An old mansion house in Trinway, Ohio (near Dresden, Ohio) is rich in history and has connections to the infamous "Underground Railroad" to help slaves escape. The mansion is in my home town and always in a derelict state, though I always wanted to go inside it when I was growing up. I know that the last time that it was open to the public was in the bicentenial year 1976 because my parents told me that they had visited it then. It remained closed up after that and until 2001 or 2002. I visited it with my friend when it was first opened to the public again in 2001 or 2002, but I have not been back until the end of October. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The mansion was built for the Adams family (G.W. Adams) in 1856. Actually, he had a diagreement with the architect, and the architect set fire to the first finished mansion so a new one was built right afterward. The mansion was built with revolutionary ideas, uncluding indoor plumbing with a cooper tank cistern on the second floor. This pressurised water through the house. Two coal stoves had copper tanks from the cistern system so that the water could be heated for the home. When the mansion was rebuilt after the fire, it was built to withstand a second fire with thick solid brick between the floors to stop fire spreading. It also had a unique refridgeration system, using the basement to draw up air into ducts inside the walls.
The family owned a lot of land in the area and operated mills; this small village is a few miles away from Trinway and is known as Adams Mills. G.W Adams was one of thirteen children, and his father owned a plantation in the southern states but freed the slaves and moved north. The family were abolitionists and donated to the cause. He and his brother operated the "Underground Railroad" from their business. They owned several warehouses along the Ohio and Lake Erie Canal and the flour mill in Adams Mills and a boat yard/cooper shop in Dresden. (Parts of the canal can still be seen today, but it doesn't exist as a road was built over the top or next to it.)
Because the family bought from Louisiana, the boats would bring back the escaped slaves. They would be hidden in fake floors of the boats. From there, they would be hidden in warehouses or canals or possibly in the mansion. It has always been local knowledge that the mansion was used as a stop on the "Underground Railroad" and that they possibly used the cupola to signal. It was said that there was a tunnel from the river to the basement of the mansion where the slaves could hide. However, no tunnel or secret area was found in the basement of the mansion when it was renovated. There may be some truth to the story. The slaves certainly would have been helped through here and would have possibly come up via the signal at the mansion from the river. They also may have stayed here and hidden in an area in the basement behind something.
Some of the information in the cases at the mansion was a discussion on slaves and the "Underground Railroad" because of the history. Other items were found in the house, and one of the items had just been found after my visit nearly twenty years ago. In the ballroom, a mask was found. It is displayed in the above case.
It is also said that Abraham Lincoln visited Trinway Mansion. However, there is nothing to confirm this as concrete evidence, so the Trinway Mansion cannot claim it until they are certain of this. Adams and Lincoln were friends and mentioned together in some texts, and it is highly likely that he did indeed stay. Prospect Place would receive more funding if they could prove this as a fact, but documents were not kept then like they are today. As it has been noted that Lincoln did stay here AND he was a friend of Adams, I believe that he did visit and stay in the house.
The reason why Prospect Place was closed throughout my childhood was that it had become a ruin and unlived in. Thieves also broke into the house and trashed it. It was set to be demolished in 1988, by Dave Longaberger bought the house to preserve it; I am glad he did. Dave Longaberger founded the basket company, which was a huge thing from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s. He was going to use the mansion as the company headquarters, but he then built the basket-shaped building in Newark. Longaberger died of cancer in the late 1990s. However, his security on the mansion prevented it from being damaged further. For many years, the windows and doors were all boarded up.
A relative of Longaberger and ancestor of Adams decided to open a restaurant in the mansion, but the investors pulled out after September 11, 2001. The building was meant to be restored, but little has changed from my visit in 2001 or 2002. For the past couple of years, a different group has been tidying it up and bringing it back to life. This time, I hope it truly gets completed.
The photographs show the rooms in the wealthy part of the house. Prospect Place was actually divided into two parts. The smaller side on the left (when looking at the building) are the quarters belonging to the servants. These are now off-limits to view because they are being used by the renovation team.
Every year, Prospect Place host a party for the mansion at the end of October. This takes on a Halloween party feeling as it is so close to Halloween. The party is held in the ballroom on the top floor (directly under the cupola). Prospect Place has five floors: the basement, ground floor, first floor, ballroom (half the head hight and without windows), and cupola. The servant's quarters have only and upstairs and downstairs.
The basement had to be partially dug out with years of dirt and bricks. There are stories associated with the basement, including the numerous ghost stories. Prospect Place has been featured in several ghost television shows. From 2001 to 2002, ghost tours were taking place at Prospect Place with visitors staying over night in attempt to see/hear/feel ghosts. My friend and I would have done this, but it was too expensive.
The bathroom on the second floor has an access above the bath; I am assuming that it is one of the water tanks.
I know that they are repairing the banisters of the building. The mood lighting is for the haunted event that they had going on, and this is the second floor. The doorway at the end of the hallway here goes into the servant's quarters. The stairway that goes up actually goes up to the ballroom.
The ballroom is half a story between the roof and the first floor. The back and side above the servant's quarters contains a set of small windows, but there aren't any windows on the front. People had come in and vandalised this room, and it was the most creepy. Apparently, youths had drawn bad grafitti into the walls, such as an upside-down cross, which was corrected and is located on the back of the wall. The ballroom was where the mask was found. I am sure the ballroom entertained a few notable guests in the area and perhaps Lincoln attended a party here.
The cupola was out-of-bounds during my visit years ago. This year, I got the chance to go up inside it. It is a small room with three windows on each side, overlooking the land. The river can be seen from here. I am sure they had lantern signals here to communicate.
Here are the stairs up to the ballroom.
The below photograph is from the side where the servants' quarters were located. I do have photographs of the mansion and these rooms, but they were taken with an older camera and not a digital one.
A three-storey barn is also included next to the house. I did not know the story, but apparently there was another local legend here about some bounty hunter getting hanged in the barn. No one has ever found any truth to this, but there are two ceiling 'doors' on the upper levels.
For more information about Prospect Place or to find out how to visit it, see: https://www.gwacenter.org/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Place
Leave a comment