Open by appointment only.
Call 216-721-5722.
Our grand tour of the Harper family's 1815 home is so rich with detail, you'll swear you hear the swish of a skirt behind you or the metallic scrape of a cook pot in the kitchen.
Modest in appearance on the exterior, there are 17 rooms inside, including the original cellar kitchen with cooking fireplace, bake oven, and a splendid banquet room with coved ceiling and early nineteenth century scenic French wallpaper. On the grounds, original shrubs and trees shade flower and herb gardens.
Virtually all the furniture pieces in the home belonged to the Harpers. The house looks much like it was in the 1830’s when Robert, his wife Polly, and their four daughters lived at Shandy Hall.
Robert Harper built a four room home in 1815, then over the next twenty years transformed the house into what was considered a mansion. The two generations that succeeded Robert Harper took great care to preserve the furnishings, tools, and traditions that exist today at Shandy Hall.
Robert was the youngest child of Alexander Harper. In 1798, Alexander bought land from the Connecticut Land Company and moved the family from New York to the Western Reserve. The Harpers were the first family to settle in what is now Ashtabula County.
Robert’s daughter Ann had a favorite book, The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. The book featured eccentric characters, which Ann likened to her family. She began to call her home Shandy Hall, and the name became popular with the community and has remained for over 170 years.
Many wonder if this home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, however, Robert Harper was a practicing attorney and took cases from slaveholders seeking the return of their runaway slaves. Slaves seeking freedom would have stayed away from Shandy Hall.
Operated by the Canfield Heritage Foundation.
For information: www.loghurst.org
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Loghurst was home to several families of farmers, each of whom placed their own special marks on the house through additions, interior renovations, and preservation.
Today, Loghurst is available for tours and educational programs, and visitors can experience life in a turn of the 20th century farm house, surrounded by the furniture and implements of the Kyle family, the last family to live in the home. Tours of the house introduce visitors to a typical kitchen, dining room and parlor of the period, while sharing lifestyle information and stories from all the house's previous inhabitants.
Recent improvements at Loghurst have helped to recreate the original landscape of the house, severely hampered in the mid-1900's by highway construction and expansion, and the renovated carriage barn offers visitor amenities, meeting and rental space. The museum shop, also located in the carriage barn, offers a wide variety of souvenirs, including hand-crafted items from Hale Farm & Village, special Loghurst items, books on a variety of historical and preservation topics, and an assortment of children's toys from the 1800's.
