MANSFIELD — Oak Hill Cottage will welcome its former residents home for one night only during its Ghosts of Christmas Past open house on Saturday, Dec. 3.
The annual event offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience and imagine what life was like for the residents of Mansfield’s own Gothic mansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Volunteers dressed in period costume will be onsite to answer questions about the home and its former inhabitants. About 20 volunteers will be portraying former residents and their house guests, according to Alan Wigton of the Richland County Historical Society.
“All the inhabitants will be scattered through the different rooms and we’ll kind of be in vignettes,” said Sheryl Weber, another historical society member.
Oak Hill Cottage will be open from 5 to 7 p.m. for Ghosts of Christmas Past. Tours will be self-guided; no reservations are required.
Tickets are $5 for adults and $1 for children 12 and under. Unlike regular tours, guests are asked to enter the house through the front door.
While the ghosts of Oak Hill visit only once a year, the museum will offer its regular Sunday tours from 2 to 5 p.m. on Dec. 4, 11 and 18 or by appointment.
There will also be two gaslight tours on Dec. 9 and Dec. 16. Reservations are required for gaslight tours in order to keep group numbers small.
Tours start at 7 p.m., but Weber said 7:30 p.m. tours will be added if there is enough interest from the public. Tours will be led by docents in costume.
Wigton and Weber said Oak Hill had its first gaslight tours in October and decided to have more this month due to their success.
For reservations for the gaslight tours or more information about Oak Hill Cottage, call 419-524-1765. More information is also available at oakhillcottage.org.
“The lights in the cottage are about the level of the old gaslights,” Wigton said. “It gives people a chance to come in the evening after dark, which is kind of a different experience.”
After December, the museum will closed for three months and resume its weekly Sunday tours in April.
Weber said she’s often amazed how few people in the area know about Oak Hill, which she called one of Mansfield’s best-kept secrets.
The historic estate was privately owned by the members of two families from 1847 to 1964. The Richland County Historical Society has operated a house museum there since 1984.
According to the museum’s website, railroad builder, mine engineer, and all-around capitalist John Riley Robinson built the home in 1847 beside an ancient oak tree on a hill overlooking the town. Dr. Johannes Jones and his heirs purchased Oak Hill in 1864 and lived there until 1965, when the Historical Society purchased it and opened it as a house museum.
Dr. Jones traveled from city to city in his medical practice, advertising ahead of his arrivals and charging enormous fees for his cures. All the furnishings and artifacts throughout the house belonged to the Jones family, including clothing, photographs, furniture, and personal belongings from Victorian times.
Oak Hill’s history is well-documented. The home was featured with interior and exterior photos in an 1896 county atlas and was the focal point of Louis Bromfield’s first novel, The Green Bay Tree. The historical society has original bills of purchase for much of the furniture in the house, which was purchased by the Jones family.
“When people come, they’re just amazed at just how big it is and everything in the house actually belonged to the Jones family. It’s not a replica. It’s their actual clothes and their actual furniture,” Weber said.
“We have letters, we have cards, we have diaries. We do have a wealth of knowledge about the family.”
