(vibrant music) (mouse click) (keys clacking) (mouse click) (vibrant music) (mouse click) (vibrant music) (car engine revving) On this episode of Scenic Stops & Stories Someone had brought a carousel horse in that needed front legs put on it.

I did that for them.

(light music) And that evolved into the carousel world, which I've been pretty active for the past 40, 50 years, One of our biggest drinks is a cookie butter latte, it's made with Biscoff cookie butter.

It's our most popular item.

We had it four years ago and we haven't been able to take it off the menu.

- This is Spiegel Grove, this was the home of President and First Lady Hayes, But first, cats in need are getting a little extra love thanks to this non-profit, in downtown Toledo.

(keys clacking) - Hello, I am Tallie Carter.

I'm the founder and executive director of RubyCats.

And this, this is Sugar.

(bright music) Having a cat cafe was my daughter's suggestion, and her name is Ruby.

Cat cafes began in Asia in the 1990s, and then they came over to the United States.

And generally, when you go to a cat cafe in the United States, it's a rescue and the cats are adoptable.

Our mission here is to connect people and cats and have a cozy home-like atmosphere for the cats that are here to live while they wait to find their forever home.

When we opened, we were fortunate to have a partnership with a local rescue that's also new called Forget Me Not.

They spearheaded the way for us to be able to form other partnerships with rescues in the Midwest.

(upbeat music) When you come to RubyCats, a session is 50 minutes.

The later sessions on Thursday and Friday tend to be really chill and mostly adults, whereas the noontime sessions on Saturday and Sunday tend to be a little more playful and have more children.

What's unique about the cat cafe is just that the cats can live in sort of a homelike atmosphere.

It's very cozy and it's a little more relaxing for the cats because they're not in and out of enclosures when people wanna visit with them.

So they live in a space that's their house, and then the people come in and are able to interact with them.

And that's good for people who wanna adopt because they can get a better sense of the cat's personality.

(transition whooshing) (upbeat music) All the cats in the cat cafe do definitely have a different personality and interact with people differently.

Some of the cats are super playful or very vocal, but some of the cats not so much, you might never hear them meow.

Some of them interact with each other and play with each other, and some of them prefer to keep to themselves.

All of them are really nice and want to be petted, and you know, after one or two sessions, might get a little tired and they'll climb up to the top of the cat gym and just hang out at a really high hammock.

It's really cute to see them all congregating near the door.

They know it's going to be time when they see us through the windows or they see me through the door and they're ready for me to come in and give them all the pets, or play with the toy with them, or give them their wet food, which they really like.

And of course, they try to convince us that they haven't been fed in a couple years, even though I know they were just fed that night.

Each of the name tags have a QR code on the back of it, and that's just so you can find out a little bit more about that cat when you're inside the cat cafe.

Just gives you a little more information about the cat.

Besides their name, it tells you their age and a little bit about their personality.

We have between 13 and 16 cats.

Right now, we will have between 10 or 12 people in there at a time, and I like to make sure that everybody who comes to RubyCats has the experience of getting to play with or pet a cat.

(piano music) People who might not have as much of an opportunity to interact with cats, so maybe they're not really looking to adopt, it just gives them an opportunity to come, chill out, hang with cats, and they don't have to clean the litter box.

(laughing) We do have a partnership with the coffee house across the street, which is called Grinders.

They developed a special drink, right now it's called the Oreo, and it's named after a cat that we have called Oreo.

And it is a latte float that has cookies and cream ice cream in it.

And for every one of those special drinks that they sell, they give us a dollar just to our non-profit, which is very generous.

Oh, adoption is definitely bittersweet.

We're excited they get to go to a home, that they're going to be loved for their life.

When you come visit us, you might see a certain cat that you really, really like and think, "I think that Cat would be a good member of our family," you can go on to the Our Cats page at rubycats.org, and you would come in and have a new family member.

(bright music) (chisel tapping) The dragon I'm working on is gonna be a winter dragon with fur instead of scales as per the collector's wishes, and is eight feet long.

His wings are gonna be tucked like he's diving.

(keyboard clacking) (mouse clicking) (chisel tapping) - My name is Joe Leonard.

I've been carving for 50 plus years.

