Breckenridge Builds Mansion

There’s a brick home on Jackson Pike just south of Stringtown Road that caused considerable gossip when it was being built by Jim Corey for John S. Breckenridge.

Many neighbors felt the new Breckenridge home was looking more like a mansion, according to Beryl Jean Shover Spangler, a granddaughter, and her mother, Martha Moeckel, the youngest of Breckenridge’s five daughters.

Breckenridge commissioned the house for his bride, Margaret Ann Holton. The moved into the new 10 room home after their marriage April 17, 1895. The house was constructed using clay from the Breckenridge land. A brick from the house with a date carved into it is on display at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum.

Breckenridge farmed his fertile acres with the help of hired hands, his wife and five daughters, Carolyn, Nell, Francis, Florence and Martha. These efforts enabled the family to live quite comfortably. The farm, consisting of 100 acres, was bordered on the east by the Scioto River, on the south by Breckinridge Road (now White Road), on the west by the Willing farm and on the north by the Wolf farm.

The downstairs consisted of a living room, radio room (on the north), dining room, bedroom and kitchen. The kitchen had a sizable wood burning cook stove, a sink which pumped undrinkable cistern water and a large square table which was placed in the center of the room.

Along the south wall were three separate closets. One contained pots and pans, one served as a coat closet, and the third, centered between the other two, housed a cupboard for dishes and silverware.

The stairway in the kitchen ascended to two-bedrooms reserved for the hired hands. They stayed there only when it was necessary for them to remain overnight. These two bedrooms were not joined to the rest of the upstairs.