You awoke early and came to the living room to
sleep in your favorite living room chair at Kim and Paul's. Now, more fully
awake you researched the mansion near your building site. did not realize
the M/I land was a part of the LeVeque estate. - Amorella
** **
History towers over LeVeque family's estate
History towers over LeVeque family's estate
An Orange Township home that
previously served as a sanctuary for runaway slaves and a retreat for one of
central Ohio’s most prominent families has seen a lot of history.
An
Orange Township home that previously served as a sanctuary for runaway slaves
and a retreat for one of central Ohio’s most prominent families has seen a lot
of history.
Now,
it’s awaiting a new owner to write its next chapter.
Until
last spring, the five-bedroom manor off Africa Road, just southeast of the
Interstate 71 overpass, was the home of Katherine LeVeque, philanthropist and former owner of downtown
Columbus’ LeVeque Tower. LeVeque died April 9, 2014.
The
500-acre site, until recently, was a farm that housed corn, hay and soybean
fields as well as horses. Now, the former farmland largely has been divided up
into plots for single-family homes.
About
four months ago, the LeVeque home -- currently accessible from a neighborhood
street known as Katherine’s Way -- and the 5-acre site on which it sits went on
the market at a price of $1.25 million.
Barbara
LeVeque, Katherine’s daughter-in-law who currently lives in the home with her
husband, Colin, said it will not be easy to move on from the property.
“We
just sort of have to tidy up the estate,” she said. “I, personally, would live
here all of my life. It’s the perfect family home and it’s hard for me to let
it go.”
The
two-story house is a storied property with modern touches. Barbara LeVeque said
that reflects the influence of its former owner.
Built
in 1841, the home still features the original brick and woodwork, crafted
on-site when Orange Township was largely uninhabited. An addition constructed
in the mid-1960s includes a domed solarium Katherine LeVeque used for
gardening. Now, it serves as a summertime dining room.
“She
was sort of a woman ahead of her times,” Barbara LeVeque said of her
mother-in-law. “I found books on organic gardening written in the ’60s when I
cleaned out her things. Now organic is all the (rage).”
Panels
salvaged from either the LeVeque Tower or the adjacent Deshler Hotel hang on nearby walls. Gargoyles that
once guarded the tower now sit watch over the outdoor pool.
“We’re
all doing reclaimed and refurbished and repurposed, and (Katherine) was ahead
of all of us,” Barbara LeVeque said of the decorative touches.
She
said her mother-in-law, who was raised in South Carolina, enjoyed the balance
of the site’s rural appeal and proximity to the big city.
Although
the LeVeque family members added to the site’s story, the property already was
a notable piece of local history when they acquired it in the mid-1950s.
Samuel
Patterson, one of the early settlers to locate east of Alum Creek in the
township, moved to the property in the mid-1820s when the surrounding community
was known as East Orange. He initially lived in a log cabin on the site before
he “burned the brick and cut and seasoned the walnut and other choice timbers
for a new house,” according to The
Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroads by William Henry Siebert,
published in 1951.
According
to that text, Patterson, an outspoken abolitionist, housed runaway slaves in
large barns erected on the land. Some of the slaves were stationed at the edges
of his property “for the purpose of watching all approaches and giving the
alarm in case of danger.”
According
to an Ohio Historical Marker that sits in the Below Dam Recreation Area at Alum
Creek Reservoir, Patterson caused a stir in the community by inviting
abolitionist speakers to East Orange Methodist Church. Patterson and
like-minded neighbors later split from the church and built the anti-slavery
Wesleyan Methodist Church in the area.
A
pro-slavery neighbor mockingly referred to the community as “Africa,” a name
that stuck for many years and replaced East Orange over time.
A
marker farther south on Africa Road in the city of Westerville lists the
Patterson house as a key stop on the Underground Railroad route that ran
between Westerville and a Quaker settlement near Marengo in Morrow County.
Barbara
LeVeque said her family has heard legends of secret passageways within the
existing house, but she’s found no physical evidence to back up those stories.
She said the LeVeque family was aware of the property’s history but never
sought any kind of landmark status for it.
“It
was never put on the historic register because (Katherine) was very private,”
she said. “I don’t think she wanted school buses of children coming through,
and I don’t think they wanted to be restricted in what they could do to the
house.”
At
one point in the last few years, the LeVeque family invited some of Patterson’s
descendants to tour the house. The meeting between the two families led to
hugs, smiles and even a few tears of joy, Barbara LeVeque said.
“It’s
certainly a house that’s held in great esteem by that Patterson family,” she
said.
As
to who will follow in the footsteps of the Patterson and LeVeque families at
the site, Barbara LeVeque said she has some ideas.
“I
think the perfect person would be somebody with kids that maybe has a job where
you need to entertain,” she said. “The house entertains beautifully.”
She
said the home’s location adjacent to a modern subdivision offers “the best of
both worlds” as a country manor that also has a sense of community. She did
note that it will take a “unique buyer” to add a new page to the property’s
history.
Selected
and edited from thisweeknews dot com (e-edition), March 20, 2015
** **
0242
hours. We had our usual Class of 1960 gathering at Jimmy D's in Uptown
Westerville last night and I mentioned to Fritz M. where we would eventually be
moving and he said that's where the LeVeque mansion is. I did not know this
outright but have some memory of having read about it in one of the Westerville
histories. It had to do with the naming of Africa Road which runs from Main
Street in Westerville north to State Route 37 which connects the city of
Delaware to the city of Sunbury and points beyond. Fritz has written a couple
of books about Ohio history. Anyway, it was exciting to reread about Ohio's
contribution to the Underground Railroad, one of the pathway's to a slave's
freedom before and during the Civil War. The Lincoln LeVeque Tower in downtown
Columbus is a well-known landmark.
Thus, you had a pleasant surprise to soon be
a part of once historic land that reflects the values of individual human
freedom. Something you write about deep down in your Merlyn fictions. Post. -
Amorella
No comments:
Post a Comment