Oliver W. Kelly Carriage Barn, 621 South Fountain Avenue, Springfield

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS OHIO,12-SPRIF,22-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The carriage house erected for 0. W. Kelly is significant for its distinctive and highly picturesque architecture and stands as a rare surviving example of a long obsolete type of building. Like the principal building on this property, the residence of Mr. Kelly, this carriage house is large in scale, uses more costly brick construction as opposed to the balloon frame typical of its neighbors, and has an animated profile that culminates in a cupola with weathervane. Description: Stripes of rectangular and octagonal slate shingles accent the hip roof of this story- and-a-half brick building. The main roof is interrupted by a front-facing gable with bargeboard trim and a gabled dormer, also with bargeboard .. Dormers also appear on the side and rear.

One side has only a series of small square windows on its lower level. The openings are formed with segmental brick arches. Swinging pairs of broad garage doors accent the front opening, while the rear opening has sliding wood doors. The windows are boarded. The square cupola rises from one comer of the ridgeline and is topped by a steeply pitched pyramidal roof topped by an elegant weathervane. The building rests on a stone foundation and takes the form of a rectangle measuring about The gabled front section projects slightly and there is a rear corner shed-roofed lower section that fills in a void in the rectangle and whose brickwork suggests that it is an early addition. Otherwise, the building appears largely unaltered, but it is deteriorated from years of neglect.

History: This building was probably constructed in the judging from its styling and materials. In 0. W. Kelly was the owner in whose name a water tap permit was taken out. His name was listed in boldface in the directory that year with his occupation being president of the 0. S. Kelly Co., a firm still in business by as a major producer of piano plates. He continued to live here for the rest of his life, long after the neighborhood had ceased to be fashionable. Kelly was the son of prominent Springfield industrialist 0. S. Kelly, whose former residence is one block north of here. 0. W. Kelly studied languages and engineering in the principal cities of Europe from when he returned to Springfield and became associated with his father in the Champion Company.

The directories list this as the home of Oliver and Mary Kelly until with the premises being vacant the following two years. From about through this was the residence of Clifford G. and Anna S. Harris. He was a clerk. The residence had a series of short-term occupants up to the present time. The carriage house has apparently never been occupied, although the house was apparently divided into apartments during the Depression. The carriage house had its rear opening enlarged, apparently to accommodate automobiles. Its upstairs was evidently always used for storage and not as a residence. OLIVER W. KELLY CARRIAGE HOUSE HABS No. OH-2444, page 2

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS OHIO,12-SPRIF,22-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

and later Springfield city directories, and the Ohio Historic Inventory form for this property, The building stands within the South Fountain Avenue Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Ohio State Historic Preservation Officer. Copies of the National Register nomination are at the Springfield Department of Planning and Development and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.