Highlighting a Piece of Ironton, Ohio, History.
Check out these newspaper clippings from The Ironton Tribune that give you a look into the history of Henry Horn’s Home at 605 Lawrence Street in Ironton, Ohio. These photos show what the house looked like in 1988.
Restored Home Shows Life in Simpler Times
Ironton Tribune, Sunday, 19 June 1988, page 13
Lawrence County history buff’s have reason to rejoice.
What started as sad remains of a Federal Greek Revival cottage built in 1857 at 605 Lawrence Street has become a fully restored showcase of life during a simpler time, thanks to The Lawrence County Community Action Organization as well as work supplied by the Jobs Training Parternship Program’s summer youth program.
Built of bricks made near the building site and containing items such as the Foster stoves which were locally manufactured, the house is a catalog of Lawrence County history.
Many of the original Horn family furnishings are on display, and the two-story cottage barn adjacent to the house is among the few 18th century barns remaining in Ironton. Windows, doors and hardware are all original.
Also on the grounds is a garage to house Henry Horn’s first automobile which was added in 1924. The house was originally built by the Latem family and was sold to the Horns in 1891. Mr. Horn’s son Henry, who delivered meats from the family butcher shop to residents in the area, sent 85 years in the same house.
Carl Jacob of Ironton, nephew to the late Henry Horn III, inherited the house in the 1970s and resisted offers from a number of buyers partly for sentimental reasons. He sold the house to the CAO, seeing an opportunity to help preserve the house and have it benefit the community. Along the JTPA labor, student electricians from The Lawrence County Vocational School rewired the house, which first saw electricity in the 1940s, and installed electric baseboard heating.
The restoration committee, composed of Mitch Morgan, Beth Wentz, Ted Ridel, Joe Herld, Carl Jacob, and Ginny Wilson plans to open the house to public view soon.
It’s a Treasure Chest
Ironton Tribune, Sunday, 15 February. 1987, page 11. Photos by Ray Saviciunas. Story written by Jan Griffey
The Henry Horn house sits quietly on the corner of Sixth and Lawrence streets in Ironton, as if forgotten by time. The cottage, of Federal Greek Revival architecture, looks no worse for its 130 years of wear. Two wooden columns on the portico front porch, which extends the length of the home, are sturdy; its brick walls, recently painted, are strong.
The antique mailbox still opens with the turn of a key and the weather vane on the barn in the back glides lazily as it’s guided by the gentle Ohio River breezes. The Horn House, as it is called by Carl Jacob of Ironton, who became its former owner recently, has been purchased by the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization- thanks to Jacob’s generosity.
Jacob, who was the nephew of Henry Horn III, inherited the house in the late 1970s, and has resisted offers to sell it partly for sentimental reasons. But with Community Action, he saw the opportunity for the home to be restored and put to a use that could benefit the community.
Ginni Wilson, Mitch Morgan, and Ted Riedal, all of Community Action, have high hopes for the house. They are putting together a committee of private citizens who will oversee its restoration and will help raise private funding for the project.
“We hope the local historical society, the Northwestern Ordinance celebration people and a local cultural arts group will take a big interest in the home.” Mrs. Wilson said. “We want to restore the house largely through private donations, but with some of the labor provided through the Jobs Training Partnership Program.”
“I could just see a group of third graders sitting out on the lawn, having lunch, touring the house, learning about the history of Ironton and Lawrence County from the 1850s.” Morgan said.
The Horn house is a microcosm of the history of the county and of life at that time. It was once warmed by a Foster stove, made at the Foster Stove Co., of Ironton. The bricks used to build the house are from the same lot used to build the Campbell House, Community Action’s headquarters at Fifth and Lawrence streets here. Electricity didn’t make it into the Horn house until 1949.
Henry Horn I, a German immigrant, came to Ironton from New York City, and opened a butcher shop at Third and Lawrence streets in Ironton in the 1840s, Jacob said. After arriving in this country from Germany, Horn went to work in a packing house in lower Manhattan, Jacob said.
“Horn met Dorthea Mueller, a governess to the children of John Jacob Astor of Fifth Avenue in New York City, also an immigrant from his birthplace in Germany. Astor, a legendary New York financier, offered Horn a position with his organization, Jacob said.
“But he told him he’d rather be a butcher,” he said. “He eventually married Miss Mueller and they moved first to Pittsburgh and then to Wheeling, WV. But in Wheeling, there was a terrible outbreak of smallpox, which killed one of their sons,” Jacob said.
Henry Horn traveled by boat to Ironton, fell in love with the town and brought his family here. The Horn house, which is registered with the state for its historical significance, was built by the Lantern family of Ironton, who Jacob said were architects and teachers.
“This home is really such a treasure chest,” Mrs. Wilson said. “It’s full of little goodies. We’re going to do our best to make it a county historical attraction.”
Obituary of Henry Horn 25 October. 1926-7 October. 2004
Ironton Tribune, Sunday, 10 October. 2004, page 6
Ohio Furnace – Henry Cecil Horn, 77, of Ohio Furnace, died Thursday, 7 October 2004, at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Russell, Ky.
He was born 25 October. 1926, in Westwood, Ky., the son of John and Jessie May Horn, both deceased. He was a veteran of World War II, serving in the U.S. Army. He was a retired electrician at the Marine Repair Terminal at Ashland Oil, Inc., having served the company for 39 years.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, Charlie Horn. [It goes on to list all his living relatives] He was the husband of Cora E. Horner Horn, who survives. They were married 24 Dec. 1959.
Funeral will be 11 a.m. Monday at Tracy Brammer Funeral Home, burial will follow in Buckeye Cemetery, Scioto County.
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