George Barrett Cement House
Spring Valley, Greene County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
After a fire destroyed his home, George Barrett built a cement house himself in 1853 using a method he read about. It was cheaper and faster than brick. The house was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Erected by Ohio History Connection
The Story
In 1853, after fire claimed his home, an Ohio farmer named George Barrett rebuilt not with the usual brick or timber but with cement — following a construction method he'd picked up from his own reading. It was a resourceful, self-taught choice in an era when concrete building was still a novelty in rural America, and it proved both cheaper and quicker than conventional masonry. The house he raised in Greene County's Spring Valley stood durable enough that, more than a century later in 1986, it earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Why it matters
The house is a small monument to nineteenth-century American ingenuity — an ordinary citizen adopting an emerging building technology on his own initiative — and a rare surviving example of early experimental cement construction.
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Related people
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