Hawthorn Hill
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Hawthorn Hill in Oakwood, Ohio, USA, was the post-1914 home of Orville, Milton, and Katharine Wright. Wilbur and Orville Wright intended for it to be their joint home, but Wilbur died in 1912, before the home's 1914 completion. The brothers hired the prominent Dayton architectural firm of Schenck and Williams to realize their plans. Orville and his father Milton and sister Katharine occupied the home in 1914.
Though the property now comprises three acres (1.2 ha), the mansion originally sat on seventeen acres. The Wrights named the property after the hawthorn trees found on the property.
Orville Wright designed many of the mechanical features of the house, such as the shower [1], the water storage tank used to collect and recycle rainwater [2], and the central vacuum system [3]; these features reflect his creative genius. For 34 years, this house was the gathering place for the greats and near-greats in the history of American aviation.
The home was owned by the NCR Corporation after Orville's death until August 18, 2006, when the company donated the historic home to the Wright Family Foundation in honor of Orville's 135th birthday and National Aviation Day. [4] [5] NCR used it as a guesthouse for corporate VIPs and for corporate functions. On occasion they opened the home to the general public.
NCR extensively redecorated the mansion's interior after Orville's death. Only Orville's study remains as it was during the his occupancy. However, Edward A. Deeds, then-chairman of the National Cash Register Company sent a photographer to the home immediately following Orville's death to visually record the interior of the house at that time. Some of the original Hawthorn Hill furnishings may be seen at the Kettering-Moraine Museum.
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior designated Hawthorn Hill a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
