The Piatt Castles:
Original Homes for Two Brother’s Families
in a Beautiful Ohio
Valley |
Mac-O-Chee Castle was built in 1879 as a home for the journalist
Donn Piatt and his wife Ella Kirby Piatt, an artist. Donn
(1821-1892) was raised on a farm in the pretty Mac-A-Cheek
valley where he returned frequently throughout his life. In
1866, he and his first wife Louise planned to live in a gothic
cottage constructed on his farm land. Unfortunately, Louise
died. Donn returned to his literary career in New York and later
Washington D. C. while his nephew William M. Piatt cared for the
house and the farm. When Donn retired from public life in 1879,
he and his second wife Ella moved into to the Ohio cottage and
had the limestone structure added to the smaller frame house. It
was completed in 1891.
 Ten years earlier, Donn’s younger brother, Abram Sanders Piatt
was a widower newly remarried to Eleanor Watts Piatt when he
finished his limestone mansion named Mac-A-Cheek . The two
buildings sit a mile apart on opposite ridges of the Mac-A-Cheek
valley. The names of the homes, the valley, and the stream that
runs through it are all derived from the word, Macachack, the
name of a Shawnee village that was located there in the late
1700s.
Oliver Frey’s Frescoed Walls and Ceilings Adorn the Homes
Both Piatt families were lovers of art and it is believed that
Abram’s son Charles met the skillful Swiss-born artist Oliver
Frey in Mentone, France where Charles was in the diplomatic
service. Oliver Frey came to Ohio to stencil seventeen rooms in
Donn and Ella’s home Mac-O-Chee. When finished, he painted the
ceilings of several rooms in Abram and Eleanor home,
Mac-A-Cheek. Frey liked Ohio and became a U.S. citizen, settling
in the Kenton area. He was known to have worked as a decorative
stencil artist with a crew of assistants throughout central
Ohio. Unfortunately, little of Frey’s work remains, making his
accomplishments at the Piatt Castles more significant.
The Castles are Popular Sites for Tours,
Educational Programs, Special Events and Functions
The Piatt Castles are both open to the public on a seasonal
basis and can be rented for weddings and other functions. Each
year, The Mac-A-Cheek Foundation for the Humanities, a 501 (c
(3) nonprofit organization, sponsors research projects, programs
and special events at Piatt Castles. For more information about
hours, fees, programs, special events and the history of the
family and the buildings, contact Piatt Castles by
email, phone:
937.465.2821, or visit
www.piattcastles.org .
Learn more about Donn Piatt
A fascinating article about Donn Piatt’s career has recently
been written by Peter Bridges, a retired career ambassador. It
is available to read at
www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2007/0103/life/bridges_piatt.html.
An Inspiration to Poets and a Study for Painters
A Description of Mac-O-Chee Castle from the 1891 biography of
Donn Piatt
In a secluded nook, Donn Piatt, true to his eccentricity, sought
retirement so close that half the world forgot him ere he died.
But the spot he selected is a paradise, and he had a castle fit
for a king.
From Bald Knob, whose bleak, stony summit is the highest point
in Ohio, the winding little valley of the Mac-o-chee, hedged
closely by heavily wooded hills, follows the course of a
sparkling, spring-fed stream, so very narrow that one may almost
step across it, six miles to the southwest, where it joins the
broad, rich fields of the valley of Mad river. On a hillside
facing the south, a mile above the point where the smaller
valley joins the larger one, stands an immense house built of
native stone and fashioned in the style of a Flemish castle,
with high towers, sharp-pointed gables, courts, terraces and
fountains. All that nature has neglected art has supplied in
making this spot an inspiration to poets and a study for
painters.
Miller, Charles Grant. Donn Piatt: His Work and His Ways.
Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. 1893
Note: The fountains are no longer operational. It is the hope of
the Piatt Castles and the Mac-A-Cheek Foundation for the
Humanities, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, to restore
both the building and grounds at Mac-O-Chee Castle. For
information about an ongoing interpretive and restoration
project at Mac-A-Cheek Castle called From the Ground Up, or the
stream restoration project sponsored by Ohio’s Division of
Wildlife, visit the website
www.piattcastles.org
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