The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Walnut Hills reopens to the public July 19-21 after an eight-year, $3.5 million restoration project. Famous as the one-time residence of the Beecher family, including Harriet before she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the house’s later use as an inn and tavern get equal treatment in this update.
The house was built in 1833, and Lyman Beecher and his children lived there through 1852 while he was president of nearby Lane Theological Seminary. Daughter Harriet married and moved with her husband to Maine, where she published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, inspired by her family’s anti-slavery activity in Cincinnati.
After changing ownership several times, the house was added on to in 1908 and eventually became a boarding house and tavern called the Edgemont Inn, which was listed in The Green Book. It was purchased again and renovated, becoming a historic site in 1949.
This top-to-bottom restoration included both the original and the added spaces, depicting the house as it appeared in 1840 (Beechers) and in 1940 (Edgemont Inn, pictured above).
Restoration staff found samples of original wallpaper as non-period fixtures and door jams were removed, and they created new wallpaper to recreate or approximate the originals. Furniture from the house’s two distinct periods is a mix of antiques and recreations.