BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
FAIRFIELD -- Once again, the Elisha Morgan farmhouse proudly pays tribute to Fairfield's agricultural past.
Gone are the graffiti-covered boards from its windows. Little remains to tell of the historic home's troubled past over the last 20 years, when it was twice slated for demolition, used as a haunted house and became a favorite target of vandals who once set the interior on fire.
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If you go
What: Gala opening of the Elisha Morgan Farm Mansion.
When: May 23.
Reservations: May be made through Friday. Cost is $35 per person.
Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. at the mansion, inside Gilbert Farms Park, 6181 Ross Road in Fairfield. Supper will begin at 7 p.m. The Shirley Jester Quintet will perform.
Sponsored by the non-profit preservation group Elisha Morgan Farm Mansion Inc.; proceeds from the gala will be used for special events or furnishings at the mansion. Donations of furniture, farm equipment, tools, clothing or photographs from the late 1800s and early 1900s are also needed.
To make reservations or to donate artifacts: 874-5526 or 858-1672.
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Its comeback has been a slow process as non-profit groups and preservationists raised funds for its restoration. Last year, the Elisha Morgan Farm Mansion Inc. preservation group got the final boost it needed when it was announced the Ross Road project had received a $265,000 Community Development Block Grant. City leaders set aside another $108,500 so the project could be finished this year.
Most of the work will be finished in the next two weeks, leaving mostly landscaping and interior wall coverings to be finished over the summer along with a brick walkway, said Judy Dirksen, a member of the preservation group.
On May 23, the home's comeback and future use will be celebrated with a pre-inaugural gala that begins at 6 p.m. at the farm in Gilbert Farms Park. The opening ceremonies, ribbon-cutting and tours are set for 2-5 p.m. Sunday at the park.
"There's a lot of possibilities for what we can use this for," said Mrs. Dirksen, who once tried to buy the home to live in before its deterioration. "We were thinking about a pioneer festival, a series of programs or displays, chamber music."
While the property won't revert to the pear orchard, vineyard or wine-making operation it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it will again become a county landmark with its National Register of Historic Places designation.
Its two meeting rooms, bathrooms and kitchen on the lower level will be used by senior citizen groups and for rental purposes, such as weddings or meetings. An office and two smaller meeting rooms will be on the upper level. The home will be under the auspices of the city's parks and recreation commission.
"We're glad to see some closure finally," Parks and Recreation Director Jim Bell said. "This is an exciting project that will be a nice addition to the parks and recreation system and to the city." "They're doing a very good job," said committee member Ann Antenen, a former Hamilton mayor who did restoration work for 16 years.
"I'm very pleased with it. When you have a community as new as Fairfield that has something like this from 1817, you have to save and preserve it. People were living in log houses then and this, well, it's a mansion!"
Built by Welsh settlers, the home is one of the few constructed before 1830 for which records are still available, Mrs. Antenen said. It is the oldest authentic home in the Fairfield area built in the Federal architectural style. In 1856, an addition to the back of the house was built in the Greek Revival architectural style. The interior walls and woodwork have been painted a pale green with white trim, as was the custom. A Columbus interior decorator is working on window coverings in floral or striped patterns from the 1850s to 1900.
Mrs. Antenen said she is working with Lakeview Garden Center and Landscaping to make sure the landscaping plan includes plantings of the period -- holly, iris, boxwood and dogwood trees.
When finances permit, a veranda will be added back to the house, Mrs. Dirksen said.
