Hawthorn Hill, the home of Wright Brothers and their sister, Katharine, will begin having visitors for educational tours on Sept. 1. Numbers will be limited, and people wishing to tour the home should make reservations. Visitors must go to Carillon Park Saturdays or Wednesdays at 10 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. to catch a van that will take them to the house. Only tour participants may visit the home.

Tickets are $12 per person. Dayton History members however may purchase tickets for $10 each. There also are combination tickets for both Carillon Historical Park and Hawthorn Hill for $15.

Completed in 1914, the Greek Revival-style mansion originally sat on 17-acres on the highest point in Dayton. Named for the shrub-like Hawthorn trees that covered the hill, the home belonged first to the Wright's, then to the NCR Corp. as a guest house for more than 50 years, and then returned to the Wright family last year.

Orville, Katharine, and their father, Bishop Milton Wright, lived in the home together. Wilbur died in 1912, two years before the house was completed.

The Wright's’ father died just three years after the house was finished, and Katharine, who’d been the primary housekeeper, married Henry Haskell in 1926 and moved to Kansas City. Thus Orville was the primary occupant for 34 years.

Stephen Wright, a great-nephew of the Wright Brothers, explained that visitors will see some original furnishings and some additions. Many of the originals became property of the Wright Brothers’ relatives after Orville died in 1948, but many pieces remain in the house.

For example, tables, chairs, and books in Orville’s study are original as is the damask silk wall covering. Orville reportedly invented a tool used to take the covering down so that it could be cleaned each year and returned to the wall.

Because of spinal injuries suffered in an airplane mishap, Orville often sat in his study with his right leg elevated and the other on the floor. The room’s carpet has a noticeably worn area under a table where Orville frequently would move his foot to relieve his pain.

In the room just off the central foyer, there is a bronze statue called “The Muse of Aviation.” It was a gift from France in 1908 given when Wilbur demonstrated flying in front of tens of thousands of spectators at a horse race track in Le Mans. Orville treasured the statue and designed the wall alcove where it still sits.

The kitchen features a gas stove and metal-covered preparation tables and counters. The fuse box for the house, still in working order, also is in the kitchen. Carrie Grumbach, the Wright's’ housekeeper, began working for the Wright's when she was a teenager, and stayed for more than 40 years. When the Wright family sold the house, she was given the original gas stove which she installed in her own home in Dayton.

Originally, there were three bathrooms upstairs, for Orville, Wilbur and Katharine. Bishop Milton Wright used Katharine’s bathroom, and Orville’s bathroom featured a shower which had not only a shower head but also pipes that curved around the inside of the shower and sprayed water horizontally.

The massive attic hides some of the air conditioning equipment and has a stairway leading to the roof’s “widow walk.” Surrounded by railing, a visitor to the widow’s walk today is able to see Dayton landmarks such as Wright-Patterson’s Bldg. 620, Area B, and Good Samaritan Hospital several miles away.

Wright said that modern day visitors will get more out of their visits than simply seeing furnishings. Guides will tell anecdotes about the occupants, mostly Orville since he lived there the longest.

For example, Wright said that “Uncle Orv” was fond of playing jokes, and during a visit by Stephen’s grandfather, Lorin Wright, Orville pulled a very real-looking metal cockroach across the dining table using a nearly invisible thread. The “cockroach” horrified the guests.

The house has had some very notable visitors. One, Charles A. Lindbergh, possibly the most famous man in the United States, came to the house soon after historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean. When neighbors and spectators began peering in the house’s windows to catch a glimpse of the aviator, Orville had Lindbergh step out onto the tiny balcony off Katharine’s bedroom to wave to the crowd.

Other visitors have included Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Gerald Ford, Ohio Governor James Cox, and golfing greats, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Also, the Russian ambassador is scheduled to visit in October.

Anyone interested in touring Hawthorn Hill should call guest services at Carillon Park at 293-2841 or toll-free at 1-877-BE-HISTORY.

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