George Willison Adams was born in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1800. His family moved to Muskingum County, Ohio in 1808 where he grew up to run a mill. In 1856, his 29-room mansion known as Prospect Place was completed after his previous home was consumed in an arson fire. Adams was a staunch abolitionist and his mansion soon became a stop on the Underground Railroad. The cupola on the roof would be lit by a lantern if it was safe for runaway slaves to shelter in the mansion's basement. Adams died in 1879. The house was passed down through the family until the 1960s when it began to face neglect. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, the mansion was essentially abandoned and fell victim to vandalism and structural problems. It was purchased by Dave Longaberger in 1988 to prevent the mansion's imminent demolition. After Longaberger's death, the house was bought by a descendant of its original owner, George Jeffrey Adams. Since 2001, it has been slowly renovated, a work that is still in progress.

Today, the house is secured and is still in the process of restoration. Some parts of the house look spectacular while others look, well, abandoned. The property owners allow self-guided tours on certain days as well as by appointment. While I don't think this counts as urban exploration per se, the mansion is tremendously historical and photogenic, two qualities that I know are appreciated on this forum, so I thought I'd share. Prospect Place has a website with info for visits, which are free.

1. The grounds including the mansion and barn
DSC09192 by KMD1720, on Flickr

2. The Italianate architecture is amazing in person
DSC09183 by KMD1720, on Flickr

3. This room was once the library
DSC09109 by KMD1720, on Flickr

4. A portrait of G. W. Adams hangs in the parlor
DSC09114 by KMD1720, on Flickr

5. This was the bedroom of Adams' second wife, Mary Jane Robinson. His first wife, Clarissa Hopkins Shaff, passed away in 1853, three years before the house was built.
DSC09118 by KMD1720, on Flickr

6.
DSC09120 by KMD1720, on Flickr

7. This was the second-floor hallway
DSC09123 by KMD1720, on Flickr

8. Restoration work is still ongoing on the stairwell. The first couple flights look great but the top still needs a lot of work. The rails are gone and replaced by temporary plywood while the lath-and-plaster is crumbling off the walls.
DSC09124 by KMD1720, on Flickr

9. This was the upstairs parlor. It was also sometimes used as a chapel.
DSC09127 by KMD1720, on Flickr

10.
DSC09129 by KMD1720, on Flickr

11.
DSC09131 by KMD1720, on Flickr

12. This was the boys' bedrooms. One of the boys who grew up here was John Jay Adams, a future Fifth Circuit Court of Ohio judge.
DSC09134 by KMD1720, on Flickr

13.
DSC09135 by KMD1720, on Flickr

14. The girls' bedroom housed all five of Adams' daughters.
DSC09141 by KMD1720, on Flickr

15.
DSC09143 by KMD1720, on Flickr

16.
DSC09144 by KMD1720, on Flickr

17. Anyone scared of clowns?
DSC09145 by KMD1720, on Flickr

18.
DSC09148 by KMD1720, on Flickr

19. Decades of graffiti is carved into the third floor wall. Lots of carvings are from the 1970s and 80s when the house was thoroughly abandoned.
DSC09150 by KMD1720, on Flickr

20. The majority of the third floor was a ballroom shaped like a U.
DSC09153 by KMD1720, on Flickr

21. Creepy doll in the ballroom
DSC09156 by KMD1720, on Flickr

22.
DSC09158 by KMD1720, on Flickr

23. The cupola atop the roof, used to keep watch over the farm fields
DSC09161 by KMD1720, on Flickr

24. The roof, looking toward the rear of the mansion at the barn
DSC09162 by KMD1720, on Flickr

25. The barn was interesting from the outside but there wasn't really much in it.
DSC09193 by KMD1720, on Flickr

Full album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.../with/25655624046/

nice!

Nice set !

That creepy doll looks like it was modeled after Tammy Faye lol

An entire bedroom for the boy and 5 girls crammed into a single room.

<sigh> God how I miss the good old days....

<quickly ducks and runs away>

Thanks everyone!

As far as the bedrooms go, there were actually 2 or 3 boys in the boys' bedroom. I'm finding conflicting information on the actual amount of sons Adams had and how many of them lived in this house. What I think is even crazier is that there are 29 rooms in the house and only two were utilized as bedrooms for the kids. There were THREE parlors in the house (ladies' parlor, gentlemen's parlor, and upstairs parlor) and the husband and wife had separate bedrooms. You'd think they could have allowed the kids a couple more rooms. One thing to consider though is that they probably only slept there. It wasn't like these days when some kids never come out of their rooms. The kids probably spent most of their time in the parlors or outside.

Great pictures of a gorgeous old place! Thanks for the backstory too.

The photo of the doll kind of looks like a female version of Alice Cooper ;)

These were neat!

Great stuff, you know you are wealthy when you have an all brick barn...

What a beautiful building! Nice photos, dude.

Thanks for the photos and write up .

I thought it was pretty fascinating to read about.

This place is a history nerd's wet dream. I'm really loving the civil war paintings and the brick architecture. Not a lot of places like this left.

Really appreciate all the comments/compliments. I'm glad everyone's enjoying this. Even though it's not actually abandoned, this is one of my all-time favorite places. Also, it's really nice to have places like this that actually encourage visitors instead of scaring them away/calling the cops on them, etc.

Love it. Will definitely visit if I manage to go east this summer. Thanks for the fantastic photos!

Nice photos