It’s a common story around Ohio, as communities fight to preserve local landmarks. In the north central Ohio city of Galion, however, the challenge is the preservation of a property which is not only uniquely connected to its past, but has ties to noted Americans and a leading architect of his day.
Sitting on the main street of town, the Bloomer and Nellie Gill House, locally known simply as “The Gill House,” was constructed in 1903-4 to the plans of architect Louis Kamper. Kamper had trained for several years under the tutelage of architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White in New York City, the leading firm of its day in providing American cities with classically designed buildings and development plans. Kamper later opened his own firm in Detroit, and became the architect of choice for major hotel and building projects, including for the landmark Book-Cadillac Hotel. Of the several neoclassical residences Kamper designed based on his work at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, only the Gill House survives.
For now.
The 6,000 square foot house boasts a wonderfully intricate main staircase, an oval dining room, and many Kamper-designed features. Its original family, the Gills, had lived in Galion for almost a hundred years when the house was started, and it is located on the site of the original, smaller family house, moved and still located to the rear of the current structure. The Gills had a close relationship with two inventor/industrialists – Thomas Alva Edison, whose second wife Mina Miller was the childhood best friend of Nellie Gill (the Edisons visited the house), as well as Bloomer Gill’s friend Henry Ford, who drove the first automobile in Galion down from Detroit to visit his friend. The Gills also had close family connections to the industrialist John Deere and to J. Edward Day, President Kennedy’s Postmaster General who implemented the zip code system.
The house has been owned by a non-profit organization, Preserving Galion History, LLC (“PGH”), since 2011. The organization has completed major stabilization work, including installing heat in the building for the first time in many years. In order to keep the house in preservation-friendly hands, PGH must raise some $20,000 by October 3 – just three and a half weeks away – and is reaching out to the wider Ohio preservation community for assistance with this effort.
Please consider joining in the preservation “crowdfunding” to preserve this remarkable piece of architecture and history. Thank you gifts are available for various levels of donations. Online donations can be made here; for those wishing to make a tax-deductible contribution, and instructions on how to do so can be found on the same site. For more information, please call 419.468.6180 and ask for Craig Clinger.
Several pictures of the Gill House can be seen below.