I started out in the advertising field years ago after art school, and then gradually got into the carving clubs in Cleveland area.

(tool scraping) I guess I could say I'm self-taught.

The big thing is designing.

I've been able to visualize three-dimensionally which is the good thing, and then it doesn't always turn out that way.

I mean, I'm sure it's not perfect by any way, shape, or form, but most everything has been pretty neat.

I'm gonna do a little bit of sanding on some of this to get rid of the chisel marks, but it shows how much smoother the mane is gonna look.

(sandpaper scraping) when it's all said and done.

It doesn't take a great deal.

And a lot of times I was told by some folks, "Well, you should never touch sandpaper to the wood until you're done carving 'cause it dulls the chisels."

Well, I've not found that to be true.

'Cause a lot of times we do this and then it just smooths things out and makes the mane flow so much nicer.

And I've done that on most of the carousel horses that I've done too, with the tails and the manes and such.

'cause you don't want the, on those, you don't want the chisel marks in.

Someone had brought a carousel horse in that needed front legs put on it.

I did that for them.

(light music) And that evolved into the carousel world, which I've been pretty active for the past 40, 50 years, doing a lot of restoration on old animals.

The majority of the pieces, the carousel animals are made of basswood.

It's soft to medium hard and it paints very well, it sands very well, and it holds up very well.

My work's in several foreign countries, actually.

We did carousel horses for Disneyland Paris in France.

We created 17 monster horses that were six and a half feet by seven foot, roughly.

There's standers, prancers, and jumpers.

The standers have three legs down typically and one raised, the prancers have the back legs on the platform, front legs raised, and those are stationary, then the jumpers are the ones that go up and down.

They have all legs above or moved up above, or tucked under them rather.

(wheel whirring) This is a leather wheel here, so it's a little more aggressive, I guess.

We usually hit 'em on these and, like, sit upside-down a little bit.

Test with a thumbnail.

Nice.

Should feel like glass when they're done and ready to go.

(chisel tapping) The dragon I'm working on is gonna be a winter dragon with fur instead of scales as per the collector's wishes, and is eight feet long.

His wings are gonna be tucked like he's diving.

We have to make up, get a, a friend of mine does, Amish friend of mine does welding, and will weld the base up for it.

As far as the painting and stuff, that's strictly outta my jurisdiction.

That goes to Liz, and between her and the collector, they decide what it's gonna be like.

But this one, having fur instead of scales, is gonna be kind of interesting 'cause the fur has to have a lot of movement to it like he's doing his thing.

(chisel clattering) And this is gonna be fur coming down through here as well, so we've just got a rough definition here.

(chisel scraping) So this will be almost like a, not quite a mane, but it's gonna have that similar effect back in here.

It's been a challenge, yeah, in just of that magnitude of that size.

I mean, he's gonna be pretty heavy.

But I haven't gotten into the wings yet.

My best design time is usually, like, four or five in the morning when I'm laying in bed trying to design and figure out this stuff.

So I can picture it somewhat.

And most time they come out pretty good, I think.

I've been able to capture most of the stuff, and then whatever anybody's asked me to do I've pretty much been able to do, I think.

I've been at this for a long time and I tell people I'm too dumb to work for somebody else.

I work for myself.

Or, how'd you get into this?

I didn't know any better and I still don't, you know.

But as far as where it's gonna go from here, I have no idea, but yeah, it's great to have it continue.

I was told years ago, all the CNC machines and computers are gonna put you outta business.

(sandpaper scraping) No, I never believe that.

'cause there's people that always want one of a kind individual.

The machines cannot do everything.

They're getting pretty good, but there's still that personal touch that you just, it just doesn't happen.

I'm fine with teaching people and show 'em whatever I can show them what I've learned.

(sandpaper scraping) I'm not saying everything I do is correct, 'cause there's others are gonna show it to 'em differently, but that's for them to pick and choose, I guess.

And so Lord knows where it's gonna go.

I mean, you know, I'm not a spring chicken anymore.

And I had one kid ask me in one of the workshops or one of the schools I taught at, he says, "How much longer you think you're gonna be able to do this?"

(chuckling) I go, "I don't know."

I said it was an interesting question.

