News Summary

By

Staff Writer

With fascination, Taylor Fitzsimmons poured over a decades-old newspaper clipping telling the story of a former Springfield mayor who originally was laid to rest in a glass casket in the cemetery neighboring the Westcott House.

According to the article, the vault containing Morris Bell and his granddaughter, Jane Peeling, was a "mecca for curious persons who visit Springfield" in the mid-1800s.

Definitely creepy, said Fitzsimmons, a Catholic Central Elementary School sixth grader.

"Kind of interesting, too," she said.

It was just one of the discoveries Catholic Central sixth graders made Wednesday and Thursday during a "Mystery Tour" of the East High Street house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

About 55 students are participating in scavenger hunts of the house this week to uncover items hidden by volunteers to teach them about the history of the property, its architect and its owners.

Students read old newspaper clippings about two fires that damaged the Westcott House as it was being built in 1908. A painter was pouring paraffin and beeswax from one bucket into another in the kitchen when some of the mixture splashed onto a gasoline stove and sparked a blaze that almost "burned off his hair and part of his mustache."

Students also found a little chunk of the original wall; a button similar to one on the wedding dress of Jeanne Westcott when she was married in the house; and an advertisement for the Westcott Car Company, which manufactured custom-made luxurious touring cars before Ford Motor Company choked out its business.

Catholic Central Librarian Molly Mann said the activity emphasizes the importance of preservation and instills an appreciation for Frank Lloyd Wright's designs. She based the scavenger hunt on a fictional book about a mystery at the Chicago's Robie House, another Wright House with a prairie style design.

Contact this reporter at 328-0367 or gcetnar@coxohio.com.