-
Kelton House Museum and Garden
The Kelton House Museum and
Garden contains a Greek Revival and Italianate style mansion that
sits in the Discovery District of downtown Columbus, Ohio and a well
known stop on the Underground Railroad. It was transformed into a
museum by the Junior League of Columbus to create some kind of
understanding of the life, decorative arts, customs and culture of
the 19th century, as well as help visitors learn more about the
underground railroad. Fernando Cortez Kelton had come from Vermont,
that gained some notoriety in the city as a drygoods wholesaler.
Fernando and his wife, Sophia Langdon Stone Kelton, had the house
constructed on Town Street during the year of 1852. The couple were
staunch abolitionists that would use their house for a stopover for
the Underground Railroad. Fernando became such a respected
participant in the railroad and other abolitionist ideals that he
was asked to be one of the pall bearers in the funeral procession of
the murdered Abraham Lincoln, when his remains passed through the
city on its journey to Illinois and burial. Their oldest son, Oscar,
entered the 95th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company A in 1862, wanting
to fight for the liberties and freedom of the slaves. He would rise
to the rank of First Lieutenant before being killed in the Battle of
Brice's Crossroads in 1864. That year, the Keltons welcomed Martha
Hartway, a young runaway from Virginia, who would become part of the
family and raised by the Keltons until she married Thomas Lawrence
in 1874, a carpenter that worked on the mansion and his work is
still seen in the house today. After Fernando and Sophia passed on,
the mansion became the property of Frank Kelton, their son, who
would marry Isabella Morrow Coit, a young suffragette, who had
become one of only four women that were the first women to graduate
from Ohio State University. Isabella's mother was a well known civil
rights leader named Elizabeth Greer Coit. Frank eventually traded
houses with his brother, Edwin, so that both families would fit
better in the different houses. It was Edwin's daughter, Grace Bird
Kelton, who would be the last Kelton to live and own the house,
until she passed on in 1975. Grace became one of the first persons
in the nation to make a living as an interior decorator, since she
had studied at the Parsons School of Design and the Pratt Institute.
She became so widely known that Jacqueline Kennedy would ask her to
redecorate two rooms in the White House during the 1960s. When Grace
passed on, the mansion was acquired by the Junior League of
Columbus, which then returned it to its former glory and beauty
during the period from 1852 to 1900 with almost 90 % of the
furniture and furnishings in the house belonging to the family. The
wonderful mansion has now become a museum and events destination
that is very popular in the city. The house is a spectacular
example of Victorian style and grace during the latter half of the
19th century, with a wealth of outstanding memorabilia that includes
elegant Victorian silverware, a unique woven-hair brooch worn by the
family's women, a scrapbook kept by Anna Kelton from 1860 to 1870
that is so extraordinary, yet ordinary for the period. Inside are
what a young girl during that incredible decade would consider
important enough for her to save for herself, perhaps children and
even grandchildren. Pressed flowers from her summer vacations, a
telegram from the War Department that told of her brother, Oscar's
death at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Guntown, Mississippi,
society page articles, and news clippings and letters that told of
the Civil War engagements. The enormous drape cornices that hung in
the front parlor resembled a bed more than window dressing, and
Sophia did have Thomas Lawrence take down the walnut bedstead that
was there and put the drapes there in the place. Evidently, it was
below these very windows that Thomas married Martha. When Grace
passed on, her will endowed the mansion and property to the Columbus
Foundation with the stipulation that the family mansion be preserved
and used for educational programs. The Kelton mansion is the only
house museum in the city of Columbus, and the only place that gives
an authentic idea of what life was like in those days for upper
middle class families.
|
