What to know about the site:
Jesse and Hanna Grant, the parents of young Hiram Ulysses Grant, built the original two-story brick section of the Grant Boyhood home in 1823, when they moved to Georgetown from Point Pleasant in Clermont County, where Ulysses had been born the year before. A large kitchen was added the following year and five years later they built a new two-story home connected to the front of the original structure. Ulysses lived with his parents and four siblings at the home until 1839 when he left to attend West Point. It was at West Point that, through a bureaucratic error, his name was listed as Ulysses Simpson Grant.
During his youth in Georgetown, Grant attended school, worked in his father's tannery, and spent hour upon hour in his favorite pastime - working with horses. A Georgetown couple purchased the Grant Boyhood Home in 1977 to prevent its demolition. The home was restored and furnished, with one room, which is dedicated to Grant and Georgetown memorabilia. The site has been open since 1982 when it was put on the National Register and declared a National Historic Landmark. In 1996, owners John and Judy Ruthven put the site into the U.S. Grant Homestead Foundation. The next year the site was opened for public visitation under the auspices of the foundation. The Grant Boyhood Home was donated by the Ruthven's to the State of Ohio and, in turn, to the Ohio Historical Society in 2002.
A study to figure out the original paint colors and finishes at the Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home in Georgetown, Ohio, uncovered a big surprise that has kept Mike Beam of the Ohio Historical Society one busy guy in recent months.
Prepared for the Ohio Historical Society by Welsh Color and Conservation, the study found that, hiding under newer paint, eleven pine doors have what appears to be the original faux-grained finish with hand-painted effects that mimic the color and grain of more expensive woods like mahogany and curly maple. Curators for the Ohio Historical Society believe the grain-painting dates to 1829 when the house was expanded. All of the doors had at least one layer of paint hiding the original graining. Curators think that the doors were probably repainted some time in the past century, after the home where Grant grew up was converted into apartments.
The good news is that a layer of shellac that was originally applied to protect the grain-painted surface has done just that, which is now allowing the later paint to be carefully removed, exposing the early 19th-century faux-graining.
The doors have been temporarily removed to the Ohio History Center in Columbus, where Beam has been at work gently removing the newer paint to expose the grain-painted finish and restore the doors to their original appearance. It's tedious but rewarding work.
The doors have raised panels on one side and flat ones on the other. In the course of removing the later paint, Beam is also uncovering unusually specific evidence of the kinds of locks, hinges, latches and other hardware the doors once had. Using the evidence Beam has found, restoration project manager Chris Buchanan of the Ohio Historical Society plans to replace later hardware with reproductions of the original.
Restoring the doors is just one part of a major effort underway to return the interior of the Grant Boyhood Home to its appearance at the time when Grant lived there. The study by Welsh Color and Conservation found that many of the original 1820s materials and features like moldings, doors and mantels remain intact. The report also found that the early paint appears to have been in vivid colors, based on a study of bits remaining.