Hunting Lodge Farm is a historic house located near
Oxford in
Oxford Township,
Butler County,
Ohio,
United States. Constructed as a
hunting
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
lodge, it has been used by multiple prominent local residents, and its distinctive architecture has made it worthy of designation as a
historic site.
Built of brick and set upon a stone
foundation, Hunting Lodge Farm is covered with a
gabled asphalt roof.
[Curry, Lucy. ]
Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: The Gothic on Bonham Road
'. Ohio Historical Society, 1978-07-01. The building has been deemed an example of the
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style of architecture,
[Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 94.] due largely to a few triangular windows that derive from
traditional construction styles employed in the construction of hunting lodges in
Bavaria. Overall, its architecture is more typical of the
Greek Revival style, due to elements such as a symmetrical front facade,
Tuscan columns on the front porch, and a
trabeated side porch. The second
story features components such as
dormer windows
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...
,
transoms, and an ornate
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
with
dentils.
Built in 1833,
the house was used as a hunting lodge for only a few years; it has been a residence since 1840. Although located atop a hill above Four Mile Creek,
the house occupies a comparatively obscure location; its driveway is crooked, and it is surrounded by woodland.
Both the inside and the outside of the house remain well maintained with comparatively few changes from 1840. The earliest owners, Henry Orne and Isaac Gere, are responsible for the house's overall plan and its unique elements,
even though it was home from 1872 until 1895 to
Lazarus Noble Bonham
Lazarus may refer to:
People
*Lazarus (name), a surname and a given name
* Lazarus of Bethany, a Biblical figure described as being raised from the dead by Jesus
* Lazarus, a Biblical figure from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus
* Lazar ...
, a prominent journalist, educator,
and
Ohio Secretary of Agriculture.
Lazarus N. Bonham
Ohio Historical Society, 2013-05-23. Accessed 2013-11-25.
In late 1982, the Hunting Lodge Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying both because of its historic architecture and because of its connection to numerous important individuals. It is one of four National Register-listed locations in Oxford Township, along with the Austin-Magie Farm and Mill District, the Zachariah Price Dewitt Cabin
The Dewitt Log Homestead is a historic building near Oxford, Ohio, listed in the National Register on 1973-04-13.
This log cabin was built in 1805 by Zachariah Price Dewitt and Elizabeth Dewitt and is the oldest extant structure in the Oxford T ...
, and the Pugh's Mill Covered Bridge
Pugh's Mill Covered Bridge is a registered historic structure near Oxford, Ohio, listed in the National Register on 1975-06-05. This wooden bridge was built in 1869 over Four Mile (Talawanda) Creek and is one of two remaining covered bridges
...
.
References
{{NRHP in Butler County, Ohio
Houses completed in 1833
Greek Revival houses in Ohio
Houses in Butler County, Ohio
Hunting lodges in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Butler County, Ohio