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Springhouses were small, enclosed one-room buildings used to keep food cool before the days of refrigeration. It was ideally built over a spring where cold water bubbled up to the surface.
The springhouse at Adena was built by George McCormick and Conrad Christman in 1805, at a cost of $46.34. The current springhouse is a reproduction on the original site, about 100 yards from the mansion. It is built over a natural spring. Water from the spring runs through the springhouse in a shallow channel cut into the stone floor. Crocks or jars of milk, butter, eggs, and anything else that needed to stay cool would be placed in the cold water.
The walls of the springhouse often had shelves to store baskets of potatoes, onions, and other garden produce. Activities that took place in the springhouse included making sauerkraut, churning butter, preparing yeast cultures (for bread), and making cider. There is a fireplace in the springhouse, which could have been used for making cheese and jams.
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Adena Mansion and Gardens
Thomas Worthington & Family
Tecumseh
The Old Northwest Territory
Ohio Statehood
Great Seal of the State of Ohio
Benjamin Latrobe
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THE SPRING HOUSE
Adena Mansion & Gardens Society manages this site on behalf of the Ohio History Connection.