Enoch Mast's Ballroom (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798348568771)

The story of Enoch Mast's ballroom was first told to a stonemason by his boss. Against a background of Antebellum Period plantations, and the mansions of the Gilded Age. In a most unusual manner, his boss spoke of the renovations made to the Lasbrith mansion by the well-known craftsman Enoch Mast. The infamous 1840 Census recorded Enoch Mast was born on July 8, 1839. His life began in the Antebellum Period and spanned the Gilded Age. By 1914 he was the master craftsman sought by the major architects in Cleveland, Ohio. In the Spring of the same year, a contract with the Lasbrith family to renovate their ballroom on Euclid Avenue, (Millionaires Row) was signed by him. He entered the agreement against the advice of associates and friends. Advice he should have taken. The Lasbrith's lack of payment forced him to take over their renovated ballroom. In a clandestine move, he invades their estate and proclaims it as his until he is paid and encourages the Lasbrith family to call the authorities as well as the press. As he waits in his ballroom, he recalls the many moments that changed his life and admits he may have been the first to tell John Brown about Harper's Ferry, and that he was J D Rockefeller's unknown substitute during the Civil War and many more such events. There is no way to escape his recollections or the ballroom. It becomes the place where the unknown becomes known to all and where the past surrenders its secrets to unavoidable fate...