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This rare sandstone house was built for Austin (c. 1788-1848) and Roxanna (Sears) Lilly (c. 1793-1868). They came to Dover Township (now Westlake) in 1832 from Ashfield, Massachusetts, an area from which many Dover settlers originated. This lot had been owned by Ozias and Hiram Smith. The Lillys erected this house in about 1844 and lived here until 1867. It is made with sandstone blocks two feet thick, finely tooled and dressed in the front and less elaborately on the sides and rear. The basement is constructed with massive rectangular stone blocks. Thick hewn timbers support the massive roof structure. A brick wing was attached to the east side in about 1850. After 1867, the lot and house had several owners, including George Weston, James Beardsley, and August Trudel. Eventually, Alice (Mrs. Dezso) Ladanyi, the great granddaughter of George Weston, deeded the house to the city of Westlake for use as a museum.
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The Ohio and Erie Canal Lock 22, constructed from 1830-1831, is the only canal lock in Groveport. Constructed by W.H. Richardson as part of his $2,937 bid to build section 52 of the canal, the sandstone lock is 117 feet long and ten feet deep and has a sixteen foot wide channel. Its purpose was to raise and lower canal boats to meet the changing terrain. The canal’s presence helped fuel commercial and population growth in Groveport in the 19th century by providing a fast and reliable form of transportation to move people, goods, and services to and from the Ohio frontier. It was also a source of recreation as residents used its waters for fishing, row boating, and ice skating. The canal basin at the western end of Lock 22 was a favorite spot for ice skating parties.
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The northward course of the west branch of Rocky River forms a boundary for this cemetery, which lies above the river valley. Old trees convey stateliness and solemnity to these seven acres, often called “Turkey Foot” because turkeys roosted in the trees. Settlers from New England are buried here and include descendants of William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth Colony. Julie Carter Northrop, granddaughter of one of Cleveland’s early settlers, Lorenzo Carter, is buried here. Veterans of six wars are honored here. The Daughters of the American Revolution recorded the cemetery’s tombstone engravings and cenotaphs in 1961. (Continued on other side)
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The Henninger Homestead was founded in an era when local quarries provided raw materials for the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal. Bavarian immigrants Philip and Sophia Henninger came to Parma Township in 1840. Although Philip was a skilled tinsmith, he soon established a quarry on his property to supply sandstone for the breakwall of Cleveland’s harbor in Lake Erie, canal locks, and other building projects. In 1849, the Henningers replaced their log home with this Greek Revival house using stone from their quarry. Blocks at its base measure 30″ thick while upper walls are 14″ thick. Abandoned in 1988, the site was saved from demolition in 2003. The house and nearby carriage barn stand as the oldest buildings in the City of Parma.
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This “little gem of a stone church,” built and dedicated in 1893, is constructed of locally quarried, rusticated Berea sandstone blocks. A Celtic cross at the top of the west wall represented the areas of Great Britain from which many original parish members immigrated to this area of Ohio. The chapel is named in honor of John Ogilvy. He was not a member of St. Thomas Church, but he did leave a bequest which the parish used to erect the chapel. It was constructed at a cost of $4,174.70.
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The cemetery has been the final resting place of area residents since the 1820s. Settlers from New York and New England migrated here in the 1810s and 1820s. First called “Greenbrier,” the area took the name Parma after the township was organized in 1826. A log building at the cemetery’s north end stood from 1826 to 1841 and served as a township school, public meeting place, and church. The cemetery’s small sandstone vault was erected in 1892. After voters established Parma Heights village in 1911, the Parma Heights Cemetery Improvement Association formed to care for the grounds. (Continued on other side)
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The Curtis-Preyer Stone House takes its name from two families associated with its early history. Richard and Clarissa Dille Curtis purchased 70 acres in the Connecticut Western Reserve from veteran Elias Lee in 1819. The Euclid Township “Turkey Knob” settlement soon thrived around Dugway Brook, springs sites, and an American Indian crossroads. The Curtis, Dille, Lee, and Stillman families, related by marriage, helped each other succeed by harnessing the creek to power their grist and saw mills and selling quarried stone and felled timber. Sometime between 1819 and 1835 Curtis built his stone house using the Berea sandstone quarried on site. The roof was created of ax-hewn “pegged” tree timbers, and the thick stone walls fashioned of uncoursed, chiseled stones. A central chimney fed seven fireplaces and a bake oven.
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Guardians of Traffic,” four double-sided figural pylons towering over 40-feet above either end of the Hope Memorial Bridge, have connected Cleveland’s east and west side since 1932. They were designed by architect Frank R. Walker and lead sculptor Henry Hering. More than 20 immigrant stonemasons — many fromthe Italian village of Oratino — carved the figures at Ohio Cut Stone Company on Random Road from sandstone quarried in nearby Berea. The Italian sculptors lived or worshipped in Cleveland’s Little Italy. Each hand-carved Guardian holds a different vehicle, meant to portray the history of ground transportation. Voted “an outstanding architectural triumph” by the American Institute of Steel Construction in 1936, the bridge and its iconic Guardians were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.