163-A Cottage Hill Carriage Barn.jpg
Cottage Hill (Dan Hanna Farm)
Postmark 1910
Pictured is the coach barn at Cottage Hill Farm.
Cottage Hill Farm was the summer home, as he termed it, of Dan Hanna. Hanna was the son of Cleveland businessman, U.S. Senator, and presidential kingmaker Marcus (Mark) Hanna, and the grandson of Daniel Pomeroy Rhodes. Both the Hanna and Rhodes families made sizeable fortunes from iron, bituminous coal, and railroads. The younger Hanna was a partner in his father's business; he also tried to revive two failing Cleveland newspapers, without long-term success. In the process, though, he built a notable Cleveland building, the Ledger Building, which still stands.
The farm is located at 5555 Newton Falls Road, just east of Ravenna. The first construction on the house was completed by Edmund B. Bostwick, in either 1817 or 1834 (reports differ), but he never lived in it. After a few changes in ownership, Sophia Lord Rhodes, the wife of Daniel Pomeroy Rhodes, acquired the property in 1860. Daniel Rhodes was the vice president of the Western Reserve Horse Breeders' Association, and used the property for breeding racehorses. Dan Hanna purchased the property from his grandparends in the first decade of the 20th Century, added considerably more land, and expanded the house into a 19,345 square foot mansion. Supposedly a few of the walls in the expanded mansion were brought from Buckingham Palace. He owned nine other farms in the area, all of which are now within the confines of the former Ravenna Arsenal, now Camp James A. Garfield.
During his time in Portage County, Hanna undertook numerous projects, few of which were as successful as he might have hoped. He built the largest barn in Ohio at Cottage Hill in 1909, but it burned to the ground two years later. The coach barn pictured here was a replacement for that barn. He attempted to rescue the perennially troubled Ravenna fair, but pulled out over a business dispute. He initiated a campaign to build better roads in the county, but his plans were ultimately rejected, although a few roads were built as a result. He also championed scientific farming, particularly in breeding livestock. His most lasting contribution was probably providing significant funding for Ravenna's Immaculate Conception school.
After WWI, Hanna divested himself of his Portage County properties. He died in 1921 at his 168-acre estate in Ossining, New York. The Ravenna property then passed to one of his four ex-wives, Mary Stuart Hanna.
Much later, in the late 1950s, the Cottage Hill estate became the short-lived Silver Spur Ranch country club. Later still, it was a survivalist center. Since the 1990s, successive owners have done various repairs and renovations. The house sold again for $950,000 in August, 2021.
Sources:
GFR
RR
Portage County Regional Planning Commission walking tours of Ravenna Historic Structures (Other Historical ), at storymaps.arcgis.com
Maria McGinnis, "The first mansion in Portage County can be yours for $1.25 million," in The Portager, October 16, 2020
163-A Cottage Hill Carriage Barn.jpg
Cottage Hill (Dan Hanna Farm)
Postmark 1910
Pictured is the coach barn at Cottage Hill Farm.
Cottage Hill Farm was the summer home, as he termed it, of Dan Hanna. Hanna was the son of Cleveland businessman, U.S. Senator, and presidential kingmaker Marcus (Mark) Hanna, and the grandson of Daniel Pomeroy Rhodes. Both the Hanna and Rhodes families made sizeable fortunes from iron, bituminous coal, and railroads. The younger Hanna was a partner in his father's business; he also tried to revive two failing Cleveland newspapers, without long-term success. In the process, though, he built a notable Cleveland building, the Ledger Building, which still stands.
The farm is located at 5555 Newton Falls Road, just east of Ravenna. The first construction on the house was completed by Edmund B. Bostwick, in either 1817 or 1834 (reports differ), but he never lived in it. After a few changes in ownership, Sophia Lord Rhodes, the wife of Daniel Pomeroy Rhodes, acquired the property in 1860. Daniel Rhodes was the vice president of the Western Reserve Horse Breeders' Association, and used the property for breeding racehorses. Dan Hanna purchased the property from his grandparends in the first decade of the 20th Century, added considerably more land, and expanded the house into a 19,345 square foot mansion. Supposedly a few of the walls in the expanded mansion were brought from Buckingham Palace. He owned nine other farms in the area, all of which are now within the confines of the former Ravenna Arsenal, now Camp James A. Garfield.
During his time in Portage County, Hanna undertook numerous projects, few of which were as successful as he might have hoped. He built the largest barn in Ohio at Cottage Hill in 1909, but it burned to the ground two years later. The coach barn pictured here was a replacement for that barn. He attempted to rescue the perennially troubled Ravenna fair, but pulled out over a business dispute. He initiated a campaign to build better roads in the county, but his plans were ultimately rejected, although a few roads were built as a result. He also championed scientific farming, particularly in breeding livestock. His most lasting contribution was probably providing significant funding for Ravenna's Immaculate Conception school.
After WWI, Hanna divested himself of his Portage County properties. He died in 1921 at his 168-acre estate in Ossining, New York. The Ravenna property then passed to one of his four ex-wives, Mary Stuart Hanna.
Much later, in the late 1950s, the Cottage Hill estate became the short-lived Silver Spur Ranch country club. Later still, it was a survivalist center. Since the 1990s, successive owners have done various repairs and renovations. The house sold again for $950,000 in August, 2021.
Sources:
GFR
RR
Portage County Regional Planning Commission walking tours of Ravenna Historic Structures (Other Historical ), at storymaps.arcgis.com
Maria McGinnis, "The first mansion in Portage County can be yours for $1.25 million," in The Portager, October 16, 2020