Lula Burke | Editor-in-Chief
Students may have noticed the smell of smoke in the early hours of Tuesday, Oct. 25–part of Granville’s historic Buxton Inn, the oldest inn and tavern in Ohio, caught fire at 8:30 am.
Granville Township Fire Department Chief Casey Curtis said that the fire team was dispatched around 8:30 to respond to the activation of fire alarms in the building.
“After additional information from the 911 center, we learned that there was definitely [active] fire, so the situation upgraded to a working fire. Our team was on the scene within two minutes.”
Chief Curtis noted that though the fire greatly affected the kitchen space of the Inn, the damage originated from the attic space directly above it. This was most likely due to an electrical malfunction rather than a kitchen accident: The actual cause of the fire remains unknown.
The kitchen space was not an original part of the building complex and was added on post-2014 by current owner Bob Schilling. The historic part of the Buxton Inn, built in 1812, remains largely intact. Chief Curtis thanked members of the fire department for their responsiveness and credited the department’s teamwork with outside sources (emergency services, local assistance, homeowners) for the preservation of the historic building.
“The historical place was not affected: The fire stopped at the kitchen walls. Those guys were very aggressive in getting water where it was supposed to be. We heavily rely on other partnerships that help us do what we do, and that, in combination with folks internally, is what saved the building,” he said.
“The Inn is very old, and very complex, with lots of hidden spaces–Lots of spaces added on, then removed, then added back on. That makes it difficult. We would not have been successful without aggression.”
According to the Buxton Inn’s website, a pioneer named Orrin Granger built “The Tavern” in 1812, which functioned as a post-office and a stagecoach stop between Newark and Columbus. Only seven years prior, families migrating from Connecticut and Massachusetts named the area Granville, and the space was officially declared a village in 1832, one year after Denison University’s formation. The Buxton Inn is a quintessential part of Granville’s history and currently acts as a meeting place and venue for individuals all over Ohio.
