CINCINNATI

Have you ever heard of an organization called the National Society of Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA)?  Well, the Ohio chapter owns a home in Cincinnati that is truly historic.  It is the Betts House. 

The Betts House was built in 1804 (Thomas Jefferson was president) and is the oldest surviving residence in Cincinnati and the oldest brick house in the state of Ohio still sitting on it's original site.  That site is on Clark Street in the West End.  It's not far from Washington Park and the Cincinnati Music Hall. 

William Betts, the original owner, was a brick-maker.   His property originally extended for 111 acres.  He and his wife Phebe had emigrated to Cincinnati from New Jersey.  They and their children held the property until their youngest daughter became of age when it was subdivided.  Their descendants continued to live in the house until the 1870s when the nearby growing meatpacking industry chased everyone in the neighborhood who could afford it away to the suburbs in the hills surrounding Cincinnati.  (pee-yew!)

In 1990, Martha Tuttle, a descendant of the Betts, and other concerned local citizens purchased the run-down building and began the process of refurbishing it.  In 1994, it was purchased by the NSCDA-OH and turned into a museum and their headquarters.  It has been open to the public since 1996.   Go see it!