Mattoon-Woodrow House

72 E. North St.

Images: (1) Mattoon-Woodrow House; (2) c.1940; about ten years after moving from High Street to North Street

The house was built ca. 1837-40 for Ansel Mattoon, a Worthington blacksmith. Mattoon was strongly opposed to slavery and hosted meetings of the Antislavery Society of Worthington in his home, which was also a station on the “underground railroad”. As a blacksmith and wagon maker Mattoon could drive his wagon north without arousing suspicion. Other antislavery sympathizers lived on what is now Flint Road, and his brother Dr. John Wesley Mattoon, a physician in Delaware County had married Charlotte Pinney of Worthington.

In 1854 Mattoon sold the house to Reverend Thomas Woodrow, minister of the Worthington Presbyterian Church and the grandfather of President Woodrow Wilson, for $1500. The brick portion of the house was moved from the southwest corner of North and High Streets in 1932 to its present location.

It is an excellent example of Federal architecture with its common bond brickwork, symmetrical five-bay facade, transom lighted entry, gable roof and end chimneys.

(Private residence)