Hundreds of people donning empire-silhouette gowns, waistcoats and linen trousers arrived by tractor and hay wagon at a Sunbury home one fall day in 2017.
A man dressed as American frontiersman Davy Crockett stood beside a hanging cauldron of bean soup as the aromas of cornbread and pie filled the October air.
It was no Halloween celebration or historical reenactment. It was a birthday party.
The house at the center of it all, once the Van Dorn Inn, was turning 200.
"We don't live in New England, so to me that's something really cool in Ohio," Amy Welsh, the home's owner, said. "I just thought that it should be celebrated and it should be enjoyed."
Located at 14659 E. State Route 37, the six-bedroom, four-bathroom inn-turned-home is now on the market
for just under $900,000. The 4,400-square-foot property was built in 1817 and has since lived many lives, serving as a tavern, stagecoach stop, post office, church and more before converting to residential use in the early-to-mid 1900s, Welsh said.
A self-proclaimed "historical purist" and lover of old homes, Welsh said she and her husband Tim were looking to relocate from Westerville "out to the country" in 2014. Knowing Welsh's affinity for early American history, their then-Realtor included the former Van Dorn Inn in an email of listings.
Welsh was immediately taken by the property. Its five fireplaces, staircases, 12-over-12 single-pane windows and brick exterior had endured largely untouched for centuries. It didn't take long for her to know she wanted to call it home.
"I know this sounds so nerdy, but I love sometimes just walking down and touching [the staircase] and thinking of everyone that's come down there and all the different fashion trends that have come down those stairs," she said. "You can build a house to look old, but it still doesn't have the same energy and the same feel, and that's just what drew me here."
Her love for the home's history is part of what pushed Welsh, who affectionately calls the house "she," to host a 200th birthday celebration for the property as a fundraiser for the Big Walnut Historical Society. To think about the sheer labor and dedication it took to build these kinds of structures in the early 19th century made Welsh particularly appreciative of the fact that the home is still standing today, she added.
The home features a tavern, within which is a six-and-a-half-foot-wide tavern fireplace and what Welsh referred to as a "cage bar," or a small, enclosed drink-serving area typical of early American inns. The 1.44-acre property also has a detached, four-car garage barn with second-story living space.
Over the years, Welsh and her family completed several major renovations, including new roofs for the main house and garage barn, redoing electrical and plumbing systems, adding fencing around the property, exposing the kitchen ceiling and converting the attic into an owners' suite.
In the process of restoring some of the fireplaces to their original design, having been covered with drywall by past owners, Welsh found a beehive brick oven – a dome-shaped structure comparable to today's wood-fired pizza ovens.
"To find the original beehive oven, to me, was just like a gift the house gave," she said.
Welsh described her 12 years in the home as "a labor of love." But now that she and her husband are empty-nesters, the house has simply become too big for two.
"It needs new life; it needs new energy; it needs kids and lots of grandchildren running through it," she said. "It needs a new family that can continue its legacy, and I pray can continue keeping it in the condition that it currently is in, or even better, without the historical integrity being compromised."
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 200-year-old Van Dorn Inn for sale as a house with tavern, listed for $900k
