Historic South Main Street, Middletown

Posted October 5, 200519 yr

With all the recent postings on Hamilton's historic neighborhoods, I thought it would snap some shots while of Middletown's Historic South Main Street District to post. Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to get all the structures and some of the quality of the pictures aren't the best.

About the district. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Contains more than 80 structures in a nine-block area. Structures built mid to late 19th century to early 20th century. The oldest home in the district (and also the second oldest home in Middletown), built in 1827, caught fire last Christmas and burned to the ground. Other promiment structures in the district include the Sorg Opera House and the old First Baptist Church, built by a world-renowed architect whose name is escaping me at the moment. Much to my surprise, this is the only area in Middletown listed on the Register.

The biggest and most ornate home in the district belonged to Paul J. Sorg, Middletown's first millonaire and one of the 400 richest men in the U.S. while he was alive. Businessman and Congressman. 1887 with additions in 1902.

The John B. Tytus Mansion was built in 1868 by another individual, but purchased by Tytus. Tytus was the son of a prominent paper businessman who went to work for ARMCO and developed the continous method of rolling steel, which revolutionied teh steel industry thoughout the world. It is considered on the most important inventions of the 20th century.

Front of house

Carriage house in back

Calvin Verity Home

Calvin Verity was the son of George M. Verity, founder of ARMCO. Calvin's son, C. W. Verity, was raised in this home built in 1885 and remodeled in 1917. C. W. Verity went on to lead ARMCO and later served as Secretary of Commerce under President Reagan. George Verity is credited with having designed the fireplace in the home.

J. K. Thomas Home (Winchester House)

J. K. Thomas was founder of the Thomas-Wardlow Paper company and one of the founders of Wooster College in Ohio. 1878

Front of House

Italianate Tower

Side of House

Daniel McCally House

McCally was part of the Wilson-McCally Tobacco Company. House built in 1865

Leibee Home

Leibee was a prominent merchant in Middletown. This house, built in 1872, had been used as a nursing home for several of years, but is currently being converted back into a single family residence.

J. Iseminger Home

The newest home built in the district (1927), Iseminger owned the Caldwell-Iseminger building company, which is responsible for building several structures in Ohio including the Lucas County Courthouse and one of the building's on The Ohio State University campus. This home is one of my favorites.

Theodore Martson / Phillip Reinartz Home--1878

John Oglesby Home

1890s...Oglesby family involved with Oglesby/Barnitz Bank and Ogelsby Paper and Hydraulic Company

Thomas Woodward Home - 1892

This next home belonged to a member of the Sabin's family, who operated a paper company in Middletown.

This home needs some work

Series of random homes

They've been working on this house forever, or so it seems.

Old South Park Fountain

Old South Park is the site of Old South School, which was one of the first school building's in Middletown and later served as the home to Fenwick Catholic High School. It burned to the ground and a park was created in its place, including this fountain which I believe was once located at Woodside Cemetery.

October 5, 200519 yr

Wonderful stuff!

"You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers

October 5, 200519 yr

Excellent!

October 7, 200519 yr

Fantastic. I tried to pick my favorite house, but I just couldn't narrow it down to one.

October 12, 200519 yr

I got this article from today's Middletown Journal. It's a feature column by Middletown historian Roger Miller on the subject of the Sorg Mansion shown above. Enjoy!

Miller: Sorg Mansion key historical monument in Middletown

The July 28, 1896, issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Paul J. Sorg’s home with the statement: “The main hall of Mrs. Paul J. Sorg’s palatial home, at Middletown, Ohio, is in every respect an ideal hall.” In many ways it was a palace. The Sorg Mansion came to be the focal point of the very fashionable South Main Street.

When Paul J. Sorg and S. Jennie Gruver were married they went into housekeeping at 1112 Girard Ave. Sorg was on his way to becoming a multi-millionaire tobacco king and industrial leader of Middletown. It was not long before he was able to build their large home.

