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Elementary school students will learn history, tour Barnhisel House next month
Barnhisel House visitors can view antiques dating back to the 1800s
girard
It always amuses Carley O’Neill when elementary-school students tour the Barnhisel House and Museum and make remarks about the lack of modern-day comforts.
“We try to show them how people were living in the 1800s in the Girard area. They’re always surprised – ‘No television? No computers?’” said O’Neill, a Girard Historical Society member.
Fourth-graders from the Girard, Saint Rose Catholic School and Liberty school districts will tour the Barnhisel House at 1011 N. State St. for field trips next week.
The historical landmark is open for visitors from 1 to 4 p.m. on the second and fourth Sunday of each month through November. The Girard Historical Society suggests a $5 donation to view the exhibit.
This year’s “Back in Time” theme is two-fold. It refers to the antiques dating back to the 1800s all around the house and the collection of more than 50 different types of timepieces loaned by Peter Sciullo, a local clock collector.
O’Neill said there will be tent stations in the yard to teach students about various topics, and the students can play old-fashioned games that children played a couple centuries ago.
The Barnhisels came to Girard in 1813 and provided lodging at the home for travelers on the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal. The family owned 600 acres and eventually sold the house to Joseph Smith, who patented the process of preparing leather, which started the Ohio Leather Co. It later became Ohio Leatherworks.
Visitors touring the house can view antique furniture, clothes and appliances. Pictures of the family and their descendents are hung up around the house, as well as pictures of influential people and places in the city.
The Girard Historical Society has worked hard over the years to restore the house and make each room a replica of what it may have looked like a couple centuries ago. The society bought the house in 1976 to save it from being torn down.
O’Neill said she and her husband, Ray, used to spend up to eight hours a day working on the house, starting when they joined the society in 2000.
“We would like to keep this chunk of Girard history going. We are trying to keep people interested,” O’Neill said.
Historical society member John Reddinger said he got involved with the society 10 years ago. He pointed out the exhibit is the only true historical landmark in Girard.
The exhibit is meaningful because “I have always believed in the old saying, ‘You can’t see where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been,’” he said.
The society needs to recruit younger members to keep its work going for years to come, he added.