The Hunt House was built circa 1860 and replaced a log cabin. This photo was taken pre 1900. The house remained in the Hunt family until purchased in 2003 by the City of Blue Ash. According to a survey conducted in the 1850s, the Hunts were gentlemen farmers. They took their produce and that of other farmers downriver. Pork especially commanded higher prices in Southern markets. However, travel down the Mississippi River came to a halt with the Civil War. Cincinnati was then in a depression until the Union victory at Vicksburg in 1863 opened downriver trade. This was the side porch in a 1930 photo.The Hunt House in 1960.This was the original back porch. A restored widow’s walk until recent years crowned the Hunt House. It is commonly believed that women along the East Coast would climb to the widow’s walk, hopefully and prayerfully scanning the horizon for their husbands’ ships. There was joy when the vessel was sighted and mourning when the vessel failed to return to shore. Actually, the widow’s walk had a more critical purpose. The railed platform was built around the chimney, allowing access to the chimney from the interior of the house. A bucket next to the hearth was filled with sand or water, ever ready to extinguish flames, either at the hearth or down through the chimney. The photo on this page shows the chimneys outside of, but within reach, of the widow’s walk. According to Beverly Mussari, Blue Ash historian, the widow’s walk was also a retreat for widows to grieve as that was done in private. Betty Hunt Bell’s cousin Harry Hunt remembered climbing to the widow’s walk to enjoy the Fourth of July fireworks being set off from what is now the Cincinnati Zoo. It has also been noted that one might ascend to the widow’s walk in order to watch for the mail carrier. A widow’s walk was considered part of Italianate architecture.The front porch was the formal entry that would have been used for guests. This is a view of the home when Blue Ash acquired it from Elizabeth Hunt Bell, a descendant of the pioneers Isaac and Hannah Carpenter Hunt. Hannah’s father, James Carpenter, paid $1000 to John Cleves Symmes for 640 acres in about 1789. The architect Jim Fearing took the house back to the 1800s.
The Hunt House when acquired by the City of Blue Ash. Notice the widow’s walk, which has since been removed.This is the barn from which General John Hunt Morgan’s soldiers stole horses in 1863. Wilson Hunt, the son of John and Eliza Hunt, looked out his window and saw the soldiers making off with the horses. He told his father who responded that they could do nothing to stop the raiders. The family filed a claim for the loss of four horses with a value of $495. .This is the Hunt barn in 1930.An aerial photo of the Hunt property taken in 1920. A recent photo.
