Who Visits The Warren County History Center?

The Warren County History Center in Harmon Hall

It's summer and that means people will travel, and Governor Kasich and the Ohio Tourism Board want people to travel to Ohio.  Destination marketing is a hot topic.  Governor Kasich wants to make Ohio a destination state like Texas or Florida so that folks will come to Ohio from all over the country in great numbers and spend lots of money. More outside dollars coming to Ohio helps us all.

We at the Warren County History Center are doing our part. From Memorial Day weekend through today (June 13) individuals and families from California, Washington state, Tennessee, Michigan, Brazil (the country) and Mexico (the country) have visited our History Center.   We've also welcomed visitors from Maineville, Cincinnati, Morrow, Springboro, Beavercreek, Kettering, Dayton, Oakwood, Centerville, Englewood, Highland and Hillsboro.

1920's dress with rhinestone decorations.

It is not at all unusual for Warren County History Center to have visitors from out of state. The Golden Lamb Inn is a famous destination and many people want to do something other than eat and shop when they visit Lebanon, so they very often find their way here. In fact we book many groups who are visiting the History Center in the morning, having lunch at the Golden Lamb, then going to Glendower mansion in the afternoon.

 The editor of Travel & Leisure magazine encourages families to pick vacation destinations that have a lot of museums and cultural attractions. Families who visit museums build longer lasting memories from those visits than to other attractions. Also, people who visit museums tend to be better educated, spend more money at a destination and stay a day or so longer in any given community.  

Turtlecreek Summer Music Festival

What could be more fun than a FREE classic rock n' roll concert held in the great out doors.  

From Shaker Clothes Pegs to Artisan Clothes Pins

One of the reason we revere the Shakers (United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) is that in the process of creating Heaven on earth they invented many wonderful little items that we still find useful today.  One of those items was the clothes peg.  Attaching clothes to a line so that they dry smooth and evenly seems only common sense to us, but until  the Shakers in America invented the clothes peg, most people draped their wet clothes over bushes and other handy objects.  The Shaker clothes peg had no springs like the modern clothespin, but it works for most light weight clothes and sheets pretty well.

Handcrafted clothespins from Classic American Clothespins.

The spring loaded clothespin we know today was invented in the 19th century.  It was a staples of laundry day for generations.  Several American companies manufactured clothespins, but as has happened lately, they were forced out of business by cheap imported (Chinese) clothes pins that fall apart if you are not very careful with them. They also can fall apart on a windy day leaving your clean sheets in the grass. The wood is light weight and the springs are inferior. You need a lot of them to make sure your clothes stay on the line and once they break you cannot put them back together, but they are cheap.

Then in 2012 one husband finally listened to his wife's lament about the cheap clothespins she was forced to use and decided to do something about it.  The Classic American Clothespin Company was born out of the desperate need that often accompanies a new venture in this country. The Classic American Clothespin Company started selling hand crafted clothes pins in 2013.  These are artisan clothespins and if you are lucky enough to be able to buy any, they will cost you $2.00 a piece! However, the company is not greedy and is willing to sell you either a kit to assemble your own (also now sold out) and even the diagrams and instructions to hand craft your own from start to finish. Read all about it at www.classicamericanclothespins.com.

The evolution of the Shaker clothes peg.