The Sorg House, as it was then known, was built during 1887-88 in the Romanesque Style. There have been questions raised as to what kind of stone was used in the building and where it came from. One time professor of geology at Miami University and past president of the Middletown Historical Society, Kenneth Shafor made a professional analysis of the stone and reported that “it is built of the finest red sandstone you’ll find anywhere in the world.” It is variegated sandstone, with an “earth-yellow” tinge found only in a few places.

In an interview in 1969, Marie M. Augspurger explained where the sandstone came from. She stated, “Every stone in the Sorg Mansion was carved in a quarry in Italy.” According to blueprints, each stone was numbered and identified before being shipped. Once they arrived in Middletown, they were delivered to the site and assembled by local masons following those blueprints. Her father, Rudolph Augspurger, worked for James Edward Baker, who ran a sand and gravel company and operated a construction business employing the area’s best stone masons. Augspurger worked on the construction of the building. There is no record of a general contractor for the job, but Ed Baker served as a subcontractor.

Sorg always hired the best and did things right. Samuel Hannaford and Sons of Cincinnati, then the area’s most prestigious architectural firm, designed the original part of the Sorg Mansion. An addition and remodeling was done in 1902 by the Dayton architectural firm of Pretzinger and Musselman.

At a cost of approximately $200,000, the 1902 addition included the north wing, turrets and present front porch. The north wing was built of matching stone to house the spacious ballroom. A carriage house and a stone wall topped by a wrought iron fence were added. After the remodeling and additions were finished the mansion had 27 rooms. While work was going on, the Sorgs lived in a large brick house that was at the corner of today’s Main and Second streets. This was moved to the rear of the lot and remodeled into a 12-room structure for Sorg’s servants.

Since Paul J. Sorg passed away in 1902, he was not able to enjoy his remodeled mansion, but his wife had already made it the center of Middletown’s elite social set. Her elaborate parties dominated the social scene. She hired bands and caterers from Dayton and Cincinnati, entertaining the rich and the famous. At times Mrs. Sorg had the servants roll out a red carpet from the front entrance to the walk as guests walked from their carriages.

Robert Dickey Oglesby was born at 313 S. Main St. in 1905. One time he recorded some childhood memories of the Sorg Mansion. He recalled attending several birthday parties, some given in honor of a visiting granddaughter, Jane Drouillard of Nashville, Tenn.

Once inside the house, the young guests walked on freshly polished parquet floors, saw chandeliers glittering with crystal pendants, paneled walls, carved woodwork, paintings and pictures, statuary and recessed seats under windows with stained glass on the top. The wide entrance hall had a fireplace on the right, midway between openings to two of the north rooms. The hall extended back to a broad stairway leading to the upper floors. The furnishings were massive in order to fit the large rooms. The yard was beautifully landscaped, and was filled with lovely trees.

A glasshouse or greenhouse for displaying plants, known as a conservatory, was part of the house. It is gone, but Oglesby described the room in these words: “It was a good sized circular chamber, or room, perhaps 25 or 30 feet in diameter, attached to and entered from the southwest corner of the house.” Its base supported a glass dome with many individual panes of glass that could be opened and closed as needed. Mrs. Sorg took great pleasure in showing her many flowers, ferns, small shrubs and plants.

The Sorg Mansion recalls a period of Middletown history of wealth and elaborate entertaining. It stands as a symbol of the past for the present generation. It is the city’s best-known landmark.

Roger L. Miller is a Middletown resident.

October 14, 200519 yr

Fantastic. I tried to pick my favorite house, but I just couldn't narrow it down to one.

I know, there is so much variety to pick from. I actually forgot to take a picture of another favorite of mine. I'll do that next time.

A lot of these homes are larger than they appear as they are more deep than wide.

October 14, 200519 yr

Very cool architecture!!

October 15, 200519 yr

cool.

a bunch of neat houses there

October 16, 200519 yr

The Sorg Mansion is equal to the grand victorian mansions in Clifton.

