I only lived a few blocks from here, passed by almost every day during my school years.
A friend of mine delivered newspapers to this house and if he could not, I subbed for him, so I have delivered newspapers here on a number of occasions. I took them to the back door and gave them to a housekeeper.
I have seen Orville on a number of occasions, in town, and a few times saw him walking around this house, in the back. I took it all for "granted" in those days, had been brought up with the Wright brothers history.
(Wikipedia) Though the property now comprises three acres (1.2 ha), the mansion originally sat on 17 acres. The Wrights named the property after the Hawthorn trees found on the property. There are at least 150 Hawthorn trees on the site.
Orville Wright designed some of the mechanical features of the house such as the water storage tank used to collect and recycle rainwater and the central vacuum system; these features reflect his creative genius. For 34 years, this house was the gathering place for the greats and near-greats in the history of American aviation.
The home was owned by the after Orville's death until August 18, 2006, when the company donated the historic home to the Wright Family Foundation in honor of Orville's 135th birthday and National Aviation Day. NCR used it as a guesthouse for corporate VIPs and for corporate functions. On occasion they opened the home to the general public.
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior designated Hawthorn Hill a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
