Hideaway Country Inn

A well-known inventor and industrialist, Mr. S.H. Smith, established the HideAway Farms in 1938. He was delighted in the airplane, even had his own runway behind the main house on the ridge and sought ways to improve it. A few of his patents include the variable pitch airplane propeller and hollow steel blades. He developed the transistor radio for aircraft during World War II. Many of his inventions were used to help Mr. Wiley Post win the Cleveland Air Races, along with holding the air speed record for many years.

Mr. Smith served on the roster of the Specialized Personnel to President Roosevelt, as well as chairing an Industrial Commission and serving on other Presidential appointed committees. He founded Smith Incubator as well as farmed 410 acres of land and had over 200 heads of cattle. He was a great innovator of farm technology in his era. There are pictures in the library of the farm when Mr. Smith owned the farm on the hill. The pictures of the elevator were one of the first storage buildings that were a designed prototype of today’s grain systems.

The second owner of the HideAway was Dr. Dan Arnold. He used what is now the library as his office and saw many patients here. He was known to make frequent house calls. Still retaining the name of HideAway Farms, Dr. Arnold made the farm famous for its well-bred dairy cattle in the United States and Europe.

Mr. Velmer Carpenter became the HideAway’s third owner in the 1960’s. After selling 80 acres of land in Columbus, which is now the home of the Anheuser-Busch plant and the 270/71 interchange, he purchased the HideAway Farm and lived here for 13 years before he retired to Florida.

In 1973, HideAway Farms was split into two properties. Fred and Jane Fischer purchased the house now known as the HideAway Country Inn. The farmhouse on the hill used to be part of the HideAway property. The farmland was sold to a local farm family that still farms the land today. The farmhouse on the hill had been used to house Bucyrus Township school teachers. The barn on the hill was the first on the farm, grain storage site.

In 1990 Steve and Debbie Miller purchased the HideAway with the dream of turning it into a place where couples, families, business travelers, ministers, and missionaries could come to relax, renew and reflect.

The house had some unique features to build upon. There are 4,000 board feet each of solid oak and cherry flooring and paneling. In the library you will find hidden doors on each of the fireplace. In the basement is an old bomb shelter with 24 inches of concrete on the ceiling and walls. The original house had three wood burning fireplaces, two screened porches, a laundry shoot and four original bathrooms. The other building on the property was converted from the original farm shop to a party barn complete with two public restrooms. The décor was very rustic with antiques from the family scattered all over the walls of the building. The antiques were rescued from many haymows on the family farms.