Help Try to Save Chillicothe’s “Fox Farm Inn”

You might hear a new PSA on your four local iHeart radio stations. I created a “public service announcement” on the effort to save the Bridge Street building best known as the Fox Farm Inn, since I still am a part of the radio newsroom.

The large antebellum house that was the “Old Fox Farm Inn” restaurant, and lately Smith Jewelers and a Nourse used car lot, has been sold to a Columbus developer. Schiff has not announced his plans for the site, but obtained a demolition permit in February.

A printed petition has been in circulation for a few weeks. Government can’t stop the demolition, but the petition effort urges the owner of the building to reconsider demolition, and for local government to open communications and discussions on the topic.

Although there are many listings in Ross County, the property has not been listed on the National Register of Historic Places – though that would not have any legal power to prevent demolition.

As I wrote for the PSA, “the large Greek Revival brick house built in 1843 by Dr. Jonathan Miesse at 1334 North Bridge Street is essentially the last and most significant home remaining in the commercial strip – and a northern gatepost to the historic town…

“Don’t let the First Capital, which has earned part of the World Heritage designated ‘Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks,’ and which offers so much heritage to visit, loose another landmark.”

Joe DeLong, co-owner of Shawnee Lanes, had his son create an online version of the petition on Change.org, where you can read their text. DeLong also hosts a print petition at the Bridge Street bowling alley.

As of last Wednesday, more than 1,700 signatures had been collected online and in print. (It’s probably well past 2,000 by now.)

Speaking of the prehistoric Adena / Hopewell culture, you can visit the reconstructed mound in the parking lot of Guernsey Crossing and look across Bridge Street to see the endangered Fox Farm Inn.

Chillicothe Gazette reporter Shelby Reeves wrote a retrospective article on the Fox Farm Inn, but it was more of an obituary than coverage of the preservation effort. Find several historical photos of the building in the online version. (You can also find chatter and snippets of history in various Facebook pages.)

Hear the Fox Farm Inn PSA (as well as my Farmers Market PSA, and others) at random times on 1490AM / 92.7FM WBEX, 94.3FM WKKJ, 1350AM WCHI, and 19.5FM WQLX.

Also contact me, or Christina Wolford through the iHeart Southern Ohio newsroom, if you have a PSA for a nonprofit that you would like us to air. 

Find more in the article on the Scioto Post.

Kevin Coleman covers local government and culture for the Scioto Post and iHeart Media Southern Ohio. For stories or questions, contact Kevin Coleman or the iHeart Southern Ohio Newsroom.