The End We're in Athens, home to Ohio University, a great college town that goes back a long ways, but it's also home to a very unusual place.

It's called the Zenner House.

I remember seeing it from US 33 on trips past Athens.

I had always wondered about it, and I think it has quite a story behind it.

Hello, Jeff.

Hello.

How are you?

I'm very well.

Good to see you.

Nice seeing you.

What an amazing place.

Tell me the story.

When was it built?

Who built it?

Where'd they get their money to build it?

That sort of thing.

It's a fascinating place.

It's a fascinating place.

Yeah, thank you.

The Zenner family is quite prominent in the region.

They actually employed more folks than Ohio University in Athens, which happens to be the predominant employer today.

But back in the day, in the late 1800s, early 1900s, you'd find that Zenner was a very, very big name here for not only loaning a lot of land, but owning factories that did binding.

And typically ledgers for businesses and a whole host of things.

Big paper books.

Big paper book.

For record keeping.

Okay, okay.

They hired a great architect by the name of Brandon Smith from Pittsburgh who only did at the time country clubs and museums and pretty massive buildings and he was incredibly hard to get at the time as an architect.

But the Zinners were very aggressive in the attempt of having something different.

They wanted the Tudor style, and they were definitely obsessed with the number of factories they had around the world, including Germany and England, really had their hunger for bringing something to southern Ohio, to Appalachia, when it comes to Tudors.

And that's what you see before you today is a collage of multiple countries and craftsmen that were part of bringing this all together.

And the construction was three and a half years, which is pretty long back in the day.

Than it was, and it's been a... Real romance to get to know the family and it's been a real romance to kind of understand the why they did all this.

So when was this completed?

This was completed in 1933, started construction in 1929.

If you think about that era, that's right at the peak of the Great Depression.

Right.

And austerity was a word that they used, because if you look at the blueprint, there was a lot of things they really wanted to do here that you'll notice is really scaled down.

And that was certainly reminiscent of what the decisions being made.

And a lot of architecture.

These days that's what architects call value engineering.

In the old days it means well we can't afford that let's do something else.

That is correct.

But it came out extremely rich I mean you've got wood timber you've gotta plaster.

There's a wood ceiling that's obviously carved and I see an anchor in the wall I assume this building is just full of all kinds of symbols that matter to the family.

You'll see these reliefs in the plaster that are all over.

Some are political, and in this area, there's all the astrological symbols.

Over the years, due to paint and probably age, they're a little faint, but you'll see a number of these.

They've done the same thing in the stained glass windows, little surprises, and some whimsical thing that I think brings- that Smith had been noted for.

It really tells a story, but it's also in a timeless kind of way too.

Clearly it was substantially built, it's in very good shape.

When did the family leave it?

Obviously it's not in this inner family anymore.

They were in the mid 30s starting to think about risking their life with selling the company and a few other things because times were different.

Right.

The house became a bit victim to that fact so door handles and of course brass and a few other I'd say precious metals were scavenged but it's been a 12-year journey to bring this to what it is today.

Now there's a few modern things we we felt we had to do but a lot of this is to pay homage to the original vision of the center.

It is now in a charitable trust and it'll go for the foundation of Appalachia, Ohio.

And this will be hopefully a vision for nonprofits to use that don't always have square footage or brick and mortar.

It's a vision to have the 330 nonprofits in the region be able to have a spot to raise money and awareness.

And in doing that, we have a vision that potentially upstairs could be used for fellows or artists or different aspects of a high university as an example.

It's just a way for, instead of leaving... Money leaving something tangible to the region.

Congratulations on what you've achieved and I know there's a lot more to see so I suspect there's a tour in my near future.

Yes, I am absolutely anxious to give it to you.

And the ghost of Mrs.

Zenner is along with us, by the way, because many say that she's here in presence, and I've witnessed a bit of that, so I think we're gonna have three of us along the way.

Well, with luck, you'll approve.

Thank you.

Well, I think we can head out and lead the way.

Absolutely.

So here we have the living room.

Oh, what a great room.

This is wonderful.

The sections of the crown molding weigh about 83 pounds per section of about a three foot spread.

Very heavy, very thick, and they're held on with wire.

Fantastic how they connected those.

And probably made in Scotland.

In fact, a lot of the skilled labor was brought in, and the materials were all brought in.

But they did work in secret here, which is a cool part.

That secret was that if the Folks that were working with wood were doing an install, they would curtain it off and not share their trade secrets with the others.

And the same thing with the plasters.

So we've been told this is the fact.

It wouldn't surprise me.

Now we've got some interesting displays here.

This is the Zener family.

Yeah, this is where it all began.

This is the dry goods store.

And so this is clear back to David's center.

And David had the vision of the family building their wealth through dry goods.

And Henry, the son, David's owner, expected him to take this over in this business.

But he was innovative.

And actually, in that building, they established what is today the pneumatic tube system.

