Monitor House

Historic house in Ohio, United States
United States historic place
Monitor House
Front of the house
40°7′46″N 83°58′2″W / 40.12944°N 83.96722°W / 40.12944; -83.96722
Area1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built1860
Architectural styleMonitor Style
NRHP reference No.74001408[1]
Added to NRHPMay 2, 1974

The Monitor House is a historic house in St. Paris, Ohio, United States. Located along West Main Street, it is a square brick structure resting on a foundation of stone and covered with an asphalt roof.[2] Although the house is primarily one story tall, it is built around a 1+1⁄2-story square clerestory.[3]

The house was constructed circa 1860, although its precise date of erection — as well as the names of its first owner and its designer — is unknown. Its five-bay, 30-foot (9.1 m)-long exterior is decorated with cornices around the window lintels. Inside, the rooms open onto a central hallway that concludes with a stairway to the second floor of the central part of the house.[3]

In 1974, the Monitor House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its unusual architecture.[1] Only two or three monitor houses, featuring an elevated center, are known to exist in Ohio, and the one in St. Paris is architecturally the most well-preserved;[3] consequently, it is considered historically significant statewide.[2] In contrast, a similar monitor house in Chillicothe, known as "Tanglewood," is only considered locally significant.[4] The house in St. Paris was the first of over thirty places in Champaign County to be listed on the National Register; it is one of two in the village with this distinction, along with the Kiser Mansion on East Main Street.[1]

See also

  • Josiah Quincy House, a monitor house in Massachusetts

References

  1. ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Monitor House, Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed 2010-05-12
  3. ^ a b c Owen, Lorrie K., ed. Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 119.
  4. ^ Tanglewood, Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed 2010-07-12
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