When this former private mansion was completed in 1914, it was valued at $100,000. Today, it has become, to the people of Troy, a treasure far beyond its equivalent dollar value. Socialite Mary Jane Hayner hosted many lavish parties here, in “the house that whiskey built” as some called it. Actually, there were two fortunes which made the mansion possible; earlier, that of her father, Samuel Harter, and later from her husband, William Hayner. Harter held controlling interest in a profitable patent-medicine company and was also a heavy investor in real estate. Hayner was the head of the local Hayner Whiskey Distilling Company, which became the largest mail-order whiskey business in the country.

  The biography, Mary Jane Hayner, the Woman, the Fortunes, the Legacy by Joanne Duke Gamblee, chronicles the non-traditional life style of Mary Jane Harter Coleman Hayner, detailing her scandalous divorce and the cultural influences that closed the doors of both businesses.

  With a cover of finely woven plum-colored silk fabric topped with gold stamping, a narrow orchid satin ribbon bookmark, and superior quality paper throughout, the presentation of the book is as elegant as the mansion it represents.

  Available at the Hayner Center, 937/339-0457, Around About Books, 937/339-1707, and
The History and Genealogy Library, 937/335-4082. $30.00, plus tax.