Prospect Place, also known as The Trinway Mansion and Prospect Place Estate, is a 29-room mansion built by abolitionist George Willison Adams (G. W. Adams) in

Trinway, Ohio Trinway is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Cass Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, Cass Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, in the east-central part of the state. ...

, just north of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

in 1856. Today, it is the home of the non-profit G. W. Adams Educational Center, Inc. The mansion is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

and the Ohio Underground Railroad Association's list of

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

sites. This home featured many new and, for the time, revolutionary innovations. It had indoor plumbing which included a copper tank

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

on the second floor which pressurized water throughout the house. Two coal stoves had copper tanks (under pressure from the cistern system) which heated water and allowed the home to have both hot and cold running water service. This is the second house to stand on the same foundation. The first house was destroyed by an arson-related fire shortly after its completion. The mansion was rebuilt after the fire, with modern fire stopping added to it. The interior walls of the current house are solid brick, and there is a two-inch layer of mortar between the first and second floors of the house to block fire. Prospect Place also featured a unique refrigeration system to cool milk, cheese, butter, etc. A primitive form of "air conditioning" was created by bringing cool basement air into the living quarters during the summer months via ducts in the outside walls.

George Willison Adams

Born in

Fauquier County, Virginia Fauquier County is a county (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton, Virginia, Warrenton. Fa ...

, on October 29th, 1799 to George Beal Adams (1747 - 1827) and his wife Anna Turner (1754 -1827), George Willison Adams (or G.W. as he was called) was last of thirteen children. His father was a plantation owner who gave up his land and home to move away from the slaveholding South. The family migrated to southeastern Ohio in 1808, freed their slaves and settled in Madison Township,

Muskingum County Muskingum County ( ) is a county located in the east-central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,410. Its county seat is Zanesville. Nearly bisected by the Muskingum River, the county name is based ...

, near the town of

Dresden, Ohio Dresden is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, along the Muskingum River at the mouth of Wakatomika Creek. The population was 1,650 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Mus ...

. Like his father, G. W. Adams became a strong abolitionist. He and his brother, Edward (1797 -1861), ran an

"station" from their mill at what later became known as

Adams Mills, Ohio Adams Mills is a small unincorporated community in northeastern Cass Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. It is located on State Route 16 four miles northeast of Dresden. Little more than a grocery stop in the early 20th century ...

. G. W. Adams was once a member of the

Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Colu ...

. Together with several other prominent citizens, Adams formed a stock company to build a suspension bridge across the

Muskingum River The Muskingum River ( ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country of Ohio ...

near

. When the other members of the company became fearful that the plan was not feasible and that they would lose their money, Adams built the bridge at his own expense; his nephew, George Copeland (1817 - 1907), was the engineer. The bridge operated as a toll bridge for several years before Adams eventually sold the bridge to the county commissioners for one-third of the original building cost of the bridge. Copeland was later involved in the construction of Brooklyn Bridge. Later in life, Adams was the President of the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad. He directed construction of the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad. His land holdings totaled with the Prospect Place Mansion in the center of his plantation. G. W. Adams was an important figure in Ohio politics, the Underground Railroad and regional development of the southeastern Ohio area, and served a term in the Ohio Legislature. His importance in these areas was a criterion used to include the Prospect Place Mansion on the

. G. W. Adams was married twice. He married Clarissa Hopkins Shaff (1824–1853) in 1845. They had four children together—Edward Adams (1847 - 1853), Anna Turner Adams Cox (1847 - 1924), Mary Adams (1849 - 1941) and Elizabeth Adams Endicott (1850 - 1955). After the death of his first wife, he married Mary Jane Robinson (1832–1915) in 1855. They had six children together—Sophia Adams (1857 - 1919), James Robinson Adams (1858 -1879), John Jay Adams (1860 - 1926), Charles Willison Adams (1863 - 1934), Jessie Bingham Adams Huggins (1864 - 1923) and Florence Adams (born and died in 1871). G. W. Adams died on August 31, 1879, at home. He was 79. Adams is buried in Dresden Cemetery in Dresden, Muskingum County, Ohio.

Underground Railroad operation

The

operation conducted by G. W. Adams and his brother, Edward, was a huge undertaking. The brothers operated a flouring mill on the

Ohio and Erie Canal The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron, Ohio, Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio ...

and owned warehouses, a boat yard and cooper shops in

. When men from the Adams company would take flour to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana, they would return with

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

(runaway slaves) beneath the decks of their boats. It is also known that in 1856 Adams donated money to the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn peop ...

Recent history

The mansion passed through the Adams-Cox family to George Cox (1883-1974), a grandson of G. W. Adams, who owned the property until the 1960s. In 1969 the home was sold to Eugene Cox (no relation). Eugene operated a gravel mining company, the Cox Gravel Company, which proceeded to mine the remaining associated with the estate. Cox's wife Peggy convinced him to purchase the Edward Adams home in

, as well. The Cox family lived at the Adams Mills home until Eugene's death in the 1990s. While the Cox Gravel Company owned the Prospect Place mansion, it was listed on the

. The deterioration of the mansion increased due to lack of maintenance and vandalism. The interior of the building was all but gutted by thieves and vandals. The estate was scheduled to be demolished in 1988. Local businessman Dave Longaberger purchased the house to prevent its destruction. Longaberger installed a new roof on the structure and increased security with the intention of restoring the home as a future

Longaberger Basket Company The Longaberger Company was an American manufacturer and distributor of handcrafted maple wood baskets and other home and lifestyle products. The company opened in 1973, and its Basket weaving, handcrafted baskets were a popular home decor item ...

headquarters building. Upon choosing instead to construct the new headquarters of the company in

Newark, Ohio Newark ( ) is a city in Licking County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located east of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus at the junction of the forks of the Licking River (Ohio), Licking River. The population was 49,934 at the 2020 United ...

, he placed the mansion restoration project on hold. Dave Longaberger died of cancer in the 1990s. The Longaberger Company continued to maintain security on the property until 2001, when private investors purchased the property with plans to restore and repurpose (adaptively reuse) the mansion into a restaurant and B&B. Financing fell through and a

501(c)(3) non-profit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 5 ...

, G. W. Adams Education Center, Inc., was established. The building is allegedly haunted and was featured in an episode of '' Ghost Hunters'' on the SyFy Channel in April 2008. It was also featured on ''

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal television, paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally ai ...

'' on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

on January 1, 2010, and ''

Ghost Brothers ''Ghost Brothers'' is an American television series about the paranormal that premiered on April 15, 2016 on Destination America, which is part of Discovery Communications. Produced by Pilgrim Media Group in association with Crybaby Media, the pr ...

'' on the

on April 26, 2016. In 2017, George Jeffrey Adams retired as chairman of the Board of the G. W. Adams Educational Center, citing failing health. A new board of trustees was immediately installed and repairs and restoration work were resumed. The new board consists of Jeffery Cole, Carrie Dean, Amy Green, Kristen Ketterer-Everman, and Jason Dean.

G. W. Adams Educational Center

Headquartered at Prospect Place Mansion (also known as the Trinway Mansion), the G. W. Adams Educational Center, Inc., was founded in 2003 by Dr. Felix Spector and his partner, George Jeffrey Adams (of no relation to the G. W. Adams family). The center operates as a historical and educational resource for the region. The primary focus of the center is the history and restoration of the mansion, George W. Adams, and his impact on local/regional communities, and Underground Railroad activities that took place at the mansion. The mansion and grounds are open for free tours on weekends, March - November, from 12pm - 4pm.

References

External links