Hawthorn Hill - Oakwood, OH
Posted by: 
DougK
N 39° 43.380 W 084° 10.547
16S E 742063 N 4400828
Hawthorn Hill was the home of Orville Wright for nearly 35 years. Many of the mechanical features of the house were designed by Orville Wright and reflect his creative genius.
Waymark Code: WMCWW6
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 10/20/2011
Views: 6
The
Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville, wanted a home in the Georgian Colonial style that they had admired on a trip to Virginia to test their airplane.
They bought 17 acres in Oakwood with a commanding view of Dayton. They named the home Hawthorn Hill because of the trees there and because they had lived on Hawthorn Street when they were boys.
Wilbur helped plan the house, but contracted typhoid fever and died May 10, 1912, before its completion in 1914. Orville Wright, his sister Katherine and their father Milton lived in Hawthorn Hill in the city of Oakwood.
The symmetrical house has two-pillared facades, on the south and north sides, which are connected by a wide and elegant reception hall.
The house is known to have entertained important guests like Thomas Edison, Carl Sandburg, Alexander Graham Bell, King Constantine of Greece, Admiral Richard Byrd, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When Orville died in 1948, the National Cash Register bought the estate and turned it into a company guesthouse. In 2006, the property was donated to the Wright Family Foundation. The Wright family coordinated with Dayton History and the National Park Service to make the residence open to the public. Hawthorn Hill is now a National Historic Landmark.
The home is now part of a series of geographically separate stops along the trail of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.