The William Holmes McGuffey House

An Architectural and Structural Overview of WILLIAM HOLMES MCGUFFEY HOUSE

1833, enlarged 1858, modified ca. 1866 and ca. 1905

The William Holmes McGuffey House is the second oldest building on the campus of Miami University. Elliott Hall, or “Old North Dorm,” completed in 1829, is significant as being the oldest extant collegiate dormitory in Ohio and among the oldest in the nation. It is located a few hundred feet north of here immediately south of the Beta Bell Tower [illus].

McGuffey House Elliott Hall

Stylistically, the McGuffey House is an excellent regional example of Federal vernacular architecture, a style generally popular in Ohio from 1790 to 1840. The Federal style is named for its association with the post-Colonial, early American republic. This English-derived style is distinguished by its attention to classical detail and simple elegance. Vernacular structures were typically designed and built by skilled carpenters who were influenced by local climate, available building materials, and local building traditions. Builders’ guidebooks such as William Pain’s Practical Builder (1762) and Asher Benjamin’s The Builder’s Assistant (1800) helped standardize key aspects of Federal architecture. Federal vernacular houses in southwestern Ohio often exhibit flat three bay facades with side-facing gables relieved by evenly spaced window and door openings. [Other regional examples of three-bay Federal vernacular brick architecture open to the public include the Elisha Morgan House in Fairfield (1817), Cary Cottage in College Hill, Cincinnati (1833) and the Betts House in Cincinnati (1804).

Morgan House Cary Cottage Betts House

It is highly unlikely an architect was involved in the design or construction of the original house. Early 19^th century architects in Ohio were not licensed as they are today, and until 1850 few were known to practice outside urban centers such as Cincinnati, Hamilton or Dayton. In 1840 Charles Anderson noted in an early address to Miami alumni,

It is believed that most of these buildings [at Miami] were erected

without plans or architects, either as to the particular building,

or to the proportion and relative position of the whole group. Nor indeed

is it known whether an architect has been consulted in regard to future

additions (Anderson, Address to the Society of Alumni. Oxford: John Peat,

1840, p. 12).

In small towns such as Oxford it was more customary that a local house joiner or builder designed and built houses according to guidebooks, local building traditions, material availability and client’s specifications. To attain the status of a master carpenter or builder was no small achievement – traditionally a seven year apprenticeship was required.

Ostensibly, many local builders were highly skilled craftsmen and their work often exhibited considerable and sometimes remarkable sophistication. Their talents can be seen today through the quality of their finish and detail work, especially staircases, fireplaces mantels, interior trim, and exterior walls. All of the original brick and woodwork employed in the construction of the McGuffey House would have been hand made and fabricated in Oxford, and most likely would have all been custom work overseen by the supervising brick mason, millwright and carpenter. The house is evidence these builders were master craftsmen of the era.

Several brick buildings on Miami’s campus and within the Square Mile share similar design elements to McGuffey Museum. Elliott and Stoddard Halls, The Beta Theta Pi House, and the Campus Ministry buildings were all built ca. 1825-1835, all exhibit Flemish bond masonry, and all originally had or retain Federal interior woodwork. Although documentation supporting a common builder(s) has not been found, the physical similarities among all of these buildings suggest the possibility of a common brick mason or carpenter. We do know James T. Slack was the chief contractor and superintendent of construction for Stoddard Hall, begun in 1833 and completed in 1835. Stoddard Hall is nearly contemporary to McGuffey Museum.

There are several physical characteristics that suggest McGuffey House’s early 19^th century provenance. It is the only known 19^th century residential building in Oxford that exhibits Flemish bond masonry [illus] on three of its four elevations [Elliott Hall is unique in that all four elevations were laid in Flemish bond].

Flemish bond

This is highly unusual in Ohio and suggests the walls were built by an experienced brick mason. Flemish bond masonry required considerable skill to lay and formed a stronger interlocking bearing wall than the more ubiquitous common bond. In Flemish bond brickwork the short face of the brick is called the header and the side or long face of the brick is referred to as the stretcher. Note the small portions of brick near the corners of the walls. These are called “Queen’s closers” [illus]. Another indicator of early nineteenth construction are the brick “jack arch” lintels over the windows [illus].

Queen’s closers Jack arch lintel

Another indicator of the house’s early 19^th century origins are the bricks themselves. They tend to be smaller and less uniform in shape, texture and color than 20^th century bricks. To observe this first-hand, compare the brickwork on McGuffey Museum to the bricks on Warfield Hall (1962), a mid-20^th century building to the east. Several of the bricks in the gable end of McGuffey Museum and on the wall in the back room are darker color. These variations and imperfections are a result of the way the bricks were fired in a beehive kiln. The “green” bricks were stacked around the fire, thus those bricks nearest the fire tended to be darker and harder than those along the outside walls. The harder bricks were reserved for the outside walls while the softer bricks formed the interior walls.

