Mower-Darfus House

233 E. Broadway

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2022

1. Mower-Darfus House Marker

Touch for directions.

Area.

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by P. Reed, 11/28/1980:
Granville is rich in both architecture and history. The nominated properties include an historic district in the center of town and additional individual properties within the corporation limits. The nomination is based on a comprehensive inventory conducted by Dr. Horace King,

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2022

2. Mower-Darfus House (north/front elevation)

The marker is on the right side of the front entrance.

an expert on Granville architecture and history. The district is roughly bounded by Denison University on Prospect Hill and College Street on the north, the eastern and western boundaries of the town — Sugar Loaf Hill and Mt. Parnassus and by Elm Street on the south. The length of Broadway, the major east-west thoroughfare, forms the backbone of the district. It can be divided easily into three components. The western section is residential in character with a few University buildings on the north side of the street and with a landscaped island down the center of the street; the corner of Broadway and Main streets is the village center and has three churches and an opera house (originally a church) on the four corners; the eastern section is commercial in nature with a row of commercial structures, the Granville and Buxton Inns with private residences interspersed among them. The remainder of the district consists of attractive residential streets and a portion of the Denison University campus.

Constructed in 1824, the Lucius Mower house is an excellent example of Federal architecture in Granville. The house is constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond. Carved wood trim surrounds the fanlight entrance and Palladian window above. Lucius Mower was 12 when he arrived from Granville, Mass. and was 31 when he completed this house. He was a master craftsman.

(by Lindy Wicks)  Excerpt:  Col. Lucius D. Mower was 12 years old when he came from Granville, Mass., and he was 31 when he finished building this house. He was a smart merchant, money manager, and supporter of the Ohio and Erie Canals, as well as a talented craftsman. After he died and after his wife, Lucy Munson Mower, passed away, the house was used as a bank for several years. The iron vault from the Old Alexandrian Society Bank is housed there.

Excerpt:  Lucius Doolittle Mower was early Granville’s most prominent and successful businessman, exercising a substantial beneficial impact on the Granville economy of the 1820s and early 1830s. His enterprises ran the gamut from canal construction to general store proprietorship to livestock, and notably to part-ownership of the Granville Furnace, the village’s briefly successful iron foundry. Mower’s financial success, however, was no protection from an early death – a fate that plagued others in his family as well. Lucius Mower died in 1834 at the age of 41, a victim of “consumption,” the illness that probably was the disease we call tuberculosis today. His untimely death rocked the Granville community financially, putting a damper on his businesses and reducing the availability of capital locally.