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A SERVICE OF OHIO'S PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATIONS
A SERVICE OF OHIO'S PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATIONS
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The twenty-five acre estate Spiegel Grove was the home of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th president of the United States. Spiegel Grove received its name from the German word "spiegel," meaning mirror, describing pools that collect beneath the trees after a rainstorm. Hayes' uncle, Sardis Birchard, a Fremont merchant, built the home on this site in 1863. The Hayes Family moved to Spiegel Grove in 1873 after Hayes' second term as Ohio governor. The family left Fremont when Hayes began a brief third term as Ohio Governor in 1876, but they returned after his term as U.S. president ended in 1881. The Hayes Family expanded the home in 1880 and 1889. Lucy and Rutherford Hayes died at Spiegel Grove in 1889 and 1893 respectively. They were reburied at Spiegel Grove in 1915. Their children donated the property to the state of Ohio in 1909 in order to establish the nation's first presidential library.
July 28, 2011