Historic Homes of Medina

The John Smart House, home to the Medina County Historical Society

The Medina Library has some wonderful resources for researching your home's history, particularly if it is an older home in the downtown Medina area.





First, there is the Historical Home Research brochure, that is available on the library's web site and HERE and I blogged about it HERE.

Then there is Bob Hyde's wonderful web site that was in The Medina Gazette last week - READ THE ARTICLE  HERE.   I blogged about that HERE. (Bob has changed the name of the site since I posted about it.)

But you know that not everything is available online, right? Right?

In 1979,  MCRPC registered a number of area homes on the Ohio Historic Inventory. It is a one volume binder with indexing by address and the home's name. Houses had to NOT had significant rennovations to qualify and the information is limited.

 A sample sheet from the Ohio Historic Inventory:

AND...

For the last 30+ years, the Medina Library has collected newspaper articles on local history topics. One of those topics is historic homes in Medina County, with much of the focus being Medina City. These articles are now compiled in two volume (soon to be four) binders in the Franklin Sylvester Room.

The articles are indexed by address and the name of the house. 85 different homes are covered including:

• Burnham House which currently houses The Corkscrew Saloon
• The Farmer's Exchange which is currently closed. Developers are looking at options.
• The Gingerbread House in Weymouth
• Hershey's Barbershop off the Square in Medina
• The King-Phillips-Deibel House on North Broadway in Medina. This house was moved from its location on the southeast corner of the Square to North Broadway so the Franklin Sylvester Library could be built.
• Lustron Homes - post WWII pre-fab houses built aroun 1948.
• McDowell-Phillips House at the end of Washington Street in Medina
• Octagon House
• Quonset Hut
• John Smart House
• Victorian Village
• York School

The "Blue" Phillips house was one of the homes that were
part of Victorian Village on East Washington. The homes are
all gone now, removed for the Medina Library Expansion
The Phillips house was dismantled and moved across
 country to the San Francisco are and rebuilt.

The Gingerbread House in Weymouth.
It is often the focus of historic home tours
 in Weymmouth

The King-Deibel-Phillips House on North Broadway. It was
moved from the corner of East Washington and South Broadway
for the construction of the original 1907 Library building.

McDowell-Phillips house at the end of Washington Street
in Medina. 

Information is as simple as a single article about an Historic Home Tour or many articles covering multiple decades. 

Is your historic home included?


Maybe. Maybe not. Visit the Franklin Sylvester Room at the Medina Library and browse through the binders








But the library will welcome copies of any information you have gathered to be added to our files!

Flyer from Akron Summit County Public Library

Akron Summit County Library is offering a wonderful program "Church and State: Genealogy Research in Religious and Government Records" on April lst. If you have never attended one of Akron's all-day program, I can highly recommend them. I would go to this one, but I have a conflicting engagement. I.E. - I have to work that day! Sign up information is HERE.