Preserving Galion Inc. put on a presentation for the public at the Gill house on Saturday exploring different architecture in Galion.
They discussed how architecture was very simple in the Civil War days and there are still 100 buildings in Galion from Civil War times.
Then when the railroad came through, Galion architecture became more ornate because of people bringing styles and supplies to create the more decorative architecture.
There were stories of the history of these buildings as well as a slide presentation demonstrating all the different types of architecture that still remains. Some of the architecture styles date back to the 1800s and include Gothic Revival, Queen Ann style, Princess Anna, Dutch Colonial, Egyptian Revival, Lustron, build-it-yourself homes and many other types of architecture.
The presentation talked about the architects that influenced these types of buildings such as Frank Lloyd Wright and about important people that had traveled through Galion such as Johnny Appleseed, John Deere and Henry Ford.
They spoke of history of the owners or builders of the buildings, they also discussed how the hotel downtown had construction over a period of years and if you look at it you can tell the difference in the brick where it was originally a house.
For example, there was a doctor named Sam Wagner who attended the Gettysburg Address and later bought The Gill House.
“The main point of it was just to give people some ideas you know may be a house they live in, that they work in or a place they go by every day and they think well, I wonder what the history of that is, it gives us some clues in terms of how to find out more information,” The Gill House Board President Thomas Palmer said. “Some of that is looking at other houses and buildings in the community and figuring out when they were constructed, who did them and some clues and terms to find out who the people were that lived there.”
Marty Cecil, a member of the Gill House Board and the person in charge of the Galion Depot Inc., invited anyone to their first-ever volunteers meeting at 7 p.m. April 28 at The First Lutheran Church.
In addition, she said she is looking for pictures of the interior of the Galion Depot.
