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Front Text: Norwalk West Main Street Historic District. Oldest Standing House 1826. Entered in the National Register of Historic Places 1974. Back Text: same
Address: 201 West Main Street, Norwalk
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Front Text: Located one mile north of Fitchville, the Golden Age Nursing Home caught fire and burned to the ground at 4:45 a.m., November 23, 1963, killing 63 of 84 patients. Fire departments from New London, Greenwich, North Fairfield, and Plymouth responded. Ignited by the arcing of overloaded wiring, the incident called for action to require sprinklers, automatic fire detection systems, and electrical wiring compliance to building codes in all nursing homes. The worst tragedy of its kind in the nation, the incident was overshadowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was not widely reported. Twenty-one unclaimed bodies were interred in a 60-foot grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in Norwalk. Those killed in the fire are listed on the reverse. Back Text: Mary Baldo, Frank Bandeen, Leslie Benethun, Mary Berganski, Harry Berman, Mary Boyer, William Brockman, Robert Carey, Martha Carpenter, Pauline Charneky, Lonnie Clark, William Cox, Ouida Davis, Marie Defrank, Christine Demuth, John Doran, Agnes Driscol, Minnie Dwyer, Reuben Echelbarger, Ella Ehle, Samuel Factor, Josephine Gormek, John Hanon, Marguerite Hermes, Clara Hile, Clayton Hires, Ruby Hohlfelder, Lucy Holmes, George Jenhaus, Emma Johnson, Louise Kehrers, John Kerchner, Leo Krueger, John Kuczinski, Logan Lamb, Maude Lehman, Katie Lepis, John Linder, Anna Lothi, Lena Lynn, Margaret MacDonald, Margaret McNary, Mamie Malloy, Tony Marlette, Walter Meilander, Henry Parnell, Andrew Pavulus, Maude Reid, Sam Rood, James Rook, Louis Rosenberg, Gottlieb Schulke, Charles Shramek, Luby Smoley, August Solli, Charles Steirert, Upson Todd, Angelina Traut, Metta Tretchel, Mrs. Underwood, Grace Waters, Charlotte Whelen, and John White
Address: State Route 13 S, Fitchville
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Front Text: Oldest Standing House 1826. Entered in the National Register of Historical Places 1974. Back Text: Same
Address: Near Intersection of Case Avenue and Main Street, Norwalk
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Front Text: The Wakeman Red Caps, perhaps one of the area's best semi-pro baseball teams during the 1930s and 40s, first played night baseball under lights installed at Wakeman Field on July 24, 1935. The Field, no longer extant, was bounded by Hyde, Clark, Pleasant, and Townsend (Ohio Route 303) streets. The game was played only two months after Franklin D. Roosevelt switched on lights at Crosley Field for the Cincinnati Reds. The Red Caps were part of the Wakeman Baseball Club, an organization which was founded in 1889 and was sponsored by Charles S. Clark, Sr., and others. For aspiring local baseball players, playing night baseball for the Red Caps was a great honor. Wakeman Field was annually graced with Abe Saperstein's Ethipian Clowns, an African-American traveling baseball team, and also saw appearances by Tom Manning, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Al Schacht, Jesse Owens, and other sports greats. Back Text: Same
Address: Intersection of Cooper St. and U.S. 20, Wakeman
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Front Text: The Society of the Precious Blood, established in Italy in 1815, began its American ministry here in Peru in January 1844, led by Swiss missionary Father Francis de Sales Brunner. Continuing the work begun by the Redemptorists at St. Alphonse in 1833, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, or "Sanguinists," brought spiritual support and education to German immigrants in northern Ohio. In July 1844 the Sisters of the Precious Blood, established in Switzerland in 1834, began their ministry of prayer and education here. The priests, brothers, and sisters attended to the needs of parishes across northern Ohio, and between 1844 and 1856 established nine major foundations throughout Seneca, Mercer, Putnam and Auglaize Counties in Ohio. Back Text: Same
Address: 1360 Settlement Road, Norwalk
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Front Text: A founder of the Standard Oil Company, Henry Morrison Flagler spent his formative years in Bellevue and began his business career here in 1844, building his home near this site in 1858. He first became associated with John D. Rockefeller as a fellow grain merchant. The two later formed the Standard Oil Company in 1870 with capital partially furnished by members of the local Harkness family. Standard Oil became America's largest and most powerful corporation in the late 1800s, and Flagler used his wealth to develop the state of Florida. His Florida East Coast Railroad, known as "the railroad over the sea," extended from Jacksonville to Key West, Florida. The cities of Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and St. Augustine grew with Flagler's intensive development efforts. Back Text: Same
Address: 253 Southwest Street, Bellevue
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Front Text: Built in 1846, the Tremont House was opened by Loel and Samuel B. Chandler to serve stagecoach traffic on the Maumee Pike (U.S. Route 20). Briefly a hotel, this Bellevue landmark has housed grocery and hardware stores, a pharmacy, and even a cigar factory. The third floor ballroom hosted community events and fraternal organizations such as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). The building's west side is on the western boundary of the Firelands region of the Connecticut Western Reserve. An example of Greek Revival architecture, the Tremont House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Back Text: Same
Address: 101 East Main Street, Bellevue
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Front Text: New Haven, Ohio, was the mercantile center of southwest Huron County during the first half of the 19th century. Residents described immense wagons, or “land schooners,” lined up for miles on the New Haven-Worthington Road traveling from Columbus to the Lake Erie ports. Organized in 1815, New Haven was one of the early townships formed in Huron County and the Firelands. The village was platted, with streets at right angles around a diamond-shaped town green, after the plan of New Haven, Connecticut. When, in the 1840s, New Haven rejected the railroad’s direct route through the village, the Sandusky & Newark was routed to the west and through Plymouth taking with it the shipping business. Subsequently, New Haven began a steady economic decline into a small crossroads village. Back Text: Two early citizens, Caleb Palmer and Rouse Bly, are buried in the Old New Haven Cemetery. Caleb Palmer (1775-1854), was an early Ohio surveyor in Trumbull County. He came to New Haven, bought his first land in the area around 1811, and settled here shortly thereafter. Palmer served as one of the first Huron county commissioners, a justice of the peace, and a postmaster. War of 1812 veteran Rouse Bly (1793-1866) settled near New Haven around 1825. Known for both his compassion and abolitionist opinions, Bly opened his home as an Underground Railroad station in the decades prior to the Civil War. Another early “resident” of the village was the Methodist Episcopal congregation (New Haven United Methodist), who built their New England-style house of worship on the village green between 1841-1842.
Address: 2663 Prairie Street, New Haven