Shaker group seeks to save historic hall
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Members of the Lebanon community and Shaker historians are hoping to save Bethany Hall, the fate of which will be decided in a May 18 meeting of the Otterbein Board of Trustees.
Martha Boice, president of the Western Shaker Study Group, said her group hopes to meet with Otterbein officials with suggestions as to how to use the building in a practical manner while still preserving it.
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The Shaker group also is working to get the hall listed on the National Registry, although that measure on its own would probably not be enough to save the building.
Barbara Powers, head of the Inventory and Registration Department for the Ohio Historic Society, said even if the property is recognized on the registry, that doesn't change property owners' rights.
"The registry provides encouragement for owners to seek ways to preserve or restore a historic property, but it is still theirs to do with as they wish," Powers said.
Donald L. Gilmore, president and CEO of Otterbein Retirement Living Communities, said that there is no specific date for the building's demolition, but he is not going to have it sit idle for long.
He said there are no definite plans for what would be put in Bethany Hall's place.
"We've been studying it since 1995 and, unfortunately, this is the only option we can see," Gilmore said.
Bethany Hall was built in 1846 as a meeting place and residence for members of the Shaker religious sect and was believed to be the largest brick building in Ohio when it was built.
Gilmore said Otterbein will maintain Marble Hall, the other original Shaker construction on the property, which houses a Shaker museum.
Otterbein also will try to utilize the bricks made by the Shaker community to build Bethany Hall in some sort of historic marker that will memorialize the Shakers' place in Warren County history.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.
