Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1980. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“John Sweyer was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and coming to this country with his parents first settled in Hagerstown, Md., thence to Lancaster, Ohio, in 1812. He was married to Margaret McDill, of Scotch descent.”
History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens (1912). Machine-read text.
one of 29 National Register listings in Fairfield County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Fairfield County.
National Register reference number.80002995- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Amanda lies immediately north of Clear Creek. It is commonly understood that the name was given by William Hamilton, who was the first County Surveyor of Fairfield. It contains the villages of Amanda and Royalton. Amanda is eight miles west of Lancaster, on the Cincinnati Railroad. Its first proprietor was Samuel Kester, and its beginning was about 1830. Royalton is six or seven miles north of Amanda. It is a small village, and was known as Toby Town at the beginning of the settlements.
Frederick Leathers is spoken of as the first settler. He kept a tavern on the old Chillicothe road. Isaac Griffith succeeded him as landlord, and remained there until 1834, soon after which the house was burned. Other early settlers were : Disinger, William Ward, Mr. Norris, Mr. Denison, William Hamilton, Thomas Barr, John Christy and Mr. Morris, who acquired notoriety as a ring-fighter at public gatherings. A school-teacher, by the name of Solomon Grover, is spoken of ag having school in the upper story of his house, in 1817. A Presbyterian Church was organized in the village, in 1838, by Rev. Dr. Hogue, of Columbus. The first minister was William Jones. The first Sabbath-School in Amanda was inaugurated in 1860, by the Rev. Thorn.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Barr House between
2006 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
20
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
2
Equipment and vehicle use
2
Smoking
1
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 2,045 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Barr House between 1843 and
1975: 1,556 Animalia, 394 Fungi, 83 Plantae, 5 Unrecorded, 5 Protozoa, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by Asa Gray; W. S. Sullivant, Bales, B. R., Beier, M. and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Amanda, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Large limbs were knocked down by thunderstorm winds across the county, downing power lines in spots. A large storefront window was shattered in Amanda. Several of the trees in Lancaster fell on cars causing damage.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,297 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
majority of the woodwork has original graining and is in beautiful condition. clapboard siding.The hipped gable roof is covered with asphalt shingles.The under a projecting cornice and a stringcourse.The front entrance is approached by a system(including original fixtures),marble fireplaces and wide plank floors.A Check one The Italianate front portion of the house was added in 1878.Itisa two story Xoriginal site front of the house. The rear portion of the Barr residende is the earliest section of the house.
60 acre tract and ran alongside old route #22 West Main Street).The home It was built in 1840and isa log structure covered in clapboard siding.This is A frame summer kitchen is located to the rear of the house within a sidewalk's X good southeast (front) facade are floor to ceiling in height, emphasizing the vertfcality adorn the window openings. Also typical of the Italianate style are ornate brackets deteriorated ruins with a crawl space below.The walls are finished with white tongue and groove a brick structure and was believed to be a cold food storage facility.The walls narrow paved walkway and steps.They lead to an ornamental porch with its own cornice 8.
Statement of significance
(in one paragraph) Amanda Township Samuel Dum ).This prime setting attracted several early Fairfield Specific dates Rear 1840 Front 1878 Builder/Architect social/ - archeology-prehistoric - _ community planning - religion landscape architecture The Barr residence is architecturally the most outstanding structure in Amanda politician took up residence in the house. architecture.Accompanying frame and brick outbuildings also enhance the property. and vicinity.The Victorian residence is prominently located on a large corner lot in the town and is shaded by century old maple trees.Architectural details which 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 80002995, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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