Wickerham Inn
NE of Peebles on OH 41, Peebles, OHThe Wickerham Inn is significant because it is one of the last remaining inns on Zane's Trace. Peter Wickerham (1767-1841), a Revolutionary War veteran, moved from Washington County, Pennsylvania to northern Kentucky to Adams County, Ohio, and settled on a portion of Zane's Trace in 1797-98. In 1800, Wickerham began construction of his brick home which was completed the following year, 1801. This was the first home in Adams County to use plaster, and much of that original plaster still remains.
The house was used as a family home and public inn until about 1850 when stagecoach travel on Zane's Trace ceased. The inn was used as a township voting house on November 3, 1804, when Thomas Jefferson was elected to his second term as president. On the night of July 15, 1863, Confederate soldiers under the command of General John Hunt Morgan slept here when Morgan's Raiders passed through the county. This old home was also used as a "station" on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War years.
In September 1957, the home was used as a communications headquarters by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for the fifth World's Plowing Match and Conservation Exposition which was held just behind the old inn. This event covered 2,500 acres and took in 17 different farms.
The strangest occurrence in this home was in 1804. A new stagecoach driver was laying over for the night and retired to his upstairs room. During the night noises that sounded like a fight were heard coming from the room. The next morning an investigation revealed the furniture in disarray, bloodstains on the floor and walls (which are still visible), and the driver missing. A rumor started that the driver had been decapitated and his head thrown in a nearby pond. A local legend arose that the home was haunted thereafter by the headless ghost of the driver. Then in 1922, the owners of the house were digging up the cellar floor, when they found a crypt in which was buried the headless skeleton, presumably that of the long-missing stagecoach driver.
The Inn has remained in the Wickerham family since its construction and the current owner is a Wickerham descendant. The property has been altered through the years, and it represents the changing architectural tastes of the Wickerham family. The diminutive bracketing and the refined wooden porch are indicative of the mid-19th century architectural styles, but perhaps most intriguing is the turn-of-the-century dormer in the front elevation of the roof with its Palladian openings and sunburst medallion. This was probably added while Peter Noah Wickerham, who ran a general store in nearby Peebles, owned the house. The county history published in 1900 related that Peter had "a very happy disposition, and without seeming to do so, is always seeking to make others happy." This personality characteristic may help to explain the unusual design of the dormer.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.