Spiegel is the German and Dutch word for
mirror. The traditional story is that the estate was named by Hayes' uncle
Sardis Birchard, who first built it for his own residence. He named it for the reflective pools of water that collected on the property after a rain shower. Rutherford Hayes inherited the estate and moved there in 1873. He died in 1893 and was buried in
Oakwood Cemetery next to his wife who had died in 1889. Following the gift of this home to the state of Ohio for the Spiegel Grove State Park, their bodies were reinterred at Spiegel Grove in 1915. They are buried at a memorial on the property. The
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, established in 1916, is also located here. "
Old Whitey", a war horse that served during the
Civil War and belonged to then-Major (later Major General) Hayes, became the mascot of the
23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The horse was buried at Spiegel Grove upon his death in 1879, with a grave marker reading
Old Whitey A Hero of Nineteen Battles 1861–1865. Spiegel Grove was designated as a
National Historic Landmark on January 29, 1964. On October 15, 1966, it was added to the
National Register of Historic Places. It is owned by the
Ohio History Connection. ==Design==