A Century of Architectural History Along the Sandusky River

The Hermitage:

A 1926 Tudor Revival estate with its original Skinner pipe organ still in place.

Commissioned by George C. Kalbfleisch and completed in 1926, The Hermitage is an English Tudor Revival estate on 33.09 ± acres just outside Tiffin, Ohio. Tiffin architect George W. Netcher designed the house, and Kalbfleisch was exacting about its Tudor exterior, going so far as to send back stone that arrived cut too square. The estate includes a guest house and garden/summer house, a gated drive, a three-acre pond and approximately 1,476 feet of frontage along the Sandusky River, and it has been recognized with a Preservation Award from the Tiffin Historic Trust.

The music room holds the most unusual feature of the house. Skinner Opus 536 was contracted for the Kalbfleisch residence in 1925 and is one of only a handful of Skinner residence organs in Ohio still in place. Its console sits in the oak-paneled room beneath carved musical instruments over the doors, while its pipes fill a chamber on the third floor and the sound reaches the room through a screened opening in the ceiling. The organ plays from its console today and conveys with the house.

The same care carries through roughly 9,825 square feet and six bedrooms. Hand-carved millwork, original ironwork and door hardware, period lighting, Italian tile and period bath fixtures remain throughout, and the house is built on poured concrete floors across all four levels. Stained-glass doors imported from Paris, still bearing their maker’s mark, open from the curved hall into the breakfast room, and the dining room is finished in imported lacquered wall panels. The leaded glass follows a program of its own, with figures suited to each room’s purpose: a lyre and harp in the music room, a lamp in the library, and a pair of soldiers in the windows of the front landing.

The Hermitage was built to entertain on a generous scale and to run smoothly behind the scenes. A network of staircases kept family, guests and staff on separate paths, including a concealed stair from the front coat closet down toward the chauffeur’s garage, where the original workbench and bath remain. The butler’s pantry retains its plate warmer, the original icebox is still built into the kitchen wall, and the door annunciator still shows which of four doors is ringing. A servant call system, a maid’s bedroom and a maid’s sewing room complete the working side of the house.

Upstairs, Mr. and Mrs. Kalbfleisch kept connecting bedrooms, and a sleeping porch opens off one of the second-floor bedrooms. The third floor was given over to recreation, with a dance hall and its own fireplace, a tumbling room and a large studio. The lower level has egress windows and keeps the original coal room. A veranda and a wisteria-covered rear terrace open the house to the grounds.

The guest house began as a neighboring farmhouse and took on the main house’s Tudor character when it was brought onto the estate, and the garden/summer house survives from the same period. Tiffin, one of Ohio Magazine’s Best Hometowns, is minutes away, with a revitalized downtown, two universities and a regional airport, and Toledo, Columbus and Cleveland are all within reach.

Originally named Sefbackhill, the estate became The Hermitage under its current family, who have cared for it for more than four decades. In its centennial year, it is ready for its next steward, someone who will value a house where the architecture, the details and the way it was lived in are all still present.