The elegant and well maintained grounds of this grand mansion with its white exterior are a landmark in Dover, Ohio. It is now home to the Dover Historical Society and maintained as a museum and center for the society's functions and special events throughout the year, including a spectacular Christmas display and tour.
The
Tuscararwas Heritage Home Association granted this home a "Historic Marker" status, seeking to encourage restoration and preservation of the area's many historic homes and buildings. Recipients are awarded these plaques in recognition of their achievements in historic preservation. From the Association web site:
"Historic preservation and restoration initiatives nationwide have reversed years of deterioration and decay . . . Our plaque symbolizes a property owner’s respect for these principals . . ."
The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
There is a memorial plaque on the home honoring those former employees of the Reeves Steel & Manufacturing Co. who lost their lives in World War II.
From the Dover Historical Society: (photos mine)
The J. E. Reeves Victorian Home and its adjoining Carriage House Museum, located in Dover. This opulent mansion, the former residence of prominent Dover industrialist, Jeremiah E. Reeves, is owned by the Dover Historical Society.
The 17-room, Victorian home, topped by a third floor ballroom, has been carefully restored by the Society to its original turn-of -the-century splendor and features the unique treasures of the original furniture and antiques that were the property of Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah E. Reeves, arranged as they would have been 100 years ago. These beautiful family furnishings can be viewed up close, as there are no ropes or barriers prohibiting entrance into the rooms.
Jeremiahs Reeves Carriage House
Dover, Ohio
The Carriage House Museum, located behind the home, contains an interesting collection of vehicles-- the family's handsome, horse-drawn carriage, along with the family sleigh, a rare electric car, and a newly restored doctor's buggy. The upstairs of the Carriage House features a new exhibit, Canal Dover: Life in Nineteenth Century Tuscarawas County, with a focus on Dover's rich history as a canal town. Featuring historic photos, interesting anecdotes, and museum artifacts, this exhibit takes the visitor on a tour of Dover's past from its founding in 1807 through the flood of 1913.
From the Wikipedia article, Jeremiah Reeves House and Carriage House
The house was built in 1870 by Valentine Wills as a two-story farmhouse. The brick house had large spacious rooms with high ceilings. When Jeremiah E. Reeves, an industrialist and banker, purchased the house in 1898 he extensively remodeled the house to meet his high standards of living. The house was transformed into a 17 room Italianate mansion house, equppied with a ballroom, drawing room, and a large dining room, to name a few. The Reeves family moved into the home in 1901 and within a short time the are came to be known as Reeves Heights.
The house was situated on a small hill overlooking the river and was close to the rolling mills Reeves had purchased for his steel business. The area grew as more and more Reeves relatives built homes around the original property.
Jeremiah Reeves died in the house in 1920, and the house remained occupied until the death of his wife, Jane, in 1926. The house was vacant save for a few times of sporadic inhabitation [sic] by the Reeves family and underwent a "modernization" in the 1940s.