Marietta, Ohio — A DEEP current of history runs through this quiet town of 15,000 nestled in the arms of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. Indians first left their mark here, in great earthen burial mounds. Then, as the first chartered city in the Northwest Territory, Marietta felt the nation’s initial footprints as it strode west.
As the birthplace of governors, senators and even a vice president, Marietta has had a historic impact on its state and nation that transcends its small size. For visitors that history is meticulously preserved in the town’s brick-paved streets, stately 200-year-old homes and more than 300 monuments.
The town was settled in 1788, when Gen. Rufus Putnam led 47 former Revolutionary War officers in a crude flatboat to the rivers’ junction, where they built a fortified settlement. George Washington — who owned land in the area — actively encouraged the arduous journey.
Visitors can tour Campus Martius on Second Street, the territories’ first civilian settlement. The museum encloses Putnam’s home on its original foundation; thick bolted shutters, rough floors and an open hearth testify to the pioneers’ hard life.
“Campus Martius isn’t fancied up like Williamsburg,” said James O’Donnell, a longtime history professor at Marietta College. “But if you want to see how a middle-class family lived in the 1790s — sleeping eight to a room and cooking over an open fire — here it is.”
A trolley tour is probably the best way to begin a Marietta visit. Led by local guides, the trolleys cruise past landmarks like the Meigs House, built in 1802 and home of a postmaster general — aptly named Return J. Meigs — under President James Madison; the Betsey Mills Club, founded in 1911 to help young women move from farm to city life; and the stately Dawes House, from whose steps Charles G. Dawes accepted the nomination as President Calvin Coolidge’s running mate in 1924. (Dawes, who later feuded bitterly with Coolidge, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on World War I reparations.)
One of the tour’s chief attractions is Mound Cemetery on Fifth Street. Said to be the resting place of more Revolutionary War officers than any graveyard in the nation, it also has the so-called Great Mound, or Conus, built by Indians as long ago as 800 B.C.
Marietta’s politicians were early protectors of civil rights. In 1802 a passionate speech by Ephraim Cutler, a delegate from Marietta, swayed a single constitutional convention vote and kept Ohio from becoming a slave state. The abolitionist fervor surged through the 1800s, and Marietta College and a yellow brick home at 401 Fort Street were Underground Railroad stops.
As the 19th century hurtled forward, ship builders flourished in Marietta, and in the late 1800s an oil and gas boom helped line Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Streets with the pristine Victorian homes seen today.
After a day of Marietta’s landmarks, museums and antique shops, a weary traveler might well repair to the Lafayette, built in 1918, at Front and Greene Streets. Seated in the hotel’s Riverview Lounge one can gaze at the Ohio while sipping what may be the nation’s last Chopin Martini for under $5.
With its memorabilia and paintings, the Lafayette lobby bears witness to the town’s role as a leading center of riverboat commerce — and to its periodic floods. Brass wall plates record previous high-water marks; the 1937 one is nearly 11 feet above the floor.
Another dark aspect of the Lafayette’s and Marietta’s past is chronicled on Friday and Saturday nights in sidewalk “Ghost Tours,” led by Lynne Sturtevant. The spirits of dead artists, barkeeps and morticians are said to roam all over the place. S. Durward Hoag, a longtime owner of the Lafayette who died in 1982, reportedly flits around the third floor, basement and its Gun Room restaurant.
Dining in Marietta can be a diverse affair. The elegant Buckley House, built in 1879, serves Mediterranean cuisine in its leafy garden or pilgrim-simple dining room. Lower down Front Street, Austyn’s features fusion fare or, for a more casual outing, the Galley, on Second Street, offers more than 60 beers along with burgers, salads and seafood. For a post-museum espresso break, try the WiFi-enabled Skyline Café.
After a latte or cappuccino the Ohio River Museum is a good place to learn more about Marietta’s steamboat era. You can tour a sternwheel towboat or book a trip on the Valley Gem, a sternwheeler that offers dinner cruises, river sightseeing and fall foliage tours.
