The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Hanby House

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Institution Name: Otterbein College
Original/Historic Place Name: House of Brotherhood
Location on Campus: 160 West Main St.
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1846	original construction Unknown

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: Ohio field stone

Walls: wood

Roof: wood; cedar shingle

Function:

ca. 1846-1921	private residence (Hanby family; Fouse family)
ca. 2004-present (2007)	museum (dedicated to Hanby family and their son, composer Benjamin Hanby)

Significance: history, religion
Landmark designation:

National Register

Hanby, Benjamin, House (1970)

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
The two-story wood home known today as Hanby House was built as a private residence in 1846 and purchased by Bishop William Hanby in 1853. For the 16 years that the Hanby family lived here it was a station on the Underground Railroad, and it was in this house that Benjamin Hanby wrote his most famous song, "Darling Nelly Gray" (thought of as the musical equivalent of Uncle Tom's Cabin). Due to the welcoming nature of Bishop Hanby and his family, the home became known as the "House of Brotherhood." In 1870 the Hanbys had to sell the home, and it had many different owners over the next 50 years, including Squire Fouse, whose son William Henry Fouse was to become Otterbein's first African-American graduate and later a prominent educator in Lexington, Kentucky.

Between 1921 and 1927, the house remained empty and fell into disrepair. When word of the home's imminent demolition reached Otterbein graduate Dacia Custer Shoemaker, she had her husband purchase the house. Over the next ten years Mrs. Shoemaker raised the money needed to restore the structure, and on June 13, 1937, the Hanby House was dedicated and presented to the Ohio Historical society. In attendance that day with Mrs. Shoemaker were Brainerd O. Hanby (Benjamin's son) and W.H. Fouse. In 1981, due to budget cutbacks, the Ohio Historical Society turned the management of Hanby House over to the Westerville historical society, which manages Hanby House to this day.

William Hanby was an early supporter of education in the United Brethren Church and especially of Otterbein, and Benjamin Hanby, Otterbein's best known graduate, still receives recognition for his songs "Up on the Housetop" and "Who is He in Yonder Stall."

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

Miller, Millard J. House of Brotherhood: Story of the Hanby House. Westerville, OH: Westerville Historical Society, 1987.

Ohio Historical Society. Hanby, Benjamin, House [Otterbein College]. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1970.

Shoemaker, Dacia Custer. Choose You This Day: The Legacy of the Hanbys. Westerville, OH: Westerville Historical Society, 1983.

II. Location of other data:

University: Special Collections

SHPO

Government Offices

Other: Westerville archives, Westerville Public Library