Lot 208

Riverby, as we know it today, occupies city lot number 207.  The grounds include lot 218 and parts of city lots 195, 196, and 206.  The first recorded transaction of lot 207 occurred in 1796 when R.J. Meigs and Paul Fearing, trustees for the Ohio Company, sold lots 207 and 208 to a father and son, Peter Marret Jr. and Sr. for $50.00.  The property was transferred between father and son two or three times, then sold to Peter Robert Maquet.  He, in turn, sold the two lots to P.R. Bureau in 1818 for $1,000.00.  Mr. Bureau and his heir, Sarah M. Goddard, owned the land until 1855.  At this time, the lots were sold separately and Dr. George Livesay bought lot 207 with the intention of building a home.  The transaction occurred in December 1855, and he paid $500.00 for the lot.

Ownership of Riverby

Between 1855 and 1858, Dr. & Mrs. Livesay built a three story, six-room brick house with high ceilings, a large front hall and winding stairway.  Sometime after its original construction, the music room was added on the up-river side of the house, the dining room with the small fourth bedroom and hall over it toward the back of the house were added, and finally the kitchen, dinette, and small rear bedroom and bath upstairs.  These additions were probably made by the second owner of the home, who was also a physician, Dr. William C. H. Needham. 

This picture was provided by William Needham, great-grandson of Dr. and Mrs. Needham.  He estimates the photo was taken around 1914, after the additions to the building were made.

The Needhams purchased the home from Dr. Livesay in May 1870, for $7,000.00.  They occupied the house for many years.  The doctor had a brick office building on First Avenue approximately between the present Davis Hall and their home.  In addition, they constructed four five-room apartment flats on the site where Davis Hall was built later.  These flats were occupied often by people newly moved to Gallipolis.  Mrs. J. Howard Neal tells of living in the flats when they moved to Gallipolis in 1905.  At that time Dr. Needham was no longer living and the house was occupied by Mrs. Needham and her daughter, Carrie, who subsequently lived and worked in Washington for a number of years.  When Mrs. Needham became incapacitated, her bedroom was moved to the first floor, the front room on the left as you enter the house.  A bathroom was built extending out from the side of this room.  About 1916, the home was occupied briefly by Mr. Will Carlton, who ran a music store at the corner of State and Second Avenues.  He was the only non-physician occupant.  Dr. Charles E. Holzer purchased the home from Florence and Carrie Needham in November 1918.  Thus came into being "Riverby" (River-bee), a name Mrs. Holzer found in a book called A Journey Down the River, by the naturalist, John Burroughs.

Alterations by the Holzers

The Holzers paid the grand sum of $5,700.00 for the home and also purchased Needham Flats next door for $5,300.00.  The flats were converted in to classrooms for the School of Nursing, and a wooden structure was added behind for use as the nurses' residence.  The school was founded in 1920 by Holzer Hospital, with assistance from Mrs. Holzer, a graduate of Grant Hospital in Columbus, and a former director of that school.  When the Holzers purchased the house, it had a small porch at the front door, with a small balcony overhead opening into the second floor hall.  Since the addition of the music room many years before, the house did not appear balanced.  The Holzers consulted an architect, Frank Packard, who had designed the hospital; he designed the present spacious front porch and suggested other changes.  The porch was added in 1919 or 1920 by Mrs. Holzer's father, Fredrick J. Vornholt.  For a number of years (probably into the 1950's), the upper porch was surrounded by a wooden railing.  When the wood was no longer sound, it was removed.  Mr. Vornholt also installed the present oak floors over the old floors.  The Holzers had the "tacked-on" bathroom removed from the side of what became Dr. Holzer's study.  New bricks were necessary where the structure was removed.  This posed a problem for the meticulous Mrs. Holzer, because these bricks did not match the rest of the house. 

She was told that a mixture of soot and water applied frequently would "age" the bricks; and after many coats of this solution, the revision was barely discernable.  The Needham stables were still located behind the house, when the Holzers purchased Riverby.  These were torn out and a tennis court was built in that location.  They also razed the brick building, which was Dr. Needham's office.  In 1920, the Holzers added a double Patrician-shaped swimming pool, which was located to the side and towards the rear of the School of Nursing (which was built in 1958 replacing the Needham flats).  The pool was in use for 12 to 15 years.  Mrs. Holzer and Miss Alma McCormick gave swimming lessons to children in the area. 

Picture provided by Dr. Charles Holzer, III, grandson of Dr. and Mrs. Holzer.  The family is seated on the edge of the pool.

In the mid-1930's, the pool was badly cracked, used less frequently by the children, and -- since it was built prior to modern pool filtration systems -- required frequent filling and a great deal of work.  The Holzers decided to have it filled in with dirt.  The outline of the pool is barely visible in the yard.  Other additions by the Holzers included a bathroom off the front upstairs hall, which necessitated closing the hall entries to the second and third bedrooms.  This was done in the late 1930's.  They also opened the wall between the rooms immediately behind the study and front downstairs hall in order to make one large room instead of two small rooms.  In the dining room, the Holzers added walnut paneling purchased from Minter Homes in Huntington; and then remodeled the kitchen, adding pine paneling, concealing the refrigerator, and giving the flavor of an antique kitchen.  The latticework on the back porch was another one of the Holzer additions.  The French Art Colony has since covered the lattice porch.  More recent additions to the property included the wrought iron fence, built by the Stewart Iron Works Company of Cincinnati in 1954, at a cost of $1,902.00.  The fence was prompted by the fact that hospital visitors picnicked on the lawn and left profuse amounts of refuse for the family to eliminate.  In 1955, the copper roof over the main part of the house was added, as well as copper eaves and downspouts.  This work was done by Earnest L. Lewis, and cost $1,647.60.  The former hot water heating system was replaced with modern heating and air conditioning in 1996 through a State Grant for capital improvements.

The Lawn and Gardens

When the Holzers first purchased Riverby, it was separated from the hospital by a brick home owned and occupied by the Badgley family.  (Dr. Holzer founded the first hospital in a remodeled house on Second Avenue in 1909.  The first of many hospital-building programs was started in 1917 at First and Cedar Streets.  The new Holzer Hospital is located on Route 160.)  The Badgleys sold the house to Viola Plymale.  Dr. Holzer bought the house from her through Otto Vornholt in July 1926.  He installed a garden behind the house in the manner of Williamsburg.  The house itself was utilized as classrooms for the School of Nursing and briefly as a home for two or three physicians practicing in the hospital.  In the late 1930's or early 1940's the house was torn down, permitting the lovely yard, which is present now.