Image of Griswold Inn Interior, Front Hallway

This image of the interior of the Griswold Inn was obtained from a series of negatives converted to digital images. The Griswold Inn stood on the east side of High Street, just north of the Village Green, and was built by Ezra Griswold in 1811 to offer travelers a place to stop. Ezra operated the inn until 1816, when he passed it down to his son, George H. Griswold. The structure was later converted from a tavern and inn into a residence, where Ruth Griswold, the last of the family to occupy the building, lived. Though the Griswold Inn Historical Foundation attempted to raise funds to purchase and restore the inn to use it as the Worthington Historical Society Museum, the building was razed in 1964. Gilbert Coddington, an architect who ultimately helped the Historical Society restore the Orange Johnson House, captured this image series before the demolition of the inn.

The main hallway of the Griswold Inn, stretching from the door facing the Village Green to the french doors exiting to the courtyard on the north side of the building, is shown here. Of particular interest in this image are the spinning wheel, or walking wheel and a yarn winder on the right side of the frame, both of which were brought to Ohio in 1803 from Simsbury, Connecticut by the Griswold matriarch, Ruth Roberts Griswold. It is said that the Griswold family were the first to arrive in Worthington in 1803 when the Scioto Company migrated west, due to the use of oxen instead of horses to pull their wagons. Their journey covering roughly 700 miles took just six weeks. Both the walking wheel and the yarn winder are now on display at the Worthington Historical Society's museum, the Orange Johnson House.