The Rivertrail Bike and Pedestrian Path beckons joggers, cyclists and walkers; a pedestrian bridge crosses the Muskingum River to Harmar Village, site of the territory’s first fort. Muskingum Park is home to “Westward Ho!,” a sculpture by Gutzon Borglum, who later carved Mount Rushmore.
Every September, some 100,000 people crowd into town for the annual Ohio River Sternwheel Festival. Hotels are booked far in advance as sternwheelers, many traveling hundreds of miles, jam Marietta’s levee.
The 77-room Lafayette, named for the Revolutionary War hero who visited in 1825, is a first choice for many travelers. High above Harmar Village, however, the splendid House on Harmar Hill offers an intriguing alternative. The scrupulously restored bed-and-breakfast has the best views of Marietta.
Not surprisingly, Marietta lures fixer-uppers. Mary Pickford’s silent film “Daddy Long Legs” opened what is now the Colony Theater on Putnam Street in 1919; Hunt Brawley, a former Baltimore lawyer, is leading a $6 million volunteer effort to restore it. “The amazing thing is we don’t even have a preservation district or require demolition permits,” he said. “Here a respect for heritage just seems ingrained.”
Charlotte Keim, president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce, said she couldn’t wait to get out of Marietta when she was growing up and spent 15 years in Manhattan working in international banking. When she and her husband returned, she said, “I asked myself, how did this place get so pretty?”
IF YOU GO
Marietta/Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 121 Putnam Street; (800) 288-2577, MariettaOhio.org. Open Monday-Friday, 9-5.
Washington County Historical Society, 346 Muskingum Drive; (740) 373-1788; wchs-ohio.org; Open Tuesday-Friday, 10-2.
Sugden Book Store, 282 Front Street; (740) 373-0347; Open Monday-Friday, 9-6; Saturday, 10-5.
Underground Railroad Historian, Henry Burke; henryrobertburke.com.
WHAT TO DO
Trolley Tours Inc., 127 Ohio Street; (740) 374-2233. Call; times vary seasonally. Adults, $7.50; children, $5.
Campus Martius Museum, 601 Second Street; (800) 860-0145. Open Monday-Saturday, 9:30-5; Sundays and holidays, 12-5; closed Tuesdays. Adults, $7; under 5, free.
Ohio River Museum, 601 Front Street; (740) 373-3750. September-December, Saturdays and Sundays only. April-September, same as Campus Martius. Adults, $6; under 5, free.
Hidden Marietta (ghost tours), hiddenmarietta.com. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 and 9 p.m., weather permitting. Adults $10; Children 12 and under, $7.
Mound Cemetery, Fifth Street.
Valley Gem Sternwheeler, 601 Front Street;(740) 373-7862, valleygemsternwheeler.com. May-October for sightseeing cruises, times vary. Adults, $12; children, $6. June-October, dinner cruises, $35.
WHERE TO EAT
Austyn’s, 130 Front Street; (740) 374-8188, austyns.com. Lunch and dinner, 7 days a week, from 11 a.m. Entrees $13-$21.
The Buckley House Restaurant, 332 Front Street; (740) 374-4400, BHRestaurant.com. Lunch and dinner, Tuesday-Sunday, from 11 a.m. Entrees $16-$25.
The Galley, 203 Second Street; (740) 374-8278, thegalleymarietta.com. Lunch & dinner, from 11 a.m.; closed on Sundays. Entrees $8-$18.
Levee House Cafe (trolley tour starts here) , 127 Ohio Street; (740) 374-2233; Lunch & dinner, from 11:30 a.m. Closed Sundays. Entrees $11.95-$17.50.
Skyline Cafe, 114 Putnam Street; (740) 373-3088. Serves espresso and sweets. Closed Sundays.
WHERE TO STAY
The Lafayette, 101 Front Street; (800) 331-9336, lafayettehotel.com. Rates $60-$170.
The House on Harmar Hill, 300 Bellevue Street; (877) 914-5451. Rates $85-95.
The Loft at Marietta Wine Cellars, 170 Front Street; (740) 373-9463, mariettawinecellars.net. Single condo unit sleeps four; full kitchen. Weekend per night rates are off-season, $135; peak season, $155.
Hampton, 508 Pike Street; (740) 373-5353, hampton.com. $109-$129.