Oviatt House in Richfield topic of next Hudson Heritage Association meeting
On Feb. 8, the Hudson Heritage Association will host volunteers from Oviatt House Inc., who will describe the grassroots effort to save a home in Richfield with strong ties to the Underground Railroad.
Slated for demolition until the community stepped forward, the home was built in 1836 by Mason Oviatt, nephew to Hudson’s Heman Oviatt, and a friend to famed abolitionist John Brown, who spent time in Richfield and at the home as he worked to support the network of routes and stops that moved enslaved individuals from the South to eventual freedom in free states and Canada. Today, the house is listed on the National Park Service Network to Freedom and is part of a 336-acre park known as Richfield Heritage Preserve.
Oviatt House board members Tricia Steiner and Ken Brown will share details of the home’s history – from its beginnings as a place where Mason and his wife Fanny raised 11 children, to the subsequent generations of Oviatts who lived there, to its eventual sale in 1919 to James Kirby, the inventor of the Kirby vacuum cleaner, and its transfer in 1937 to the Cleveland Girl Scout Council. They will describe the condition the house was in when the nonprofit acquired it, details of the home’s construction, and the work that has been done over the past two years by volunteers to restore it to its original condition. They also will describe ongoing fundraising efforts and plans to operate the house as an educational museum.
The Feb. 8 meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Barlow Community Center, is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.
Founded in 1962, Hudson Heritage Association works to protect Hudson’s historic buildings, the village streetscape, and the city’s Western Reserve architectural aesthetic. For details, visit www.HudsonHeritage.org or search “Hudson Heritage Association” on Facebook and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: History, restoration of Oviatt House topic of next HHA meeting
