BROWN COUNTY OHIO - Historical Notes - Part 1 (published 1954)
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Historical Notes by Jess Bier
March 4, 1954

GEORGETOWN HAS MANY FINE OLD BRICK HOMES

     In 1880, the last house in the north corporation limit was a two-story
frame house on the west side of Main St. at North Alley on the site of 
which was afterwards the Frank Blair home. It was moved back on the old 
"Johnnie Blair Road," and afterwards torn down and a house built on the 
site by John Moore, Jr.  It was in this house that his writer's mother was 
born and in the yard of the Grant home is a peony bush that was planted by 
the writer's grandmother in the yard of that home, and about 1900 moved to 
the Grant home where it is living today, almost 100 years old.

     North of this house there were only two other houses on the west side 
of Main St. and that was the Chilton A. White home, now owned by Charles 
Donohoo and the George Shields residence, now the William Stephen home.  
On the east side of the street only two, one being the Hamer home, now 
razed, and no others until the Ben Mrkley home at the hill opposite the 
cemetery.  But in 1870, when the population had grown to 1037, people began
to erect substantial brick houses.  There was a brick yard in the northern 
section of the town in that section now occupied by the small homes of 
colored people and from this yard were obtained the brick to build the many
new homes.  The Loudon home, the John R. Moore, Adam Stephen, the Dr. 
Ellsberry home, built by Philip Miller, and now owned by Sam Cropper. Mr. 
Miller also built the imitation stone residence now Dr. Donohoo's clinic.  
The Dr. L.B. Miles home, the scene of many gay social events and grand 
balls, stood about where the John Wood home is today.  
     Other fine brick houses built at this time, and some prior were the
Marshall home on Elm St., the Thompson home on South Main.  When the Chris 
Stephen home was built on East Grant Ave., on the site of the old Ramey 
cabin, it was surrounded by dense woods as were all the houses built east
of Main Street on the north side for all the section where the shoe factory 
now is with surrounding territory was a woods of mighty oaks, beeches and 
other forest trees.  The last of them was at the north end of what is now 
Harmon Heights, and many times has this writer played in the shade of those 
might beeches.

     The town continued to grow and a fine shoe factory was built by the 
side of the C.G.&P. depot and gave employment to many people of the town 
and others came here to work and a section of town northwest of the 
schoolhouse was built up and called the "Shoe Factory Addition."  When the 
factory burned to the ground it was a blow to the town, for it threw all 
the time when the great depression of 1896 the employees out of work and 
right at was forming and work was difficult to find.  However, the town 
survived the blow and continued to grow.  About the summer of 1896, three 
fine homes were constructed, all on North Main St., the Orman Dunn, Frank
M. Smith and the George King homes added to the architectural beauty of 
Georgetown.


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