Mayfield Township Historical Society continues to educate through rooms of Bennett-Van Curen Historical House

May 20—Walking through the rooms of the Bennett-Van Curen Historical House, 606 SOM Center Road, might feel like time travel.

That's because the inside of the house, originally built in 1847, has been transformed into an educational teaching tool by the Mayfield Township Historical Society.

The house started as a single structure by Jacob Bennett, son of immigrants from England, who moved to what is now the Mayfield Village area. During that time the landscape was different as instead of being dotted with strip malls and gas stations it had vibrant fields and healthy streams that could support livestock and farming.

Bennett would later pass the house to his son, George A. Bennett who would expand it, and go on to become the second mayor of Mayfield Village in 1922.

The expansions now carry new and old alike thanks to the help of volunteers with the historical society. In the 1980s they transformed the 13 rooms into glimpses of different times, with each room representing a different point in history.

The basement holds a print shop, a schoolhouse and a log cabin, with the upstairs holding a 1930s-era kitchen and other rooms that were all renovated by volunteers.

Joan Gottschling, president of the Mayfield Township Historical Society, said that she was glad her group was able to work with the school system to bring the teaching tool to a bigger audience. She said that the collaboration with the school district has been happening for around 25 years, and they bring in third-graders because that's typically when students start to learn about Ohio history.

"They plopped the house here and at the time it was a commercial building," Gottschling said. "They had a beauty shop, a dentist office, and a realty office. So, over the next 13 years volunteers would come in every Saturday and Wednesday night to restore it to what you see today.

"It was all a passion project for the volunteers. Everyone donated their time and did what they could do or were good at. They called themselves the wrecking crews, and they would get down to work scraping, cleaning and building."

She said that since the furnishings were all donated, they figured out where each item could be used on the timeline and went from there when they organized the house.

"It was mostly to do with the furniture that we had at the time that dictated the timeline," Gottschling said. "We just thought it would be great for them to go through our house because we have rooms for different ages, so they kind of progress through the decades that way."

"We really represent four different communities' history, not just one. We have people from all four communities helping us out here," Gottschling added.

They also have a quilting group that meets every Monday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., where people can meet up and practice the art of hand sewing and quilting.

Jan Muhle, who has been helping with the historical society since before the house was moved to its current location, said they are looking for new members for the quilting group. She said the club was the first group in the house when it was moved, and she wants to see the tradition continue with the younger generation.

"We used to have around 25 members but now we only have around three," Muhle said. "I was hoping that some of the younger generation would take it up, but I guess it just isn't popular anymore. But trends do go in cycles so maybe they will take it up again."

She said that seeing the building moved from the northeast corner of Wilson Mills and SOM Center Road to its current location in 1987 was somewhat of a holiday for the area with everybody taking time out of their day to check it out.

"There were kids lining the roads," Muhle said. "It was a lot of fun to watch it move. They had to lift it on the back of a truck and move it down here. We have lots of pictures of the day upstairs in the research room."

Gottschling said that she hoped people in the community would view the building as a resource.

She said in the research room people can look up grave locations and past building records. The society is also branching out by providing community outreach opportunities, including their next event, an Ice Cream Social, on Sept 13, at the Bennett-Van Curen house.