North Ridgeville: There’s a Lot of History Here!

The city of North Ridgeville has been in existence since 1810 and there is a lot of history here!

In 1977 a group of citizens founded the North Ridgeville Historical Society to preserve and share the rich history of North Ridgeville.

Some of the group’s first members at that time included Harry and Dorothy Painter, Manhattan and Marcellen Lengel, Francis Smith and Jerry and Branka Malinar. Harry Painter was elected the first President of the group and they started out gathering items.

The Beckett Corporation allowed the group use of three rooms for a small museum and a meeting space in the Samuel Cahoon House on Center Ridge (adjacent to their factory) and this became their first home. The Museum there was maintained for about nine years and then went into storage while looking for a new, larger home.

In 1989 the City of North Ridgeville offered the group use of the first floor of the Old Town Hall to be used as a Museum and meeting space. The group eagerly unpacked the stored items, and set about the task of organizing and displaying their growing collections. Many in the community came together to help with building displays, cataloging the items and helping to set the foundation for a successful museum.

As the years went on, residents happily shared their own treasures – school memorabilia, items from early businesses, photos from a younger North Ridgeville, family military items and many other things. The collections continue to grow and visitors are delighted to see the various items from not only the history of our town, but their own past.

Currently the North Ridgeville Historical Society has two venues for sharing the past with visitors- the Old Town Hall Museum and the District #9 Schoolhouse.

The Old Town Hall Museum

The Old Town Hall, 36119 Center Ridge Rd., was built in 1882/1883 as a township hall. The first floor was designed for holding elections and general township business and the upper floor was planned for public meetings, lectures, concerts etc. and was furnished with a stage and graduated seating- much like an opera house. This building served as the Town Hall until 1975, when the city offices were moved to the current City Hall.

Today the upper floor at the Old Town Hall is occupied by the Olde Towne Hall Theatre and the local thespians put on a wide array of performances there. The Museum on the first floor houses the majority of the collections the Society manages. There is a curatorial committee that works there weekly to catalog and maintain the archives housed here. Visitors are invited to a monthly open house, held the last Sunday of each month (except December) from 2:00-5:00. There is no admission charge, although donations are accepted. On display here are a large assortment of items including toys, farm implements and tools, school memorabilia, historic clothing, kitchen items and a large military collection. The group also enjoys featuring special displays each month and does occasionally host additional open houses. In addition to the regular open house dates, interested parties can always arrange a tour at other times/days and the group enjoys being available for school and civic groups, scout groups and home school visits.

District #9 Schoolhouse

The Schoolhouse, located at 5064 Jaycox Rd. was built in 1859 and is one of the original ten one-room schoolhouses in town. It was once known as the Snow Road School, (after the former name of Jaycox Rd,) and served as the Joint Sub-District #9 school- serving a district shared with students in Avon Twp. It was used for grades 1-8 from 1859 until 1924, when the consolidated school was built and the district schools became obsolete.

In 1989 the building and its property was deeded to the Historical Society by the Sullivan family, a local farming family that had used it for farm storage for many years. Over the course of 14 years the Historical Society, with the help of many local groups and individuals were able to restore this gem back to its original look and purpose as an educational location.

Visitors are invited inside seasonally on the last Sunday – May through October, from 2:00-5:00. The last teacher and a few former students gave invaluable insights as to how the school looked and was operated both inside and out. School desks from various eras, authentic schoolbooks, a teachers desk, original blackboard and a pot-bellied stove make up the interior. To complete the authenticity a buggy step and two outhouses await exploration from visitors!

A look inside the District #9 Schoolhouse.

The North Ridgeville Historical Society continues on their mission to collect, preserve and share the history of North Ridgeville. The group meets the third Wednesday of each month at 4:30 at the North Ridgeville Library. Prospective members are always welcome to attend. Yearly membership dues are $5 for an individual or $10 for a family and all ages are welcome. More information can be found via the website: northridgevillehistoricalsociety.com or email at nrhistorical@yahoo.com, through Facebook: facebook.com/North-Ridgeville-Historical-Society, or leave a message at (440) 327-7452.

– By Kathy Bly

A Brief History of The North Ridgeville Historical Society, Inc.

(a 501c3 organization)

The North Ridgeville Historical Society was founded in 1977 by Manhatten & Marcellen Lengel, Harry & Dorothy Painter, Frances Smith, Jerry & Branka Malinar, and others. Our first president was Harry Painter.

In 1978, the Beckett Corporation on Center Ridge Road allowed the use of 3 rooms for meeting & museum space in the Samuel Cahoon House, adjacent to their factory. The Cahoon House is a circa 1845 brick Italianate-style home, built by one of the town’s pioneer families, and recently completely restored by the Beckett Corporation. The Historical Society maintained a museum in the Cahoon House from 1978 to 1987; then for the next 2 years, the museum collection was displayed temporarily – first in the Lunas Professional Building on Sugar Ridge Road, and finally placed in storage at the North Ridgeville Water Treatment Plant in Sheffield Village.

