It had indoor plumbing which included a copper tank cistern on the second floor which pressurized water throughout the house.

Prospect Place also featured a unique refrigeration system to cool milk, cheese, butter, etc.

His father was a plantation owner who gave up his land and home to move away from the slaveholding South.

[2] Together with several other prominent citizens, Adams formed a stock company to build a suspension bridge across the Muskingum River near Dresden.

When the other members of the company became fearful that the plan was not feasible and that they would lose their money, Adams built the bridge at his own expense; his nephew, George Copeland, was the engineer.

His land holdings totaled 14,500 acres (59 km2) with the Prospect Place Mansion in the center of his plantation.

[2] The Underground Railroad operation conducted by G. W. Adams and his brother, Edward, was a huge undertaking.

When men from the Adams company would take flour to New Orleans, Louisiana, they would return with refugees (runaway slaves) beneath the decks of their boats.

[3] The mansion passed through the Adams-Cox family to George Cox, a grandson of G. W. Adams, who owned the property until the 1960s.

Upon choosing instead to construct the new headquarters of the company in Newark, Ohio, he placed the mansion restoration project on hold.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, financing fell through and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, G. W. Adams Education Center, Inc., was established.

The building is allegedly haunted and was featured in an episode of Ghost Hunters on the SyFy Channel in April 2008.