Winding Creek Farm, the Indian Hill estate built by noted Cincinnatian Julius Fleischmann in the 1920s, Sunday offered a glimpse into another era.
The Fleischmann family opened the private estate, which has been whittled from its original size of 1,600 acres to 240 acres, to the public for tours to benefit the Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA).
Officials with the CPA said the estate was last opened to the public in the 1960s.
"It's just a one-shot deal," said Noah Fleischmann of Milford, grandson of Julius. "The family is very quiet. Really, we don't like to attract so much attention. It's something we wanted to do for the Cincinnati Preservation Association. . . . We feel it's important to preserve the historic fabric of our community." More than 700 came to tour the main house -- built in a Normandy Manor style -- and walk through its grand gardens, which include a cobblestone court, an Italian fountain that cascades into a moat and a tea house.
The main house, which has three levels and an attic, has about 35 rooms, including a ballroom and servant quarters. It's filled with big, arched windows, winding staircases, carved wooden doors and ornate iron railings. Stone used to build the house was quarried on the site.
There is also a "prohibition safe," essentially a hidden liquor storage area that still holds bottles from 1926.
Tours cost $35; while $75 covered a tour, lecture and afternoon tea. Costumed dancers from the Flying Cloud Academy of Vintage Dance performed numbers from the 1920s and earlier: the Half-n-Half, Charleston Rag and tango.
Julius Fleischmann, a past president and chairman of Fleischmann Industries and a director of Standard Brands Inc., was well-known as a philanthropist and arts patron. He was an heir to the fortune of his grandfather, Charles, who made compressed yeast.
Julius was just 25 and still unmarried when he began building Winding Creek Farm in the mid-1920s. It took about three years to finish and included stables, a cattle barn, farmers' houses and greenhouses.
Noah Fleischmann, whose grandfather died in 1968, has early memories of the farm. He recalls swimming in the main house's indoor pool, and said he used to ride a lot.
He said pigs, chicken, and beef and dairy cattle were raised on the farm, which had a small fleet of panel trucks that provided milk for Indian Hill.
After his grandfather died, he said, his grandmother spent less and less time at the main house, which is now unoccupied and unfurnished. A property manager still lives at the estate.
