THE ALFRED KELLEY MANSION
This rare photograph of the Kelley parlor taken in 1900 shows the Ionic
screen separating dining room and parlor. Furniture in the parlor,
all of the late 19th century, was bought and used by Mr.
and Mrs. Alfred Kelley II, son and daughter-in-
law of the builder.
project. He headed companies that brought the first railroads to Columbus, served in the Ohio State Senate, fathered a bill to incorporate the State Bank of Ohio and other banking companies for the purpose of improving currency and rendering the State finances secure.
When this fine home was erected, its materials were brought to Columbus by water, and its location was east of the corporation line.
The Alfred Kelley Mansion as finished in the late 1830's appears to have had several characteristics of plan which are in marked contrast to the plan of the building as it stands today. Three major periods of change and alteration can be clearly distinguished in the structure itself. Unfortunately, however, those alterations which date to the latter two phases have in some instances so thoroughly eclipsed the changes of the period preceding that our knowledge of at least a portion of the original design must be based wholly upon conjecture.
Mr. Kelley occupied the old mansion until his death on December 2. 1859, by which date both of the rear ells had been added to the original structure. The eastern most and shorter of the two appears in an early rear view of the house taken from a panoramic map of Columbus dating 1850.
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