Jonathan Watkins House
9950 Lebanon Pike
 

Date:  1804-1812

 
Features:  The earliest part of the house is probably a one-story limestone section to the rear of the two-story limestone building nearer the road.  There are doors and windows (6 over 6) opposite each other on the north and south sides of this early section, typical of the early "cabins" or early one-story buildings in this area.  The fireplace for this part of the house would have been on the east side of the building.  (A support for this fireplace is still in the cellar, 17 inches deep).  The cellar under this room has a limestone floor and the straight sawn joists measure 4" x 8."  The two-story limestone section with three bays is one room down, one room up.  All the windows are 6 over 6, but the ones on the first floor are "sunshine windows."  The rafters in the attic over this part of the house are not pinned, but are evidentially mortised or wedged together.  There is no cellar under the two-story section.  The stonework on the two-story façade is margined, around each opening and along the sides.  The threshold by the entry to the one-story section, and all of the exterior window sills are both margined and brush-hammered.  About 1940 a two-story frame addition was made on the south side of the house.  A centered front door by Lebanon Pike was made into a window.  A new stairway was installed in the two-story section on the south side.

 
Owners:  Thomas Hatfield, a stonemason, entered a quarter section where this house is located in 1804.  By 1807, Jonathan Watkins, also part of a family active in limestone construction, became the assignee of Hatfield and finished making payments at the Cincinnati Land Office for this acreage.  By 1821, it became a 20-acre farm.  The house represents the first settlement of the area as well as the stone-building families.  The house has been in the Hatfield-Watkins family since it was built.

 
Other:  The house is located close to Warren County on a main road.  If the road is widened, it would go through the living room of the house.  It is currently in a residential area, with a church just south of it.