Twin Oaks, also known as the "Robert Reily House", is a historically significant residence in the city of

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, located near

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Constructed in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was the home of

Robert Reily Robert Reily (1820 – May 2, 1863) was a Colonel (United States), colonel of the 75th Ohio Infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Biography The son of R ...

, one of the leading citizens of early Wyoming. Its heavy stone architecture features a mix of two important architectural styles of the period, and it has been named a historic site.

Architecture

Although the cores of its walls are brick,McCauley, Jennifer. '.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, 1985-08-16. Accessed 2011-02-26. Twin Oaks is primarily a stone building with a stone foundation and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof; minor elements of iron are present,, Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed 2014-01-18. along with wooden

trim Trim or TRIM may refer to: Cutting * Cutting or trimming small pieces off something to remove them ** Book trimming, a stage of the publishing process ** Pruning, trimming as a form of pruning often used on trees Decoration * Trim (sewing), or ...

.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999. Two and a half

stories Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

tall, it is topped with a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

; the general style is Queen Anne, although when built it was much closer to the typical

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

residence. The facade is divided into two

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

, with two windows in each; the bay on the right (as seen from the street) rises to a gable and is pierced by four windows, while the left bay stops at the normal roofline and features the main entrance. A side entrance with

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

is placed farther to the rear, underneath another subsidiary gable.

Historic context

Good transportation is a leading reason for Wyoming's prosperity. The city lies near the old pre-statehood road that connected

with locations farther north, such as Fort Hamilton and

Fallen Timbers The Battle of Fallen Timbers (20 August 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between Indigenous peoples of North America, Native American tribes affiliated with the Northwestern Confederacy and their Kingdom of Gre ...

. Curves in the road were cut off in 1806, forming a new road that is today followed by Springfield Pike through central Wyoming. Improvements in the 1830s only enhanced its importance. By this time, another mode of transportation had become significant: the

Miami and Erie Canal The Miami and Erie Canal was a canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $ ...

was built a short distance to the east in 1828, and the village of

Lockland Lockland is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,449 at the 2010 United States Census. Lockland is located in southwest Ohio, north of Cincinnati. Its population has declined since the latter part of the 20th cent ...

grew up along its side. Railroads reached the city in 1851 with the construction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad on the border between Lockland and Wyoming. Because of Wyoming's proximity to the industry of Lockland, its easy transportation to the booming city of Cincinnati, and its pleasant scenery, many wealthy industrialists purchased local farms and built grand country houses. Most such houses were built in the Wyoming Hills area, west of Springfield Pike; growth in this area continued until the coming of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Robert Reily

Born in 1820 in Butler County to the north, Robert Reily was the son of pioneer educator John Reily, who started Cincinnati's earliest school in 1790 after military service during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. Young Reily went into business at a comparatively young age, finding employment at a store that sold imported textiles; he began as a clerk, but he eventually rose to become the owner before selling the business and retiring in 1859, aged less than forty years. Reily had the present house built in 1854 on a hilltop above the valley of Mill Creek. The grandest of the old houses in the Wyoming Hills area, it was constructed to be comparable to the Gothic Revival houses that wealthy men were building in Cincinnati at the time. In the early 1860s, when local residents decided to organize their small community and give it a name, Twin Oaks was chosen as the meeting place. Those present were initially unable to agree on a name, but Reily's support for "Wyoming" won over the other men, and when the village was incorporated, he was chosen as the first mayor. Only for a short time did he occupy this position; the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

was being fought, and before long Reily entered military service. As lieutenant colonel of the

75th Ohio Volunteer Infantry The 75th Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 75th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment from southwestern Ohio in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It served in the Eastern Theater, most notably in the battles of Chancellors ...

, he was killed at the

Battle of Chancellorsville The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign. Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because h ...

in 1863.

Historic site

In 1975, Twin Oaks was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

; it qualified both because of its historically significant architecture and because of its connection to Robert Reily. Four years later, a local

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

group began a citywide survey to identify Wyoming's historic buildings, and this effort culminated with a

multiple property submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of Historic districts in the United States, districts, sites, buildings, struc ...

of eighteen houses, the

Wyoming Presbyterian Church Wyoming Presbyterian Church is a registered historic building in Wyoming, Ohio, Wyoming, Ohio, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, National Register on March 3, 1980. The church building was completed May 18, 1890,http://pcwyo ...

, and one

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

to the

in 1985. Twin Oaks was one of the houses included in this group; it was listed on the Register for a second time, even though it had never been removed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reily, Robert, House Houses completed in 1854 Houses in Wyoming, Ohio Gothic Revival architecture in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Hamilton County, Ohio Queen Anne architecture in Ohio