I said, well, this was 20 some years ago, so I'm still doing it, so guess I'm doing something right, we've survived it for over 50 years, so.

(chisel tapping) (vibrant music) (birds chirping) (vibrant music) (birds chirping) (upbeat music) One of our biggest drinks is a cookie butter latte, it's made with Biscoff cookie butter.

It's our most popular item.

We had it four years ago and we haven't been able to take it off the menu.

(upbeat music) (key caps clacking) (mouse button clicks) (upbeat music) My name is Corey and I'm the lead barista at Earth Coffeehouse.

I would say the draw for Earth Coffeehouse would be the environment.

It's very open, welcoming.

It just has good energy in my opinion.

(upbeat music) The owner, Will Lucas, purchased this building and just had this dream of creating a community space for Toledo.

(upbeat music) So we can make pretty much any type of drink here, either iced or hot.

Then we have our own blend made for our house coffee, so it's like a Ethiopian-Guatemalan mix.

It's really fruity, chocolatey, cidery.

We make our cold brew and our drip coffee with it.

(upbeat music) One of our biggest drinks is a cookie butter latte, it's made with Biscoff cookie butter.

It's our most popular item.

We had it four years ago and we haven't been able to take it off the menu.

Even if you don't like coffee, we have such amazing non-caffeinated options, like great herbal teas, smoothies, matcha, which is caffeinated, but it's a little less intense as coffee.

We have a lot of different options, and even if you don't necessarily want to buy a drink, we have great pastries and food options.

It's really versatile in that way.

(upbeat music) So I always had an interest in coffee and I'm a big coffee drinker.

I couldn't live without coffee.

(laughs) Mainly it's for me, any job that I can be tactile and creative and use my hands, and it's something that I enjoy and it's a way of, like, giving somebody a gift that they can enjoy and consume, and it's a form of love.

(upbeat music) We have such a wide variety and community that comes to Earth, from business owners to creatives, to people just wanting to come here and work.

A lot of people love coming to a coffee shop.

It's just a safe space for a lot of people where they can be creative or whether study, or just read or be around others essentially.

In terms of safe space, I just mean, like, a place where people are free to be themselves and feel, you know, safe to be who they are in that space.

There's just such a broad melting pot here and I love that.

We want everyone to feel welcome.

(upbeat music) If you've never been to Earth, I would recommend it, for one, enjoy this space.

It's such a beautiful building.

It's almost like a art museum in itself.

We have local artists all over the walls, plants everywhere, and you know, everyone that works here just loves to work here, and it really shines through when you walk through the doors.

(upbeat music) What we really believe it was is that it has to do with this idea of image, and sort of an enchanted scene where it reminded Sardis Birchard, who was Rutherford's maternal uncle who built this house, of sort of the enchanted fairy stories of his youth.

(keyboard clacking) (mouse clicking) (mellow orchestral music) - This is Spiegel Grove, this was the home of President and First Lady Hayes, so we're in the historic Hayes' home at the moment, and across the way is the museum, which was built by Webb Cook Hayes, the first, the son of Rutherford and Lucy, actually, the second son.

Rutherford Hayes was born October 4th, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio, his family is ancestrally from Vermont, So he was raised there along with his sister, Fanny Arabella, there were some other Hayes siblings, but they died fairly young.

Hayes moved to Cincinnati where he practiced law, and he rekindled a friendship with Lucy Ware Webb who he had met in Delaware, Ohio some years back.

She would become his wife, they would marry there in the city on December 30th, 1852.

But he did take his seat after the war was over in 1865, he served one term as a Congressman until 1867, and then he was elected Governor of Ohio.

1868, he started serving his term, and he was elected to another term and so, he serves two from 1868 to 1872.

His party convinced him to run again for Governor, and so, he's elected to, an unprecedented at the time, third term in 1876.

But, of course, in 1876, he's also then nominated for President of the United States.

He serves one term in the White House from 1877 to 1881, and then he retires here to Spiegel Grove.

Rutherford and Lucy had eight children total, only five survived into adulthood.

Birchard was their oldest son, he follows his father into law.

