WOOSTER, Ohio, Feb. 26, 2020 – The members of Overholt House Preservation Project LLC have given $10,000 to the Wayne County Community Foundation to establish a new endowment benefiting the Wayne County Historical Society (WCHS). That sum represents the net proceeds from the sale of architectural elements removed from the Overholt House on Beall Ave. and will fund the new Wayne County Historical Society Maintenance and Upkeep Endowment Fund.
Overholt House was built in 1874 on a farm north of Wooster and moved twice before being purchased in 2001 by The College of Wooster, which used it for office and student meeting space for more than 15 years. By 2017, the College no longer had a programmatic need for the building and sought to find a qualified individual or organization to disassemble, move, and reassemble the structure on a new site. When that effort proved unsuccessful, a group of local citizens stepped forward and asked if they might remove all the salvageable architectural elements and make them available for sale or provide them at no charge to local non-profits. The College agreed and provided $25,000 to defray the cost of that operation.
Over the course of six weeks, a local crew was able to remove all architectural elements with the exception of the exterior wood siding, which was too brittle to save, and the interior wood framing. Jon Ansel of D&S Distribution provided storage space at no charge for a year while new homes were sought for the salvaged elements. A local business purchased a significant amount of the material and a local homeowner bought other pieces. Two doors, two windows, and a quantity of wood flooring were donated to the WCHS, while several other pieces will be given to Local Roots.
WCHS President Bob Everett expressed his thanks to all involved in this collaborative effort. “One of the big challenges of managing the Historical Society is taking care of the many buildings that we manage,” he said. “The creation of this new endowment provides a nucleus around which additional support for that critical work can grow.” Everett also noted that the connection between the Historical Society and the College goes back many years and this project is just one indication of the ways in which it continues to strengthen. “The heart of our campus is the Beall-Stibbs homestead that was given to us by the College in the 1950s after we could no longer remain on the second floor of the old Carnegie Library. Last year, our website was redesigned by a team of students from the history department led by Assistant Professor Jordan Biro-Walters, who also serves on the WCHS board of trustees.”
The Wayne County Historical Society is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of the Wayne County. Founded in 1904, today the Historical Society operates a campus with eight buildings, including a pioneer-era log house, a mid-19th century general store, and the Beall-Stibbs homestead, begun in 1816 and completed in the early 1820s by War of 1812 veteran General Reasin Beall. The Historical Society is open for tours from March through October, on Fridays and Saturdays from 1-4 p.m., or by appointment.
