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Designed by J. W. Yost, a renowned Ohio architect, the jail first opened for use in 1889. The Richardsonian Romanesque structure cost $120,000 to build. It was constructed of pink sandstone known as “brownstone,” which was quarried near Millersburg, Ohio. The front three levels were built to house the families of the sheriff and the jail matron. Sheriff Andrew Crilly was the first to occupy the sheriff’s quarters when the jail opened. The rear portion of the building was used for the incarceration of male and female prisoners on separate floors. The 32 cells, each a minimum of 8′ x 8′ in size, had an official total capacity of 68 prisoners. However, well over that number were housed here at times. The jail building was last used for incarcerations in 1987. (Continued on/from other side)
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Built over a two-year period, from 1936-1937, by the Federal Works Progress Administration, the Glendale Steps survive as a monument to the work of stone craftsmen during the Great Depression. Spanning a 200-foot slope, the purpose of the Glendale Steps was to enable Akron residents to descend from South Walnut Street to a city park along Glendale Avenue. The 242 sandstone steps were dressed on site and hand laid by WPA laborers at a cost of $22,000. Depression-era budget problems prevented the City of Akron from completing planned improvements to the park.
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The Berea Union Depot, a significant hub in the railroad networks of northeast Ohio from the time of its construction in 1876 until its closing in 1958, is an unusual, but well-designed example of Victorian Gothic Architecture. With the development of an expanding stone quarry industry in the area, Berea and its railroad facilities grew rapidly and by the early 1870s developers and townspeople alike called for construction of a new passenger and freight station. When this Berea sandstone station was completed and then dedicated on May 3, 1876, the Cleveland Plain Dealer called the building “the finest facility outside the big cities.” From 1958 until 1980, the building remained closed until it began a second life, restored as a restaurant and gathering place.
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Alexander Frankfort (1842-1930), the last surviving Civil War veteran from Struthers, built this house in 1884. His wife, Louisa Jane Johns Frankfort (1851-1921), purchased the land from Thomas Struthers for $190.00. The house is of balloon frame construction and has sandstone foundation. The main beam traversing the basement was made from a large tree on the property. Married in 1874, the Frankforts had eight children, but four little ones had died by 1884. The Frankforts brought their fifth child, the infant Alma (1884-1984) to this then new house, where she and three sisters grew up. Alma lived and worked here as a seamstress for 93 years. The house was empty until 1986 when the Mohr family, Alma’s nephews, donated it to the Struthers Historical Society. The historical society renovated the house and opened as a museum in 1989.
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William E. Telling (1869-1938) was one of ten children born in a farmhouse on this property. As a boy he sold strawberries and milk door-to-door and worked in a local sandstone quarry until at age 23 he purchased a milk route. He and four brothers formed the Telling Brothers Ice Cream Company in 1895 with William as president. A merger in 1915 formed the Telling Belle Vernon Dairy Company that was the first local distributor of pasteurized, glass-bottled milk. Their unique bacteriological laboratory (later Sealtest Laboratories) developed the baby food S.M.A. His recipe for success was “just work and work and work some more; do the work of two and draw the pay of one.”
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In 1845, Baldwin Institute, one of the first schools in the area open to all students regardless of gender, race, or creed, was chartered. The wealth generated by the sandstone and grindstone industries of Berea allowed John Baldwin to found the school. Ten years later, officials rechartered the school and renamed it Baldwin University. By the 1880s, the expanding quarries began to encroach on the original campus of the university, forcing it to relocate. In 1891, ground was broken for the new campus at the corner of Front Street and Bagley Road. Recitation Hall, renamed Wheeler Hall, was the first new building, followed by the Philura Gould Baldwin Memorial Library in 1894. In 1905, through the funding of the Carnegie Foundation, the Ladies Hall, renamed Carnegie Hall, was moved stone by stone to the new campus to serve as the science building. Baldwin University merged with German-Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace College.
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Religious worship began on this site in 1820 as a Plan of the Union Sunday School with ministers recruited by the Connecticut Home Missionary Society. Its first stone church, officially known as the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, was built and dedicated on February 26, 1834, but as the congregation grew, a second stone church was constructed and finished on August 12, 1855. Built of Berea Sandstone, it stands now as the oldest building on Public Square. Ravaged by fires in 1857 and 1884, the church was rebuilt according to the original plans, and the 1884 interior restored by East Coast architect, Charles W. Schweinfurth. From 1965 to 1983, the chapel served as the worship center for the Cleveland Chinese Christian Church.
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Seven original members, who were staunch abolitionists, organized the First Congregational Church of Berea in the nearby Union School House on June 9, 1855. These members publicly articulated opposition to slavery and their desire for a church with full local autonomy. The church purchased this property and erected this sanctuary in 1869, the oldest still standing structure used as a church in Berea and the original Middleburg Township. It is constructed of locally manufactured brick with a foundation from the Berea sandstone quarries. The 100-foot spire was added in 1954 to celebrate its 100th anniversary since the founding of the church in 1855. The church joined the newly formed United Church of Christ in 1961. During its long history, the church has developed many programs to assist persons in need in the Berea area and developed collaborative ventures with other churches and civic groups.