Article by  John Zimkus, WCHS Historian/Education Director and Historian of The Golden Lamb

(The first half of this article was featured in the Issue 11. November, 2023 Medallion Newsletter. The continuation can be found below the images below.)
​
 
On December 23, 2023, The Golden Lamb Restaurant & Hotel, in Lebanon, “Ohio oldest continually operated business” will be celebrating its 220th birthday.

Two centuries and a score years earlier, Jonas Seaman, who originally hailed from Hopewell, New Jersey, walked across the once muddy, and now frozen street of Broadway in the newly platted Lebanon to go one block north to what would soon be his competition, The Black Horse Tavern. This log cabin tavern, whose name now graces The Golden Lamb's bar, was serving a dual purpose in 1803. Besides being a place local settlers could get some libation and the latest news, The Black Horse Tavern was also functioning as Warren County's first courthouse. Like in the old western movies many of us grew up watching as children, here they would close the bar and hold court.

On Friday, December 23, 1803, Warren County clerk of courts recorded, "Court Grants License to Jonas Seaman to keep the house of public Entertainment in the house he now occupies in the South of Lebanon at the rate of four Dollars."

Although the phrase “house of public entertainment” may sound provocative, it simply means that Seaman was going to open up a “public house” or a “pub”. Being in the south of Lebanon is worth noting because at the time Lebanon was only three blocks going north and south, and Seaman’s cabin was in the southern part of the middle block. Had his home/establishment been located three or four doors to the north, I'm sure it would be considered in the north of Lebanon. The four dollars Jonas Seaman spent for his license would have a buying power of about $80 today.

As time progressed, so did Seaman’s tavern. In 1815, his log structure was replaced by a two-story brick building, what is now covered by The Golden Lamb's two-story porch. In 1844, a third story was added. A three-story addition was made to the “hotel” to the north in 1854. 1878 saw a fourth story added to the entire structure. The new Black Horse Tavern was constructed in 1964, and the very popular Golden Lamb veranda in 2019.

Since 1926, when Bob Jones began to manage “The Hotel,” and shortly thereafter own it, The Golden Lamb’s reputation began to skyrocket, and it continues today. The Golden Lamb has recently been declared the “most iconic restaurant” and the “most famous restaurant” in Ohio.

Almost 50 years ago, however, The Golden Lamb was part of a celebration of something else that was reaching a 200 year milestone — the United States of America. The man who is considered by many, including myself, of being the greatest wordsmith in television journalism in the 20th century, visited The Golden Lamb. His name was Charles Kuralt.

Kuralt and his CBS News crew visited Lebanon, Ohio in early November 1975. He was famous for his “On the Road” segments appeared weekly on “The CBS Evening New,” which was hosted by, according to multiple polls in the 1960s and 70s, by the “most trusted man in America” - Walter Cronkite.

On the Friday, November 14, 1975 edition of the “The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite”, Cronkite introduced the last segment of that evening’s news by stating, “When Sherwood Anderson created the fictional Winesburg, Ohio he used a hotel, the new Willard House, as a focal point of his stories about the everyday people of his native state. When Charles Kuralt went “On the Road” in 1976 to paint his Bicentennial Portrait of Ohio, he too found a hotel rich with stories.”

The Greater Loveland Historical Society's mission is "to collect, preserve and display historical information pertinent to the Greater Loveland, Ohio area, be regarded as a local authority on historical designation, serve as curator of locally significant art, and foster within our community an appreciation and curiosity regarding our area's past."

"Through a combination of permanent exhibits, special presentations, and educational facilities," the Greater Loveland Historical Society "encourages guests to step back in time, discover the lives of Ohio's pioneers, explore Victorian-era comfort, and learn about the changes that time, innovation, and the industrial revolution brought to this early suburb and rural escape."

​Established in 1831 in Harveysburg, the Elizabeth Harvey Free Black School was the first free school for African American children in Ohio. In 1976, the Harveysburg Bicentennial Committee acquired the building and restored it. The building is now the home of the Harveysburg Community Historical Society and their community museum.