GEORGETOWN, Ohio -The Ohio Historical Society recently bought Ulysses S. Grant’s boyhood home in Georgetown, Ohio.
The society will use federal funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service to acquire the collections in the home, develop exhibits and complete additional restoration work for the site.
In addition, the U.S. Grant Homestead Foundation will transfer approximately $250,000 from its assets to the Ohio Historical Society to support operation of the site.
For now, the U.S. Grant Homestead Association will operate the home on behalf of the society. The association promotes heritage tourism and community activities associated with the “Land of Grant.”
Since 1997, the association has operated the Grant Schoolhouse, also in Georgetown, on behalf of the society.
Visiting. Public visitation to both the Grant Boyhood Home and Schoolhouse are noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, starting May 29 and running through Sept. 1.
Both sites will be open during the same hours on weekends Sept. 7-Oct. 27.
Background. The home was Grant’s home from 1823 to 1839, when he left Georgetown to attend West Point.
Grant’s parents built the home in 1823 when they moved to Georgetown from Point Pleasant in Clermont County. The year after Grant left for West Point, his parents moved the rest of the family to Bethel in Clermont County.
John and Judy Ruthven of Georgetown purchased the Grant Boyhood Home in 1977 to prevent its demolition. The Ruthvens restored and furnished the house, and in 1996 they donated the site to the homestead foundation.
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