The Silas Bingham House
Circa 1805
Silas Bingham arrived in Athens in 1797. His home, originally built on South College Street, is the oldest house in Athens and one of the few remaining examples of a two-story log building in the area.
Since the commissioners held meetings in the home as early as 1806, the Bingham House is recognized as the county’s first courthouse.
Ohio University’s third president, R. G. Wilson (1824–39), and his family lived here; John Templeton, the University’s first black graduate, (1828), resided with them.
In 1853 the house was moved to East State Street and in 1897 was relocated to this site through the efforts of numerous Athens County individuals and groups.
The Bingham House was dedicated July 4, 1897, in commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
Marker is at the intersection of Richland Avenue and South Shafer Street and South Green Drive, on the left when traveling north on Richland Avenue.
Courtesy hmdb.org
