Preserving Ohio’s Past for Future Enjoyment

The architecture of the various historic structures still standing in Ohio continue to serve as a reflection of the diverse cultural traditions of the European immigrants who carved towns, farms and industries out of the Ohio wilderness. The great forests provided free and plentiful timber for the log cabins aid more finely crafted log houses that began to dot the frontier landscape in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The designs of these structures and the tools needed for (heir construction were simple enough to allow families fresh from the hardships of pioneer travel to make their own home-made shelters.

For the European settlers who once named as their homes the tree-barren meadows, rocky crags and roiling terrain of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Ohio country provided lands on which to farm and to mine iron, stone or coal. All along the foothills of the Appalachians where many of them chose to stay, native sandstone lies barely hidden just below the earth. Occasionally, it juts up through the earth's surface in the form of great cliffs, ledges and cave-like rock shelves. The Celtic immigrants brought with them memories of the stone cottages and castles common to the British Isles, along with the skills to build them. Thus, the Scotch-Irish influence on early American architecture is exhibited in the stone fireplaces and chimneys of "American" log cabins, as well as in the more rare stone homes that required great effort and craftsmanship to construct.

One such stone treasure is located in a small clearing in the forest of Salt Fork State Park. In 1837, Benjamin Kennedy, of Scottish ancestry, purchased an 80-acre tract of land in Guernsey County and commissioned the construction of a large two-story stone house from native sandstone quarried nearby. The Kennedy Stone House is forty feet long and eighteen feet wide, built of Stone blocks up to nine feet long and fourteen inches in width and height. The blocks used in the construction of the house were finely crafted and tightly fitted, exhibiting the kind of superior workmanship that has become something of a lost art in our present age. The house and a stone hit cellar nearby were constructed for a total price of about $600 quite a bargain, even in those days.

The Kennedy Stone House was home to several generations of Kennedy descendants ending with Don Kennedy, the great-grandson of the builder, who occupied it until 1966, The state of Ohio purchased the Kennedy property and surrounding lands to create Salt Fork State Park, and in 1967, the valley below the house was impounded to create Salt Fork Lake. Today, the house overlooks the lake and is nestled in the woods. In 1975 the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, signifying its importance to history. After sitting vacant for nearly 30 years, the roof of the Kennedy Stone House was damaged when a limb fell from a massive pine tree planted near the house. This incident prompted quick action. The park's maintenance and golf course crews removed and replaced the damaged roof in 1995. Hundreds

of volunteers participated in two clean-up weekends to beautify the area surrounding the house. This tree, in the winter of 2000, during high winds split about 20 feet from the ground and fell in the lake, thus saving the structure again.

The Guernsey County Bicentennial Commission, in 1998 designated the

Kennedy Stone House as their Legacy Program. In March 1999 a group of ten formed the organization "Friends for the Restoration of The Kennedy Stone House". This group was given the Commission's funds at the close of Bicentennial events. These funds, and those raised by the sale of prints from a watercolor painting done by local artist Don Beaverson began the restoration of the house. The artist used a picture of the house in the late 1890's. Mathew, the Son of Benjamin, at that time remodeled the stone house from the Federal Style of 1840 to the Victorian Period. It was decided to restore the house back to the period of 1840 when it was constructed (shown above in the sketch by artist May Todd Beam.) Re-building the one story summer kitchen of that period following the roof line etched in stone at the rear of the house, is now in progress.

The organization now Chartered with the State of Ohio is called "Friends of the Kennedy Stone House Salt Fork State Park." The Museum was opened to sixty students on a field trip on November 6,2002. Starting with the spring of 2003 many volunteers will be needed to maintain this program and others. Interested in becoming involved in the volunteer effort at the Kennedy Stone House Museum, please call Salt Fork State Park at (740) 439-3521 for information or (740) 489-5608.