Wright at Home

Held each April, Wright at Home offers guests the rare opportunity to explore the Wright family home while learning about the historic Oakwood neighborhood that surrounded it, including the homes of J.W. Green, inventor of the Cheez-It, and Bill Chryst, a member of Charles Kettering’s legendary Barn Gang who helped invent the automobile self-starter.

Over the years, Hawthorn Hill welcomed numerous famous visitors, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Ronald Reagan, Charles Lindbergh and James Cash “J.C.” Penny.  

With its white pillars and twin porches, the mansion has long been synonymous with Orville Wright and the Wright family. After purchasing land at Salem Avenue and Harvard Boulevard in the Dayton View neighborhood, the Wrights’ younger sister, Katharine, persuaded her famous brothers to build instead in Oakwood’s rolling hills.  

Both Orville and Wilbur influenced the home’s design, but Wilbur died of typhoid fever on May 30, 1912, at age 45, before construction began. When the house was completed in 1914, Hawthorn Hill became the residence of Orville, Katharine and their elderly father, Bishop Milton Wright. 

After Orville Wright’s death on Jan. 30, 1948, Hawthorn Hill was purchased by NCR for use as a corporate guest house. For the next 58 years, the historic home was was carefully preserved but rarely open to the public.” 

Today, the mansion, a unit of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, is owned and operated by Dayton History, a privately funded nonprofit that receives no ongoing federal support. For decades, many people wondered about the mysterious Wright mansion atop the hill. At Wright at Home, the mystery is revealed, if only in part.  

Tickets for Wright at Home are $40 and include admission to Hawthorn Hill and the guided walking tour of the surrounding Oakwood neighborhood. Advance reservations are required. Tickets can be purchased at daytonhistory.org. 

Proceeds benefit Dayton History and The Oakwood Historical Society, two privately funded nonprofits dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of the Dayton region.