Perrhaps it is one of the top ten mansions in the state....it is truely and impressive feat of architecture.

But such an odd surname. Sorg means sorrow in German.

November 8, 200519 yr

The Sorg Mansion is equal to the grand victorian mansions in Clifton.

Perrhaps it is one of the top ten mansions in the state....it is truely and impressive feat of architecture.

But such an odd surname. Sorg means sorrow in German.

It is an impressive structure. Unfortunately, it is in sad shape at the moment. Harry Finkleman, a local realtor and developer, owns the property. I was told that there was an issue with one of the stain glass windows and he called in Beau Verre Studios to fix it, they were asking all sorts of questions about the type of glass, etc...and his comment was "I don't care, just fix the damn hole." A sad comment from someone who prided himself on "saving" Middletown's treasures.

November 14, 200519 yr

Perrhaps it is one of the top ten mansions in the state....it is truely and impressive feat of architecture.

Looks as if you aren't the only one that feels that way....the exterior of Sorg Mansion may be used in a new movie...actually, several sites in Middletown and Hamilton could make it into this movie...

Middletown: Vampire movie to shoot in area

Film features Butler County landmarks

HAMILTON — Get your garlic and crucifixes ready. The vampires will arrive in January.

Producer and director Joe Tonatore of the Hollywood Film Consortium was in Middletown and Hamilton earlier this week scouting locations for an upcoming feature film to be shot in Butler County.

“We will start pre-production on Jan. 3, begin principal photography on Jan. 30 and wrap on the 24th of February,” Tonatore said of “Immortally Yours.”

“We hope to set up a production base in Hamilton because we have several other projects that would be perfect for there,” Tonatore said. “Everyone we have met in Hamilton has been very receptive.”

In Hamilton, Tonatore and his partner, Frank Russo, visited Hamilton Scrap Processors on Vine Street, the operating rooms at the former Mercy Hospital site, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, the former Moose Lodge on Second Street and Greenwood Cemetery. In Middletown, they visited the Sorg Opera House and the Sorg Mansion.

“The exterior of the Sorg Mansion is mind-boggling,” Russo said. “We will use it as the exterior of the vampire’s house.”

Hollywood Film Consortium found Hamilton via local resident James Garrett, who worked with Tonatore on a promotional film for a video game they shot in Dayton earlier this year. Garrett serves as location manager for “Immortally Yours.”

“I brought them to the area because of the great arts and culture here,” Garrett said.

The budget for “Immortally Yours” is around $532,000, Garrett said.

“It’s going to have a substantial economic impact,” Tonatore said. “We will be using local talent and a crew that I worked with before on that promo.”

The principal casting is underway, but Tonatore is not yet releasing any names.

“Immortally Yours” is scheduled for a May 2006 theatrical release, Tonatore said.

The story and screenplay are by Katherine Hawkes and concerns a handsome, debonair vampire named Victor, the head of a covenant of young, sophisticated vampires.

At an opera, he meets Estelle, a scientist who is researching an approach to immortality being sponsored by an “upper-world Illuminati organization,” according to a synopsis.

The two fall in love, but the conflict between the Illuminati and the covenant of vampires leads to “an unholy war.”

Hawkes is also an actress and has performed in “The Watermelon Heist” with John Amos (the father in the 1970s television sitcom “Good Times”) and the upcoming “Meet Me in Miami.”

According to the Internet Movie Database, Tonatore has directed six feature films, including “Zebra Force” in 1976 and “Game Room” in 1999. He has also appeared as an actor in 22 motion pictures and has experience as a stunt man.

March 17, 200619 yr

Recent article on the burnt down Lefferson House on South Main Street...

MIDDLETOWN: New home rises from the ashes

Couple rebuilding on lot of historic house destroyed by fire

In 1990, Joe and Linda Hudec, lovers of old homes with a lot of character, bought the oldest house in the Middletown still standing on its original foundation.

