Tuesday, March 19, 2002
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- The faces of George Curl, Ralph Chuey and Ray O'Neill reflect pride in the volunteer work they've been doing for nearly a year.
The retirees, members of the Girard Historical Society, have been working to preserve the historic Barnhisel House on State Street.
"I've taken it as a personal challenge, said 69-year-old Curl of Liberty as he points to the effort that's been done.
"This is the last remaining building that is the city's heritage," asserted the 71-year-old Chuey of Girard.
"People don't realize what they have when they have a building like this. This is history," the former antiques dealer said, adding that students aren't taught local history.
"You feel wonderful and sore," O'Neill, 60, said of the preservation work. He holds a seat on the society's board.
Neither of them has professional construction experience, although O'Neill restored his Vienna home built in 1843.
Helping them is Harold Cooper, 83, of Brookfield, O'Neill's father-in-law. He's a woodworker.
More details: The Girard Historical Society has applied for a $30,800 grant to help preserve the house, located just down the road from the former Ohio Leatherworks.
Curl, society treasurer, said the first floor will be ready for public tours this summer -- fall at latest -- after stored period furnishings are set up.
A first-floor room will be filled with historical photographs of Girard and Liberty.
"The dirty work is done," Curl said.
The 21/2-story house is the oldest in the city and, Curl explained, one of the oldest in Trumbull County.
Julie Green, a society member and staff member with the Trumbull County Planning Commission, said the house was built between 1842 and 1846.
Green wrote the grant application for the $30,800 for the society. It has been endorsed by the city and the planning commission.
If the society receives the grant from $2.2 million available in Mahoning and Trumbull counties from the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the house foundation will be upgraded, Green said.
The basement will be made handicapped accessible with restrooms for the handicapped.
How work's been done: The restoration effort has been financed through private donations and $12,400 in community development block grant funds in 2000 and 2001.
"There's a lot of people doing a lot of work free," Green said of Curl, Chuey and O'Neill. "This group of people is getting it done."
Green pointed out the men couldn't work during very cold weather because the building doesn't yet have a working furnace.
The men say they're looking for volunteers to do some carpentry work, wallpaper hanging or general laboring.
The second floor will be renovated with block grant money and the entire structure open for the 2003 city bicentennial.
The Barnhisel family was one of the largest land owners in the area, having property from McKinley Heights to state Route 304 in Girard.
Green said it may have been a part of the Underground Railroad that saw blacks fleeing to Canada from the South.
Buttons from Civil War uniforms have been found on the property. It was a stage coach stop known as The Elms because of the surrounding trees.
It was last used as an apartment building. The historical society bought the property in 1974, shortly after the group was formed.
yovich@vindy.com