Their second son was Webb Cook Hayes, the first, who's really important to the family, because he's the one, of course, that really preserves this house, and he's the one that builts the Presidential Library and Museum later.

Rutherford Platt was their third child, he was a librarian.

Fanny Hayes was the President's and First Lady's only daughter, she was born in 1867, and she's, of course, much beloved of her father, she actually took care of him the last four years of his life.

Scott Russell Hayes was the last surviving child, and he became a businessman.

(mellow orchestral music) (birds chirping) It all stems from the word Spiegel, which is a German word for image.

What we really believe it was is that it has to do with this idea of image, and sort of an enchanted scene where it reminded Sardis Birchard, who was Rutherford's maternal uncle who built this house, of sort of the enchanted fairy stories of his youth.

But there's also a second definition for that where he liked to always have good spirits on hand as in ciders and things.

And so, that's why we usually like to think of it as Spiegel Grove, the place of good spirits.

He built this actually as a summer house for Rutherford and Lucy in 1859.

So the house was much smaller at the time, it was only about 4,000 or so square feet.

Rutherford actually acquired it around 1873 when Sardis moved out, and then Sardis died a year later in 1874.

The house was built in several different sections at different times.

So the original part of the house, which is the left-hand portion that you'll see if you're looking at the house straight on from the grounds, was built between 1859 and 1863 by Sardis Birchard.

The second part of the house, I guess we could call it, that is to the right, or to the north of the original part of the house, was added between 1880 and '81 when Rutherford and Lucy knew they were gonna be retiring here after the White House, and they wanted a larger living space.

There's a staircase at the center of the house that was actually added around '80-'81 as well.

So that room that it's now in was reconfigured to become a stair hall.

And then at the back of the house, they removed an L, and they also removed a Carpenter Gothic structure that was back there, and they put on the 1889 addition, which has a kitchen, which has a dining room, some bedrooms upstairs.

But later on after the veranda is added, and then the cupola on top of the house, which is actually a belvedere, those are Italian elements.

And then the Queen Anne, really the dining room in the back section is all Queen Anne style, that's the 1889, that was the high style at the time.

So, at the end, you could really call this a Victorian eclectic house.

Rutherford in particular loved the veranda of the house.

He used to say that he wished he had a veranda with a house attached to it.

He liked to spend so much of his time out there, he and Lucy.

It actually takes 66 laps to make a mile.

So he used to walk out there, and just pace when it was cold weather back and forth, back and forth, he liked to get his roughly six miles a day in walking.

(mellow tranquil orchestral music) Rutherford and Lucy loved Spiegel Grove, they loved working the grounds, they loved the house itself, they felt very at home here.

They really enjoyed using the library, of course, the written word is everything to the Victorians then.

So according to his cousin, Lucy Keeler, they spent many, many hours in the library together reading.

The Spiegel Grove was a very important place for them, for their family, for their children.

The children loved to spend time playing tennis on the lawns.

They all felt very much that this place was in their blood.

(tranquil mellow orchestral music) So Webb gave the grounds to the state of Ohio via two separate land deeds starting in 1909.

And so, he essentially opened this up as a public space, so the public could enjoy the grounds.

In 1912, he broke ground for what would become the museum and the library building, and that was completed in May of 1916.

This property today is about 25 acres, it was much larger at one point.

The property itself, of course, we use today to give tours for our historic Hayes home here, also tours of the museum, and then the public can access the library not only for Hayes's presidential papers, but also for local history.

They can also visit though the Hayes' tomb.

Rutherford and Lucy are buried on the knoll, sort of off here, the side of the house to the south.

And Webb and his wife, Mary Miller Hayes, are also buried behind them.

(tranquil orchestral music) What I think makes this property unique is that you have a combination of a lot of elements that are really exclusive for northwest Ohio.

So you have a setting where you can come and see a presidential home, you can access Rutherford's presidential papers, you can see the collections that belong to his family, you can walk the historic grounds where he did.

So I think it's just a nice combination of all these historic elements.

So you get the period aspect, if you're just interested in Victorian history to say.

If you're interested in early 20th century history, this will be appealing to you.

It can offer a lot of different elements to a lot of different people, and I think that's one of the great strengths of this place.

(tranquil bright orchestral music) (upbeat music)