In two months, they plan to move into one of the city’s newest homes at the same location.

Following a devastating fire in December 2004, a modern version of the regal Lefferson House truly is rising from the ashes at 404 S. Main St.

On the night of Dec. 17, 2004, the Hudecs were enjoying a holiday dinner with friends in Bellbrook. They returned to find their house, built in 1827, shrouded in a haze of smoke. The countless months of work restoring the massive building were lost.

But the couple both said the loss of their family pets — a dog and two cats — was the most gut-wrenching.

“They were like members of the family,” Joe Hudec said.

His wife remembered her golden retriever as a therapy dog who often visited nursing homes to cheer up residents.

Middletown firefighters estimated the loss of the house and furnishings at $300,000. The blaze was accidental, caused by a furnace installed too close to a structural joist, according to the fire report.

All the Hudecs knew was their labor of love was gone — it stood as an empty brick shell of what it once had been.

But as they stood in the cold, dark night, they were surrounded by the warmth of their friends and neighbors, also historic home enthusiasts like themselves.

“Within hours they had put together everything we needed, a place to live, furnishings, appliances, food, clothes, sundries, everything,” Joe Hudec said.

Doug Bean, director of the Middletown Public Library and owner of a historic home a few blocks away from the Lefferson House, offered an apartment at his house on the point of Yankee Road and South Main Street.

“We are still living there today. It’s a small apartment and it has been a bit trying, but we’ve made it,” Joe Hudec said with a laugh.

Many of the reasons that led the couple to move to the home kept them here, he said.

“We love old houses,” Hudec said. “And this is a great neighborhood to live in. The neighbors are wonderful. We know that first-hand.”

Linda Hudec said the lot also is unique.

“It’s two acres in the middle of the city,” she said. “You just don’t find that very often.”

After many sleepless nights and exploring lots of options, the Hudecs decided to rebuild right where they made their home in 1990.

“We really tried to restore what was left, but it was just too cost-prohibitive and too much damage,” Joe Hudec said. “Then I found a house over by the hospital and we almost bought it, but in the end we couldn’t leave this neighborhood.”

They made the decision to level the house and start from scratch. But first, there was a treasure hunt to salvage what was left from the historic home.

Again neighbors came to the rescue, helping the couple pull furniture, fixtures, stone and fireplaces from the rubble for use in the new house.

The salvaged pieces are stored in neighbors’ garages where Joe Hudec often spends evenings cleaning, scrubbing and repairing.

Marty Kohler, city planning director, is one of the neighbors lending a hand. He is restoring a house two doors down from the Hudecs and had moved in weeks before the fire.

“That’s the way it is on South Main Street. We are a close-knit bunch. We pool resources and help out where we can,” Kohler said.

Before moving to Middletown, Kohler also restored a farm house in Lebanon that was featured on the Home and Garden cable television station.

Kohler said Joe Hudec is the last to take credit for his contribution to the neighborhood, “but he really does so much, every weekend he walks and picks up trash and broken bottles. And he plants flowers in the park. They are great neighbors.”

For lovers of all things old, Linda Hudec said it is difficult to change the thought process to focus on a new house.

“I never thought I would be building a new house, not in a million years,” she said. She added the builders, Fishbaugh & Sons Construction, have been very patient every time she tells them, “it has to look old.”

The original house built by Arthur Lefferson was a Georgian Colonial. The Hudecs plan to make the front of the new structure look like the original. The house when completed will be slightly larger.

“People have been very curious. They always want to know if it is going to look like the old house,” Linda Hudec said. “I think rebuilding is something not only we needed to do, but the community also needed it.”

Completion is scheduled for the middle of May. The Hudecs plan to fill the house with more pets and plenty of visits from their children and two grandchildren, as well as the wealth of friends living in the surrounding grand homes of the city’s historic district.

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Historic South Main Street, Middletown

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