Oak Hill Cottage: A Gothic Revival Gem

When John Robinson built this house in eighteen forty-seven, he was the superintendent of the Sandusky, Mansfield, and Newark Railroad. He wanted something to match his ambitions, and what he got was one of the finest examples of Carpenter Gothic architecture in the state of Ohio. The house features pointed-arch windows, decorative vergeboard trim along the steep gables, and a level of craft detail that caused the architect Ralph Adams Cram, designer of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York, to call it the one perfect Gothic house he had ever seen in the United States.

The Richland County Historical Society purchased the property in nineteen sixty-five and restored it to its appearance from around eighteen seventy. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen sixty-nine.