In 1989, the City of North Ridgeville generously agreed to allow the Historical Society the use of the first floor of the Old Town Hall on Center Ridge, for museum & meeting room space. Donations over the years by area residents of local historical artifacts have resulted in a very nice collection (with rotating displays) of North Ridgeville artifacts & mementos from the city’s nearly 200-year history. Museum exhibits include farming/agricultural & mechanical items, military items from the various wars, historic maps, furniture, music and entertainment exhibits, kitchen utensils, clothing & uniforms, the 1976 Bicentennial Quilt, Ridgeville High School class pictures & yearbooks, historical papers, photographs & archives, and many other artifacts, souvenirs, etc.

Civil War flag and other memorabilia

In the 1990’s, the North Ridgeville Arts Council (courtesy of Nancy Franks) provided a monthly “Art Gallery” in our meeting room, where local artists & residents displayed their creations and collections.

For a time in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the North Ridgeville Fire Department added a temporary display of Fire Department memorabilia to our collection; these items were removed in preparation for the 2004 opening of the N.R. Fire Department Museum, next door to the Old Town Hall – this new museum features the renovated 1931 “Buffalo” fire pumper truck (a project which our Historical Society has contributed to, monetarily).

About the same time that the Historical Society was offered space in the Old Town Hall (1989), the Sullivan family deeded us the 1859 one-room school on Jaycox Road, just south of Mills Road. This frame schoolhouse was in use as a school (grades 1 to 8) from 1859 to 1924. The building and property required a great deal of renovation, cleanup, and new materials. Again, generous help & donations (by various business, the City of North Ridgeville, the Lions Club, Corn Festival Committee, and many individuals), plus the hard work of several Society members, allowed us over 14 years to “restore” the school to its original appearance.

Grant money from the State Bicentennial Commission and the Lorain County Commissioners (via the Community Development Department and the Lorain County Historical Society) has enabled us to finish many projects at the museum & school, and to expand our activities and programs for children & adults. Many groups of Girl & Boy Scouts, school children, and various clubs and organizations have toured the Old Town Hall museum and Jaycox Road School; we’ve also presented our history slide show at many meetings or club programs.

Fund raisers since the 1980’s have included our Annual Swiss Steak Dinners at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, and sales of our North Ridgeville Historical Calendars and other items (1896 maps, Lorain County Sesqui books, commemorative plates & bells, T-shirts, souvenir medallions, duplicates of old high school yearbooks, etc.). A former Historical Society president, the late Miss Frances Smith, donated over $5,000 of profits from sales of her book, “The Elm Tree Talks,” toward our Jaycox Road School project.

We’ve also participated in the annual North Ridgeville Corn Festivals, First Night (New Years Eve) celebrations, and various parades & other ceremonies and events through the years. Donations of local historical items, artifacts, family or business information, souvenirs, photographs, yearbooks, etc., are always accepted for preservation and possible future display at one of our buildings. Memorabilia and bricks from demolished schools have been collected & preserved.

For North Ridgeville’s 200th Birthday (Bicentennial) in 2010, we planned a year of celebrations & events, including building a replica log cabin at South Central Park, introducing our History Trail in the park (with 200 years of important milestones), special events featuring our 1810 pioneer reenactors & speeches, Bicentennial banners displayed along city streets, Bicentennial souvenirs (booklets, T-shirts, coasters, replica 1810 U.S. flags, etc.), the large 6-panel Bicentennial mural painted by high school art students, and Bicentennial programs and videos.

To remember the 200th anniversary of our young town’s participation in the War of 1812, we joined in 2013 with the Columbia Historical Society and several other local groups, plus the Lorain County Metro Parks, in planning & building a smaller replica of the original 1812 Columbia Blockhouse where our pioneers gathered when war broke out in this region. When the replica was finished (in the Columbia Metro Park on Route 82), all of these groups and more combined to celebrate annual “Blockhouse Days” events there in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Our War of 1812 reenactors participated there, and at parades in North Ridgeville for several years after that.

Since 2016, our position of museum Curator has been replaced by a small but very active Collections Committee which meets weekly, responsible for arranging & rearranging displays in the Old Town Hall Museum, planning special open houses, looking for and accepting new donations, cataloging & inventorying artifacts, compiling scrapbooks, plus representing our group at various craft shows, Discover the Ridge, Holiday on the Ridge, etc., and selling our commemorative souvenir items there. We’ve also concentrated in recent years on the history of our town’s heroic veterans who’ve served (in various wars), especially by creating a series of detailed scrapbooks and a video about our veterans, and holding special programs & events honoring them. In 2022 we assisted the First Congregational UCC in marking their 200th birthday (Bicentennial) by providing a special cemetery tour with reenactors, across the street from the church.

Anyone with an interest in the city’s heritage is encouraged to join us at a regular Historical Society meeting at N. Ridgeville Library on Bainbridge Rd. (3rd Wednesday of each month at 4:30 p.m.) or at a Museum/Schoolhouse Open House (the LAST Sunday of each month; every month except Dec. at the Old Town Hall Museum, and May-Oct. at the Jaycox Rd. One-Room School).

(Updated 1/09 and 2/23)

– By Jeff Sigsworth, President, North Ridgeville Historical Society, Inc.

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