Remarkable Ohio

Results for: historical-home
3314 Myers Road
Medina

, OH

Built with the funds and labor of residents of Weymouth, this structure was home to the Weymouth School from 1925 to 1956. It was designed in the Colonial Revival style by Cleveland architect Paul T. Cahill (1888-1954). Two classrooms accommodated students from grades one through eight and an auditorium served both the children and the community. In 1953, a school for disabled children was established in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina by their friends and families. It moved into the vacant Weymouth School building in 1956. In 1960, Medina County citizens passed a levy to operate it as the first county-supported school for disabled students in the state. Later known as the Achievement Center, it continued at this site until 1992.

11118 Mantua Center Road
Mantua

, OH

Oliver and Rosetta Snow, who built this home in 1815, immigrated to Mantua from Becket, Massachusetts, in 1805 with two daughters and raised five more children here. Oliver prospered as a farmer, served Portage County in a variety of civic capacities, and converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after meeting the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, in the early 1830s. In 1838, the Snows left Ohio and eventually settled in Illinois. Two of their children later moved to Utah and became prominent leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lorenzo, who was born on this property in 1814, became the fifth president of the Church, serving from 1898-1901. Eliza Roxcy Snow, an acclaimed Portage County poet, became second general president of the Relief Society, a Latter-day Saint women’s organization.

17851 OH 247
Seaman

, OH

Founded 1887 by John Q. Roads on the Cincinnati & Eastern Railway (1881) and the Old West Union Road (1807). Incorporated 1911. Named after Franklin Seaman who donated land to the railroad for a station. Home of Will Rogers, “The Black King of the Air,” the only black hot air balloonist in the U.S. in the 1890’s. “Adopted hometown” of Daniel Homer Webster (1878-1943), poet, humorist and Dayton, Ohio, journalist.

104 W Wabash Street
Liberty Center

, OH

In 1847, after completion of the Miami & Erie Canal, 66 residents were recorded in Liberty Township. Construction of Wabash Railway in 1854 encouraged trade at the half way point between Washington Station and Napoleon. Proprietors such as George W. Buchanan, Frank Prey, Alexander Cooper, and Benjamin Penncock began business around 1860. On June 4, 1863, Alphaeus Buchanan registered a plot of 12 lots, which became Liberty Center. On April 9, 1874, the Village of Liberty Center was incorporated and became a prosperous town along the Wabash Railway. (Continued on other side)

300 S. High Street (OH 37)
LaRue

, OH

The Oorang Indian football team was founded by LaRue native Walter Lingo (1890-1966), owner of the Oorang Airedale Dog Kennels. The team, comprised of Native American Indians, played in the National Football League (NFL) in 1922-23. The star player and coach was Jim Thorpe (1887-1953), a Sac and Fox Indian. Thorpe gained international fame as a two-time gold medal winner (decathlon and pentathlon) in the 1912 Olympics and was acclaimed as the “World’s Greatest Athlete.” The team gave LaRue the distinction of being the smallest community ever to have an NFL franchise.

NW corner of N Main Street and Lake Avenue
West Mansfield

, OH

Descendants of slaves, who may have reached Ohio through the Underground Railroad, and other African Americans, formed the community of Flatwoods in the southwest part of Bokescreek Township. This one-room schoolhouse was built circa 1868 for African American children of Flatwoods and remained open until 1923. Remnants of past lessons remain inscribed on the chalkboard. The schoolhouse was threatened with demolition in 1999 and later moved to Veteran’s Park. The Logan County Historical Society owns and maintains the site as a living history museum.

6471 Camden College Corner Road
College Corner

, OH

The Hopewell Associate Reformed Church and Cemetery, now known as Historic Hopewell, was founded in 1808 in a log building that was replaced in 1826 with the present building. It was built by the area’s first settlers, mainly Scotch-Irish who left Kentucky and South Carolina because of their opposition to slavery. The church encouraged worship by African Americans and played an important role in the Underground Railroad. It became the parent church for four “Daughter” Presbyterian congregations: Fairhaven in 1835, Oxford in 1837, College Corner in 1849, and Morning Sun in 1876. Reverend Alexander Porter, the first pastor, was committed to education and constructed a school near the Hopewell Spring that still produces clear water. “Old Hopewell” was completely refurbished in 1880, but by 1915 the membership declined and regular services discontinued. Today Hopewell holds Sunday services in the summer and is maintained by a generous and devoted group of volunteers.

2663 Prairie Street
New Haven

, OH

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.