The Hanby House: Inside Westerville's Underground Railroad Home and the Christmas Song It Inspired

A look at the Hanby House on West Main Street, the Westerville family who sheltered freedom seekers and wrote the songs “Darling Nelly Gray” and “Up on the Housetop.”

Most people driving down West Main Street in Uptown Westerville pass a small, tidy house without giving it a second look. It sits quietly among the shops and restaurants, easy to miss unless you know what happened inside it. But this modest home, built in 1846, was once a stop on the Underground Railroad and the birthplace of one of the most enduring anti-slavery songs of the Civil War era — written by a young man who would later give America one of its favorite Christmas carols.

This is the story of the Hanby House, and of a family whose short time in Westerville left a mark on the community that's still visible today.

A Bishop, an Abolitionist, and a House on Main Street

The house at 160 W. Main St. was home to Bishop William Hanby and his family from 1853 to 1870. William Hanby was a leader in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, rising to the position of bishop, and he was also a co-founder of Otterbein University, the liberal arts college that opened its doors in Westerville on September 1, 1847. Otterbein was unusual for its time, admitting students regardless of race or gender from its earliest years.

William Hanby was also a committed abolitionist, and he didn't keep those convictions confined to sermons. His home became a stop on the Underground Railroad, and he served as a “conductor,” helping people fleeing slavery move safely toward freedom. The Hanby House has since been recognized by the National Park Service as a significant Underground Railroad site, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

A Song Written in Westerville, Inspired by a Life in Rushville

William's son, Benjamin Hanby, was born in Rushville, Ohio, on July 22, 1833. In 1849, at age 16, he moved to Westerville to enroll at Otterbein University, where he would later graduate in 1858.

Benjamin grew up around his father's Underground Railroad work, and one encounter stayed with him. Before the family moved to Westerville, a formerly enslaved man named Joseph Selby, who had escaped from Kentucky, died in the Hanbys' Rushville home. In 1856, while living in the house on West Main Street, Benjamin turned that memory into a song: “Darling Nelly Gray,” an anti-slavery ballad that became one of the most widely sung songs of its era, performed in parlors and at abolitionist gatherings across the country. It's regarded as one of the more influential popular songs to shape Northern sentiment against slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Benjamin went on to write roughly 80 songs and hymns over his short life, several of them, including “Ole Shady” and “The Song of the Contraband,” continuing the anti-slavery themes he'd first explored in “Darling Nelly Gray.”

The Christmas Carol That Almost Wasn't About Christmas

Benjamin Hanby's best-known work today didn't come out of Westerville at all, but the Westerville years shaped the composer who wrote it. By the winter of 1864, Hanby was running a singing school in New Paris, Ohio, where he composed a lighthearted sing-along originally titled “Santa Claus.” A year later, a Chicago publisher renamed and released it as “Up on the Housetop” — now one of the most recorded Christmas songs of all time, still played every December more than 160 years later.

Hanby didn't get to see his songs become the standards they are today. He died in Chicago on March 16, 1867, from tuberculosis, at just 33 years old. He's buried in Otterbein Cemetery in Westerville, not far from the house where he wrote his most consequential song.

A Family's Legacy Preserved on Main Street

Today, the Hanby House operates as a museum, owned by the Ohio History Connection and managed by the Westerville Historical Society. Visitors can walk through five rooms furnished with mid- to late-1800s antiques, including Benjamin's original flute, his desk, and period sheet music. The kitchen garden outside is maintained by the Westerville Garden Club, planted with the kinds of vegetables and herbs a mid-19th-century household would have relied on.

It's a small museum, easy to visit in under an hour, but it packs in a surprising amount of history for one address — a house that connects Westerville to the Underground Railroad, the founding of Otterbein University, and a piece of music nearly every American has hummed along to at some point without knowing where it came from.

Why This Kind of History Matters When You're Choosing Where to Live

Part of what makes Westerville a compelling place to put down roots is exactly this: a downtown you can actually walk, with real stories embedded in real buildings, not just a name on a subdivision sign. Whether you grew up here or you're relocating to Central Ohio for a new job, spending an afternoon Uptown and stopping by a house like this one is a good way to understand what makes this community tick.

At Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Platinum Realty Group, we spend as much time getting to know the neighborhoods we sell as we do the market data. Platinum Realty Group has helped buyers, sellers, and relocating families navigate Westerville and the surrounding Central Ohio communities for more than 26 years, and we're always happy to talk through what different neighborhoods have to offer beyond the listing sheet. If you're thinking about buying, selling, or relocating to this area, reach out to Platinum Realty Group — we'd love to help you find your own piece of Central Ohio history in the making.

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