Girard's historic Barnhisel house to be restored

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- A home that once stood as an example of how well-to-do area families lived is getting some much-needed care, and rooms added that were taken away during years of neglect.
Members of the Girard Historical Society are going forward with plans to add a summer kitchen and side porch to the historic Barnhisel House on North State Street. Both rooms were part of the home's original construction. The additions to the house will cost about 55,000.
"A summer kitchen is where the family would have done all their dirty work, such as canning, butchering, candle-making and cooking in the summer, to keep the heat out of the rest of the house," said Colette Chuey of the historical society.
Chuey said the house, built in 1840, was first occupied by two of the earliest families in the city -- the Barnhisel family and the Smith family, which owned the Ohio Leatherworks company, a major employer in the city years ago.
After both families moved out of the house, it was divided into several apartments and rented. The house then sat abandoned for years.
"Walls were destroyed. The house stood empty for at least 30 years, so it was in deplorable condition when the historical society took over," she said.
Chuey said the original summer kitchen became too dilapidated to stand years before the historical society took over the property in 1976 and was torn down. The side porch to the house was ripped of during a major storm many years ago.
About the additions
The new summer kitchen will include an attached entrance to the house, a small kitchen area and a bathroom. Chuey said the historical society will be able to have small social functions in the house once the summer kitchen addition has been completed.
She said addition of the summer kitchen and porch are a continuation in a long line of repairs being made at the house. She said the historical society has had control of the house for about three decades but really got started on upgrades in the last decade.
"All of the restoration of the inside of the house has been done since 2000. The physical work has been done by a core group of eight members of our group," she said.
The house is full of old furnishings and knickknacks donated to the historical society. There are heating ovens that were made at Girard companies that no longer exist.
Each room has been redone with reconstructed walls, railings, furnishings and floor boards where needed. The historical society keeps pictures in each room showing how the room looked before renovation efforts were started.