The bricks were bonded together with a traditional lime mortar consisting of lime and sand. By the late 19^th century natural cement and later Portland cement were used in place of lime. Mortar joints using cement tend to be gray in color whereas the traditional lime based mortars are usually tan. When the McGuffey Museum was rehabilitated in 2001 an effort was made to make mortar repairs using the more traditional sand and lime mixture.

Mortar

The walls exist to support the roof, the floors and the contents of the house. Wherever there are window and door openings the load bearing capacity of the walls is diminished. House builders employed lintels [illus] as a way of deflecting the weight, or “load” away from the top of the window frames and doors and distribute the weight toward and down the walls.

Lintel

Before 1830 brick lintels laid vertically, or “jack arches,” were used; afterward sawn stone replaced brick for use in most window lintels. The sawn stone lintels on McGuffey Museum were likely later modifications to the house, most certainly after 1840 when steam powered saws were available.

The foundation is constructed of locally quarried and hand chiseled limestone. Note the stonecutter’s hand-tooled chisel marks on the stone. Given the considerable weight of brick and stone, both materials were probably quarried and kilned close to the site. It was rare, however, that bricks were molded and kilned on site. We do know Oxford had for many years a large brickyard and that is most likely where the bricks for McGuffey House and the town’s pre-1860 bricks were manufactured. Stone and brick were commonly used as foundation materials until replaced by concrete during the first quarter of the 20^th century.

Windows are a key defining architectural element of a building. We know from written histories, oral tradition, historic photos, and structural detective work that the windows of McGuffey House have been modified over the years. We think the original windows on the front portion of the house featured nine-over-six lights. That is, the sashes were divided into nine panes or lights on the upper sash and six panes, or lights on the lower sash. A remnant of the original upper sash can be seen in the east gable end on the second floor (illus).

Upper sash remnant

You will note many of the lower sashes consist of one large window pane. We believe these sashes were modified during the changes to the house ca. 1910. During the 1860s, in conjunction with the hallway renovation, the McCord family removed the smaller window sashes at the front and west sides of the parlor and installed taller, large-paned six-over-six sashes (illus).

Parlor window

The front door and window transom also date to the 1860s renovation. However, if you look closely you can detect a few arched bricks below the door lintel. These bricks are most likely the voussoirs remaining from the original Federal fanlight that originally surmounted the entrance (illus).

Voussoirs

Federal fanlight on former Beta Theta Pi Headquarters

As you can see the house is rather deep and narrow. This plan is not accidental. The large windows afforded maximum natural light into the rooms, no small consideration given the fact candles or whale oil lamps were originally the main sources of illumination. The house also had an east-west orientation that also provided optimum lighting and excellent cross ventilation during the hot summer months. Bear in mind the brick addition now housing the Library was not built until the late 1850s, so it is almost certain there initially were outside doorways on all four elevations of the house.

There is a basement underneath the kitchen and dining room portion of the house. The floors are supported by 3” x 8” ash floor joists with 21” centers. The kerf marks on the joists indicate they were sawn by a reciprocating saw. All of the cut lumber used in constructing McGuffey’s new house may have been milled at Well’s Steam Sawmill. The 1836 map of Oxford shows this mill just west of town near present day Contreras Road. It is also possible the lumber was cut at any of the several nearby water powered mills, including Zachariah DeWitt’s sawmill along Harker’s Run. It can be said with certainty the wood used in any framing and trimwork for the McGuffey House would have come from either virgin or very old growth trees growing in or near Oxford.

Joist showing kerf marks

OUTBUILDINGS AND SETTING

Given the fact systematic archaeological excavations have not yet taken place on the grounds, we cannot say with any accuracy what and where outbuildings would have stood. It is almost certain outbuildings did exist over time. Accounts, illustrations, maps and photos indicate the presence of what appears to be a small barn and leanto shed immediately south of the house along Oak Street [1875 Atlas]. Town dwellers, even affluent ones, customarily had chickens, possibly a horse, and even a milk cow on the grounds. [W. E. Smith noted McGuffey was taxed in 1834 for owning three cows and a horse]. Since McGuffey was an ordained minister he would have needed a horse to pull his carriage to churches in the area.

A smokehouse was almost certainly used to cure and smoke bacon, hams, and beef, while an outhouse and possibly a fruit cellar were also located on the property. Water from a cistern underneath the side porch would have been used for cooking and bathing purposes. This may have been supplemented with water supplied from a hand dug well. To date a well has not been located on the property. Other outbuildings may have included a wash house and storage shed.

Since municipal water did not come to Oxford until 1896 [the first water plant was on Bonham Rd], cistern and well water would have been the primary sources of water for most of the 19^th century. Oxford did not have a gas works and the city’s first electric light plant was not built until 1890, so prior to then oil and kerosene would have been used for illumination. Consequently, even though the McGuffey House was located in town it essentially was self sufficient for most of the nineteenth century.