That virtually, a customer would put their money in the dry-coats plate, and that would go up to treasury and stamp paid with change, and it would come back down through pulleys.

Like you still do at a driver bank, these are the same thing.

Lazer's department store.

Early on the center of that.

But the big money isn't in retail, it's in punch cards.

That is true.

This is a punching machine right here.

That is correct.

Two industries were the big purchaser of the punch card, and that was the federal government with everything to do with the armed forces, and then lastly the railroad industry.

So if someone had first class, business class, whatever back then, the engineer would punch the card out, they'd collect the cards, and they could sort with the machine on counting how many tickets were there and do an audit.

It would be a micro audit.

If you had a medium shirt as an example and you were an enlistee, you would actually punch that out on one of the edges, along with your pant size as well as shoe size, as well as all the decisions you make as an enlisted, all around your card that you would fill out.

And they could then sort and immediately figure out the quantity for ordering and also for auditing.

Very, very innovative.

It's an early computer system, basically.

Exactly.

It's unbelievable that it happened here, and Henry Zinner was really the one.

That thought that through.

And speaking of the house again, it's spectacular with the Tudor windows, the colored inserts of various kinds.

Yeah, this one in particular is of the, more to literature, and then you see the House of Curiosity.

What I love about Brandon Smith is that whimsical part that I brought up earlier.

And if you actually look behind this curtain, you'll see very, very.

It's a spiderweb.

Yeah.

Cool thing with a spider exactly wonderful well this fireplace around is really something this has to have a story Well, it's probably the most talked about story, interestingly, because during a couple of the early episodes of Downton Abbey, there was a zoom in, a much, much grander in scale of this almost identical fireplace, and so several folks that knew the house reached out and said, I saw your fireplace.

It's just absolutely a parallel to the grand living room of Downton Abbey.

That's hard to measure up to, but congratulations.

Yeah, so it's a talking point.

You know, probably there are more interesting parts of the house, but for whatever reason, this is talked about a lot.

Oh, now what's this wonderful room?

This is the library.

This is my very, very favorite library.

Oh, yeah, I think it's beginning to be mine, too.

Look at the woodwork and the plaster ceiling, the whimsical windows once again.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, the ceiling is unusually ornate.

Tell me about that.

We know a lot about that because it was in pretty big disrepair and we had a gentleman local in his mid-80s that resurrected that and all its glory.

So he was a plaster work?

Plaster work, I don't know if we could find the same nowadays, but he was on his back reminiscent of Miguel Angelo probably just working on this.

Interesting.

Well it's been just an amazing tour here on the first level.

I know there's a lot more to this house.

There is.

Why don't I take you upstairs?

Let's do that.

This looks like a special space.

Very special.

This happens to be the chapel on the property.

So they would have services in here?

Presumably.

Presumably.

You know, it's interesting.

This feels so very Christian because of some of the history we've done, but they happen to be a Jewish family.

Is that so?

Yeah.

That they built a chapel.

Yeah, maybe a meditation room, I don't know, but it feels very, very warm.

It always has.

The minute I walked in this room, it felt different than the... The entire rest of the property.

The house is spectacular.

It's been a wonderful tour, but I understand the grounds are pretty nice too.

Yeah, that's where my heart is.

Let's have a look.

All right, let's go.

Well, despite the rain, this is still a spectacular view of a really nice garden.

Well, I'll tell you, this is my favorite vantage point of the gardens, and you can really see why.

Oh yeah.

These very traditional boxwoods, 300 rose bushes, absolutely the same design.

They didn't use metal, they used brick to separate the gardens.

But this is reminiscent of the vision of the original design.

It has been a fabulous visit, I thank you so much for showing me around a really unusual place.

Absolutely, but there's one more stop just one well if you've got time.

I think I have time all right Perfect, let me show you.

Let's have a look.

That's a sizable garage.

Yeah, not a bad size at all.

But this is the quintessential way people remembered in the 70s and 80s, Zenerhaus.

Henry Ford inspired this very turntable.

A turntables.

What did Ford have to do with it?

Well, prior to Zener building the property, there was a car dealership here by the name of Beasley.

And Henry Ford came to Beasly Motors because that's all he sold was Ford at the time.

And Zener happened to be at Beasle Motors and most importantly said, if you build a garage, build a turntable, because my vehicle, my first vehicle will not have reverse.

And you want to have decorum and etiquette, your chauffeur.

Absolutely.

And in order that model A, I believe.

Would pull in and and sure enough the chauffeur would then turn it around and then when you went to leave the next time out you had decorum and that was the entire reason of the turntable.

I assume it's not easy.

Well David who helps us out here can show you but man this thing does take a bit of muscle.

All right, David, do what you're saying.

Look at that picture of the Model A. Being turned.

That's marvelous.

Yeah, a little more difficult than Wheel of Fortune.

Well, thanks so much for a great tour.

I look forward to coming back for a special event of some sort.

We would love to host you and it is our honor to have you here today.

Well again, my thanks.

Absolutely.