Adena Mansion: A Georgian Style Home in Ohio

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit a surviving example of one of America’s first architects.

Constructed of carefully placed limestone quarried on the Chillicothe, Ohio, property, Adena is Georgian in style and includes a two-story center section and flanking one-story wings. It faces a circular drive lawn once the site of a cabin that the Worthington family used while their home was being built. The symmetrical exterior design has four limestone chimneys atop a cedar-shake roof. Courtesy of Cassidy Dawn Photography

Architect Benjamin Latrobe (1764–1820) contributed to the design of many important American buildings, yet he also designed homes for prominent individuals. Only three of Latrobe’s 18th-century residential structures survives. One is Georgian-style Adena Mansion in Chillicothe, Ohio; the others are Decatur House in Washington and Pope Villa in Lexington, Kentucky.

In 1805, Latrobe was selected by President Thomas Jefferson to become the country’s surveyor of public buildings. A few years later, in 1805, the architect designed a home for businessman, politician, and land surveyor Thomas Worthington (1773–1827) and his large family.