George & Christina Ealy House & Land

The George and Christina Ealy House is a testament to the prosperity of one of this area’s early residents and the skills of mid-nineteenth-century craftsmen. In 1830, members of the Ealy family moved from Pennsylvania to a 73-acre parcel where the house and six-acre Resch park surrounding it are located. The Ealys were representative of a second wave of pioneers who settled Plain Township after 1812. The Ealys cleared land for farming and operated a sawmill on Rose Run. George prospered and in 1860 built this fine house. Architecturally, the house exhibits the transition between Greek Revival and Italianate styles. Its layout reflects the former; its proportions and decorative detail, the latter.

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George Ealy recorded the year of the house’s construction, 1860, in his own hand in the attic. He also listed the names of the “work hands” who built the house. They include, as masons, a father and son named Schott, and two Beecher brothers as master carpenters. The Schotts were a German family who moved from Columbus to Plain Township in 1850. The Beechers came from Connecticut and settled in New Albany about the year the town was laid out, in 1837. The New Albany-Plain Township Historical Society acquired the house in 2004. The house along with the Resch Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.