The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, in a secluded wooded grove, is quietly reaching out for more visibility and an expanded educational role.
The Hayes Presidential Center Library, part of the center, also envisions becoming a major resource for the study of a dramatic time in America’s history-the beginnings of the industrial and technological revolutions, which occurred during the Hayes presidency.
Hayes was the first president to have a telephone, according to Sally Daubel, spokeswoman for the center, and was very interested in new technology.
The center, which already has a collection of related material, also wants some state and federal support to expand its collection.
“We have been stymied,” Daubel said. “We have not been able to buy books or even to deal in things that cost a great deal of money in order to strengthen the collection. The books we are looking at are quite costly.”
Spiegel Grove is a memorial to the Gilded Age, the era between the Civil War and World War I, and site of the first presidential library-the model for all presidential libraries and still the only one to operate without benefit of federal funds.
When Franklin Roosevelt considered establishing a presidential library, he sent representatives to see how the Hayes Library was organized and operated. Others have followed suit.
To walk along the winding drive along the Buckland Avenue side of the 25-acre triangular tract is to follow the paths of legends.
Long before Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States, moved permanently from the White House to his stately home here, it was the Sandusky-Scioto Indian Trail, part of a natural water highway stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The earliest French explorers and missionaries used the trail, as did the French and Indians in their warfare against British settlers.
Frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton were brought along the trail as Indian prisoners.
In the War of 1812 it was known as the Harrison Military Trail, a major supply route for William Henry Harrison defending the frontier against the British and their Indian allies.
But Spiegel Grove also has a more modern history, stretching from the mid-1800s to today. It was here that Hayes retired after completing his second term as governor of Ohio. He had retired from politics to become the “Squire of Spiegel Grove,” but in reality he was setting the stage for a presidential run.
The call didn’t come, at least not right away.
The first section of the house at Spiegel Grove was built in 1859 by Sardis Birchard, bachelor uncle of Hayes, a successful businessman who had had an eye on the property for years. He is said to have asked Hayes what kind of house he wanted, and Hayes replied that he wanted a veranda with a house next to it.
Today, after two additions, the veranda, graced with wicker furnishings, stretches across the front of the house, offering a quiet retreat and a peaceful view of the grove.
Inside the house are many of the furnishings and other articles the president and his family used in the White House. The front parlor is done in red, like the Red Room he liked so much in the White House. Nearby is the first-floor master bedroom, where the president and his wife, Lucy, died.
An upstairs bedroom has the elegant black furniture the president bought for his only daughter, Fanny, while they occupied the White House.
The house was used by the Hayes family until 1966. Although the last permanent resident of the house was probably Col. Hayes, great-grandson Scott Hayes recalls living in the house periodically, from about 1944 to about 1950. He continued his schooling in Toledo.
Hayes’ personal library and papers became the basis for the Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial Library, which is a major repository of books and information on Hayes and the times he lived-the era between the Civil War and World War I.
The Hayes Museum, located in the same building, has an eclectic collection of presidential memorabilia, including original letters written and signed by all presidents of the United States to the present, personal items of Abraham Lincoln, and hundreds of souvenirs of the President and Mrs. Hayes, including the military field equipment he used as a colonel in the Civil War and the elegant black carriage he used when he was president.
In 1910, Spiegel Grove was deeded to the State of Ohio by the family of President Hayes, through Col. Webb Hayes. Conditions of the deed required the state to build a fireproof building for a library and museum to contain the family’s gift of the president’s personal library and papers and personal effects.
The building was too small, and work on the first addition began almost immediately. It faced north, across Hayes Avenue, in anticipation of a state college being located there. The college went to Bowling Green instead-because there were far more taverns in Fremont-and became Bowling Green State University.
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The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (home, museum and research library) is at 1337 Hayes Ave., Fremont, Ohio 43420; 800-998-7737. Hours for the home and museum: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sundays and holidays. Same weekday hours for the library, which is closed weekends. Separate admission to home and museum: $4, adults; $3.25, seniors (60 plus); and children (6-12), $1. Combination ticket for both: $7.50, adults; $6.50, seniors; and $2, children. No admission charge for library. The museum and library are handicap accessible; the home is not.
