Reily, Robert, House

About this property

Twin Oaks, also known as the "Robert Reily House", is a historically significant residence in the city of Wyoming, located near Cincinnati in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. Constructed in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was the home of Robert Reily, one of the leading citizens of early Wyoming. Its heavy stone architecture features a mix of two important architectural styles of the period, and it has been named a historic site. Although the cores of its walls are brick, Twin Oaks is primarily a stone building with a stone foundation and a slate roof; minor elements of iron are present, along with wooden trim. Two and a half stories tall, it is topped with a hip roof; the general style is Queen Anne, although when built it was much closer to the typical Gothic Revival residence. The facade is divided into two bays, with two windows in each; the bay on the right (as seen from the street) rises to a gable and is pierced by four windows, while the left bay stops at the normal roofline and features the main entrance. A side entrance with portico is placed farther to the rear, underneath another subsidiary gable. Good transportation is a leading reason for Wyoming's prosperity. The city lies near the old pre-statehood road that connected Cincinnati with locations farther north, such as Fort Hamilton and Fallen Timbers. Curves in the road were cut off in 1806, forming a new road that is today followed by Springfield Pike through central Wyoming. Improvements in the 1830s only enhanced its importance. By this time, another mode of transportation had become significant: the Miami and Erie Canal was built a short distance to the east in 1828, and the village of Lockland grew up along its side. Railroads reached the city in 1851 with the construction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad on the border between Lockland and Wyoming. Because of Wyoming's proximity to the industry of Lockland, its easy transportation to the booming city of Cincinnati, and its pleasant scenery, many wealthy industrialists purchased local farms and built grand country houses. Most such houses were built in the Wyoming Hills area, west of Springfield Pike; growth in this area continued until the coming of the Great Depression. Born in 1820 in Butler County to the north, Robert Reily was the son of pioneer educator John Reily, who started Cincinnati's earliest school in 1790 after military service during the American Revolution. Young Reily went into business at a comparatively young age, finding employment at a store that sold imported textiles; he began as a clerk, but he eventually rose to become the owner before selling the business and retiring in 1859, aged less than forty years.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Hamilton County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Hamilton County.

More historic places in Ohio

Browse all historic places in Ohio.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Ohio history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.