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Just after 5:00 P.M on June 28, 1924, a tornado swept off Lake Erie directly into downtown Lorain. Within five minutes, seventy-eight people lost their lives. Fifteen died in the old State Theatre that stood upon this site, as an audience of two hundred watched a Saturday afternoon musical performance. More than one thousand suffered injuries. The tornado did extensive damage to the business district, destroyed 500 homes, and damaged a thousand more. The city’s largest industry, the American Shipbuilding yards, was severely damaged. The tornado, which had hit Sandusky before striking Lorain, continued along the shoreline and struck Sheffield and Avon minutes later. Contemporary accounts listed eighty-two deaths resulting from the deadliest tornado in Ohio’s history.
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Olive Furnace in Lawrence County was one of 83 blast furnaces in the Hanging Rock iron-making region of southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. John Campbell (1808-1891), the “Father of Ironton,” and others established the furnace in 1846. The base of the furnace is carved out of rock and supported by Roman style arches. Only one of these arches remains some 170 years later. The furnace became a stop on the Underground Railroad. Conductors ushered escaping slaves through the area to points further north. The Olive Furnace was the last charcoal furnace to operate in Lawrence County. After seven decades of service, the furnace was sold and dismantled for scrap in 1915. Olive Furnace was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
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This 6.5 acre island, named for the resemblance of its dolomite ledges to the Rock of Gibraltar, was the likely observation site for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s naval forces during the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. Stone Laboratory, located on both Gibraltar and South Bass islands, is the oldest freshwater biological field station and research laboratory in the United States. Founded in 1895 as the Lake Laboratory, it was named for Franz Stone, whose son Julius purchased the island from the Jay Cooke family and presented it to Ohio State University in 1925. It continues as the research and teaching laboratory for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. The Jay Cooke Castle on the island is a National Historic Landmark.
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On September 17, 1920, representatives from ten professional football teams met in Canton and formed the American Professional Football Association, which in 1922 became the National Football League (NFL). Pro football evolved from club football in the 1890s, and by the early 1900s had begun to spread across the country, concentrating in the Midwest. Jim Thorpe, the first nationally prominent pro, started with the Canton Bulldogs-an early pro football power-in 1915. In 1959, Canton citizens launched a well-organized and ultimately successful effort to have their city, “the cradle of professional football,” designated as the site of a monument to the sport’s historic stars. The Professional Football Hall of Fame opened on September 7, 1963, inducting seventeen charter members. The Hall of Fame interprets and promotes the study of the role of professional football in American culture.
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The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Railway began construction of the Dennison Railroad Shops here in 1864. This rail line was chartered as the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad in 1849, opened in 1855, and integrated into the Pennsylvania Railroad system in 1870. The yard and shops, situated exactly halfway between Pittsburgh and Columbus, were known as the “Altoona of the Pan Handle” and boasted foundries, machine shops, and two roundhouses. The Dennison Shops experienced their busiest period between 1900 and 1921, with over 3,000 workers employed in the complex. A bitter 1922 strike prompted consolidation, and the facility was gradually phased out. The last passenger train stopped in 1970. Ohio Central Railroad Systems revived the line in 1992 as the Columbus and Ohio River Railroad.
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The Society of Separatists of Zoar built the Zoar Town Hall in 1887 when the village was formally incorporated. Established in 1817 by German religious dissidents, Zoar became one of the most successful experiments in communal living during the 19th century. Early hardships encouraged the Zoarites, in 1819, to establish a communal system to ensure economic and social security. The Society disbanded in 1898. The Zoar Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
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Jabez Lyman Burrell (1806-1900), originally from Massachusetts, built this house in 1852. Burrell made his living as a cattleman and farmer, but devoted much of his time serving the cause of abolitionism, helping slaves, who had escaped the South, get to Sheffield and from there to Lorain and across Lake Erie to Canada. He was also devoted to equal education for all, providing funding to a freedmen’s school in Selma, Alabama, and serving as a trustee of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, well known for educating African Americans and women. From 1884 to 1934, this was the home of Henry Churchill King (1858-1934), who was the president of Oberlin College from 1902-1927. The Kings added the porches and rear wing and made their home a social center for the college and community. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Oberlin Historic Landmark.
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Site of the first fortified settlement in Anderson Township and one of the first in the Virginia Military District. John Garard and Joseph Martin were the founders of this Station, who, with Elias Garard, Joseph Frazee, and others, came by two flatboats with families and livestock from Garards Fort, Pennsylvania, via the Ohio and Little Miami rivers. They landed here on December 23, 1790, and proceeded to erect the fortification.(Continued on other side)
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