaf paint

Morgan and Lafever used the Corinthian order as found at the Tower of the Winds in Athens to celebrate this gentle, welcoming frontispiece. The ancient water clock at the center of Athens was documented by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett in their 1762 landmark publication The Antiquities of Athens, but it was not widely utilized for new designs in the Greek Revival Movement, at least not like the Parthenon or Temple of Athena Nike or Temple on the Illisus. Its unique placement here makes the entry to the Avery-Downer house even more beautiful. The gentle acanthus capitals and shaft fluting, the feminine antae (the side piers that flank the columns), and running palmettes in the frieze, and the soft acanthus tendrils in the transom above the door all welcome the visitor to a wonderful Eden to be enjoyed inside. The garden motif is certainly intentional and likely had personal as well as religious connotations for Avery and his family.

The Grecian Movement is seen today by some architectural critics as the worst kind of architecture—copying ancient monuments blindly to signify a past that is no longer relevant to our world. The enduring beauty of the frontispiece of this house is but one small example of why these critics are so out of touch today with the timelessness and beauty of the human spirit.

Garden Day 2017

Summer sun, verdant green, and the pleasure of gathering all marked this year’s Garden Day at Robbins Hunter Museum. Preview night brought people together around a Garden Fair for socializing on the east lawn where vintage garden stonework, historical house replicas as birdhouses, Victorian Tussie Mussies and other unique and exquisite gift items were available. Inside, a sanctioned garden show delighted browsers who viewed plant specimens, photography, and floral designs, all cast with a Greek flair. More than 500 people attended the fair and the flower show. The next day, nearly 250 people toured four pristine local gardens to see natural environments enhanced by plants, stone, wood and flowers.  The weather cooperated, the visitors wore broad smiles under summer garden hats, and the flowers bloomed all around. Garden Day 2017 was a success.

We're on the path Jean laid

 One day Granville resident, Jill DeSapri, looked out her window and a woman was standing in the yard taking a picture of Jill’s house, a 1796 New England house, the Manwaring House, she and her husband, Don, moved to Granville in pieces and rebuilt in 1996.

The woman, “caught in the act” so to speak, admitted her love for historic homes, really old ones, Jill said.  That chance meeting was to blossom into a friendship that brought the two together around another old house, the Avery-Downer House, home to the Robbins Hunter Museum. This old house is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

Jean McDaniel was that photographer, and many will remember her as the volunteer director of the museum in the days when the home was being transformed into a house museum. At age 89, Jean passed away this spring and Jill remembers the hard work and fun times they had as part of a handful of dedicated volunteers who were determined to piece together the history and “write the story” of the Avery-Downer house as it took on a new life.

Jill spent 12 years working alongside Jean; Don sat on the Board for an equal amount of time. Both are antique dealers and, along with Jean, took a special interest in the furnishings and art in the house. “It was a hodge podge at first and we all decided to make it as organized as possible.”

“I liked Jean very much,” Jill said. “She was quiet in her work, loved the house and wanted to restore it the right way and was very intent in her goals.”

During those years she opened the house as a museum, but Jill admits the small cadre of volunteers couldn’t handle it all so visitor attendance was generally small. Jean’s husband, Robert, would be there every day to help out, she added.

Current Director Ann Lowder remembers Jean well and values the work she did. “I knew Jean for many years as we were both founding members of the Ohio Historical Decorative Arts Association.  Jean was also a member of The Rushlight Society, an international group of collectors and students of early lighting.  She brought that knowledge as well as connections to other people in that field to the museum.  She carefully and responsibly restored the many magnificent pieces of lighting that Robbins Hunter had collected,” she said.

“Her professionalism continued even after retiring as she volunteered to continue entering accessioned items into our catalog base.  She came in once a week and was always a calm and trusted source of information and direction for this new director,” Ann said.

Eventually Jean moved to Columbus where she later passed away at the Kobacker House after complications following surgery.  Until her death, she remained active from a distance. “Even after moving to Columbus, she would respond to my telephoned questions with enthusiasm and expert advice.  She was a remarkable person to fill the shoes of Director during the period of extensive research required to restore and return the Avery-Downer House to its Greek Revival grandeur, Ann added.

“I counted Jean as a good friend as well as a trusted source for discussing issues related to the museum, whether the topic was people or history or period restoration.  She was a generous person, always willing to share her knowledge.”

To all who knew Jean, there was one thing they had in common. Jean wanted to restore the house the right way and to that end, she laid a clear path for those to follow in her footsteps.

Can you spot the difference?

Thanks to the generosity of Jill Yost, a Granville Garden Club member, the Robbins Hunter Museum now has a growing collection of hybridized daylilies.

Daylilies belong to the genus Hemerocallis, and the name refers to the blooms which last no longer than 24 hours. The flowers are replaced by another on the same stem the next day. These perennials are a wonderful complement to the Jill Griesse Memorial Garden’s daffodils, and, when mature, will provide the gardens with a spectacular summer show.

Jill’s late husband Rick won national awards for his efforts. His most famous specimen is “George Jets On,” which won an Award of Merit, and the Annie T. Giles Award for best small flower from the American Hemerocallis Society. “George” can be found at the bottom of the entrance ramp under the Victoria Woodhull sign. All the other day lilies in the ramp were hybridized using George as one of the parents. “Jane Hiz Wife” is immediately behind George, with “Dot Her Judy” and “Hiz Boy Elroy” closer to the building. At first glance, they all seem to be the same cultivar, but sharp eyes will soon see the subtle difference.

Watch the Library area garden for daylilies in shades of reds, golds, and orange and on the east side of the Octagon Room are even more.

From the collection...

The Robbins Hunter Museum proudly displays a pair of card tables from one of the finest cabinet shops in the country, that of Samuel McIntire of Salem, Massachusetts. McIntire, 1757-1811, was born in Salem and began as a woodcarver who developed into an architect.  He built houses for prominent citizens such as Elias Hasket Derby, America’s first millionaire, and furnished them with some of his own furniture creations and sculpture.  In 2011, a carved mahogany side chair made for Derby and attributed to McIntire brought $662,500 at auction, setting a world record for Federal furniture. 

Carved flower and foliage, a signature of the McIntire workshop.

The pair in the collection of Robbins Hunter Museum are made of a fine mahogany, with a serpentine front and reeded legs below carved foliage.  The snowflake stamping on the apron area of the legs as well as the central basket of fruit are signatures of Samuel McIntire. According to the museum’s records, the pair of tables were found by Robbins Hunter in Richland County, Ohio.

Basket of fruit and flowers, another signature of the McIntire workshop.

For many years, one of the tables was in serious need of restoration as the hinging mechanism that connected the top had broken out and was partially lost.  During the winter of 2017, the table was “admitted to surgery” at a fine repair shop.  The “furniture doctor” completed a masterful restoration and the table has returned to its place in the Ladies’ Parlor, looking fit and ready for another 200 years.

Hunter was successful in tracking down many pairs of card tables, a form of which he was particularly fond.  Card tables are generally small (30-36” square) with a folding leaf that opens with a swing leg support.  In the nineteenth century, fine homes would have had several pairs to use for actually playing cards, intimate suppers, Hunter collected the form, in addition to his interest in mirrors, lighting, and clocks.

McIntire Table: One of a pair of mahogany card tables attributed to Samuel McIntire. Collection of Robbins Hunter Museum.

On your next visit to the museum, be sure to take notice of these two proud pieces of furniture from one of America’s finest cabinet shops.