It’s hard, according to Rose, to come up with an exact dollar amount.
It hardly matters.
“These individuals,” he added, “were known on the national scene.”
The breathtaking, decorative buildings they left behind — local landmarks such as the Bushnell Building and mansion, the Warder Free Library and the present-day Heritage Center — are the interest this weekend of a pre-eminent national preservation organization, the Victorian Society in America.
The group is holding its fall study tour through Sunday in Springfield and the surrounding area.
“It’s been great to hear people from out of town say, ‘Wow, this is a big deal,’ ” said Rose, who’s acting as the group’s local host.
About 40 members of the organization are touring the city’s 19th-century jewels, among other non-Victorian landmarks, including the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Westcott House and the Springfield News-Sun building.
The newspaper building is the work of the same architects who designed the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
“We had a heyday,” Rose said. “Whenever you look at a city that had a class of wealthy people, there are possibilities to do amazing things. They knew the city was their advertisement. Part of it was pride, but they knew their city was a reflection of them.”
In 1880, Rose said, Springfield was one of the 100 biggest cities in the nation — the 94th, to be exact — and quite possibly the world leader in the manufacture of farm machinery.
Anne and Rick Dunbar, who purchased the Bushnell mansion at 838 E. High St. in 1988, postponed a vacation to Florida in order to see what they could learn about their house from the Victorian Society.
“These are folks who will be able to tell us definitively about certain aspects of our home,” Anne Dunbar said. “We’re going to be hanging on their every word.”
The Dunbars are only the home’s fifth owners since 1888.
In particular, they want to know if it’s true that many of the home’s windows were made by legendary glassmaker and decorator Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The house was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style for Bushnell, Ohio’s governor from 1896 to 1900, and a partner in the company that made the Champion Reaper.
The house has served as a funeral home since the Depression.
“As much as we think we know about the art and architecture of this house,” Anne Dunbar said, “we know there’s still a whole lot more to learn.”
Those windows spring to mind.
“Even if they turn out not to be authentic Tiffany,” she said, “they’re absolutely magnificent.”
Contact this reporter at amcginn@coxohio.com.
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