In stark contrast to today, there was little traffic on Spring and Oak Streets. Lots along Oak Street were almost totally undeveloped prior to World War I and Spring Street was essentially the southern edge of town and the Miami campus. Throughout the 19^th century both streets would have been unpaved and considerably narrower than the present day configuration. Spring and Oak Streets were not paved until after 1920. Until the advent of motor-powered vehicles the sounds of horses hooves and wagon and carriage wheels would have broken the silence of the college campus. Where Hamilton and Richard Halls are now located would have been gardens, open fields and pasture land. In essence Oxford was the quintessential rural Ohio town removed from the emerging industrial cities of Dayton, Hamilton and Cincinnati.

Stephen Gordon, Curator

Fall 2006

Ownership History

The William Holmes McGuffey Museum stands on Outlot 9 in Oxford, which was sold to Robert Blair in 1810 at the first public sale of college lands at the Butler County courthouse. Blair forfeited the purchase, and the same year Merikin Bond of Cincinnati became the second owner. Bond built a small frame house on the northeast corner of the four-acre tract. The next owner was William Holmes McGuffey, who joined the Miami University faculty in 1826 at a salary of $600 a year.

In 1827 he married Harriet Spining of Dayton. In 1828 he paid Merikin Bond $350 for Outlot 9 and the house upon it. By 1833 McGuffey completed a two-story brick house of six rooms. The tax records show that in 1827, McGuffey owned a carriage and a horse. In 1834 he paid taxes on his new house, assessed at $1800. His carriage was assessed at $80. By this time he was also being taxed on three cows and one horse. McGuffey left Miami University in 1836 to become president of Cincinnati College.

Professor T. J. Mathews was the next occupant of the house. There is no record of sale to him, but he paid taxes regularly on the house while he lived there. Reuben E. Hills, an Oxford merchant, bought the house in February, 1855. In the same month and year he sold it to J. H. Shuey who built the west wing. From 1839 to 1855 the property had been in the care of McGuffey's brother Alexander, a Cincinnati attorney, who held the property in trust for McGuffey's children.

In 1866 the house and two outlots (eight acres) were purchased by Joseph McCord, a contractor who had been engaged in doing fine cabinet work and trim on steamboats in Cincinnati shipyards. Joseph and his brother David built the handsome stairway in the northeast room, thus converting that room into a hall. They lengthened the front windows of the northwest room and added interior shutters. They replaced McGuffey's portico on the north by a porch extending across the house. What is now the McGuffey Library was Joseph McCord's office. Years later, the McCords closed one window in the west wall of their parlor to accommodate a new mahogany sofa upholstered in horsehair.

After Joseph's death two of his children, Frank and Lizzie McCord, purchased the property. They continued to live there until 1883, when they moved to a new house on East Church Street. They did not record their deed to the Spring Street property until 1885. In 1903, the McCords sold the house and part of Outlot 9 to William A. Beard. The remaining part of the outlot was sold to Miami University in 1916. In 1923 Martha C. Beard became the owner of the house. Two years later she sold the house and northeast part of Outlot 9 to Wallace P. Roudebush (Miami, class of 1911). Roudebush was on the administrative staff of Miami University from 1911 to 1945, when he became Vice President: Finance. He was Vice President and Treasurer at the time of his death in 1956. Because of his devotion to Miami University, he was known to friends as "Mr. Miami." In 1958, Mrs. W. P. Roudebush sold the house and lot to Miami University.

Restoration of the house was made possible by the bequest of Mrs. Blocker which set up a foundation in support of the McGuffey Museum and center of research for Ohio history. Mrs. Blocker died in 1958.

The essential structure remains the same as it was built by McGuffey, those additions and changes as noted above having been made by later owners. The east porch did exist during McGuffey's time, although in a somewhat simpler form and the upstairs portion was originally open rather than closed in by windows as it is now. The principal entrance to the house was originally from this east porch - with the present back stairway having a landing just beyond this entrance. There were an assortment of outbuildings and barns around the house complex which was typical of a 19th century house on the edge of a village.

As in any house that is lived in as a private home over a long period of years, changes have been made by various occupants. However, no basic changes have been made in altering room sizes. In restoring and refurbishing the house as it now is no attempt was made to restore it to its original form but rather to maintain its character as a house that would have been lived in over a long period, which would mean some furnishings of a later date than 1833 when the McGuffeys moved in.

All of the downstairs woodwork in the front stair hall, living room, dining room and library was changed to conform to the Victorian taste of the 1860's. This was apparently done by Joseph McCord at the same time that the front porch was added and the new stairwell installed. It will be noted that most of the woodwork in the upstairs rooms is original to the house, as well as most of the simpler paneled doors. None of the hardware, however, is original - most of which also dates from the Victorian cast iron and china knob era. The only exposed original ash floor in the house is to be found in the upstairs back bedroom.

From 1999 through 2002, the house underwent a major renovation and conservation effort. The kitchen stairway, which had been changed since McGuffey's departure in 1836, was restored to its original position.  A new entrance area was also added to the back of the house. This addition, although new, recreates a space that would have existed on the back of the house as the old porch.

Text by William E. Smith