Medina Public Square, Bounded by Liberty, Court, Washington and Broadway Streets, Medina

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Bounded by Liberty, Court, Washington and Broadway Streets - Medina, Medina County, Ohio. Medina Public Square Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in - The district consists of 145 acres and fifteen buildings. At the center of the district is a two-acre park donated by city s founder, Elijah Boardman, in (Center of Medina Public Square, Google Earth,

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OH-12. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Medina Public Square has had two distinctly different phases as a town park. The first one was that of a Village Green. This life began in and continued through the Civil War. This relatively short life was clearly a reflection of the needs of Medina s early pioneers. It first, and foremost, established the importance of the county courthouse in the everyday life of the region s citizens. It provided a common area for community celebrations, most notably those that commemorated the birth of a new nation. It served a utilitarian purpose for farmers who had to graze or temporarily herd their animals on the Square. And it provided a place for local military regiments to train for war.

All of these functions were consistent with the needs of an agriculturally-based, pioneer society in the first half of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, America transitioned into an industrially-based society. This new society brought increased wealth to the nation allowing it to develop more substantial and creative buildings and products. In Medina, this transition was cleanly made as the result of fires that literally wiped away the old agriculturally based buildings by the The second life of Medina Public Square is that of a Victorian Park, including the buildings and streets around it that rose from the ashes.

As trees were planted, fountains built, a gazebo constructed, lights installed, and stone walks laid, the Square became a park that was a reflection of the Victorian society and people in it who were becoming wealthier, more educated, more sophisticated, and more diverse in their interests.

It is also this character that resulted in the Square s nomination as an historic district on the National Register in the Most importantly, Medina Public Square has remained the central focal point of the City of Medina as well as the County of Medina since both were founded in This is just as Elijah Boardman had hoped it would happen when he developed a rectilinear town plan that was 237 acres in area in At the center of the town would be a public square 300 square (approximately two MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 2 acres) in size that Mr. Boardman would donate for public use. To the west of the square, Elijah would donate four additional lots to the county that could be used for county buildings, including a courthouse and jail that would face towards the square.

The purpose of this plan was to attract the newly formed county seat to a town that Boardman called Mecca, but would eventually become known as Medina. Elijah Boardman was able to sell his plan to the commissioners of Portage County which, at the time, encompassed the land area that would become Medina County. Mecca was declared the county seat for the newly formed Medina County in and sales of lots began immediately.

The Public Square was cleared of virgin woods by the first jail built on one of the donated lots by and the first real county courthouse started on another one of the donated lots by Description: Having survived an attempt to obliterate Medina Public Square as part of the urban renewal effort, the Square and the buildings surrounding it have been lovingly and carefully restored to their Victorian-era status. During this period, support grew among local merchants and citizens to revitalize the Square. The fire station and old town hall were first restored in followed by the Old Phoenix Bank building and the second Courthouse building. A third Courthouse built in was somewhat sympathetic to the Victorian styles around the Square.

In more recent years, unattractive building additions have been removed and/or altered to become more reminiscent of the Victorian era. In it was decided to replace an old fountain at the center of the square with a gazebo. In keeping with the Victorian architecture around the Square, the gazebo built in Bellville, Ohio in was reproduced on the Square in The bandstand followed in the More recent improvements have included the addition of bluestone pavement around the gazebo, electrical upgrades, site furnishings, and landscape improvements. With the recent improvements, the Square has once again become the major, community focal point. A full slate of special events throughout the year now brings crowds to the Square.

These include the Ice Festival, the Grand Prix, a Candlelight Walk, Art in the Park, Farmer s Market, and Friday Night Band Concerts. Since the eight-block area around the Square has been maintained as an historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. History: The history of Medina Public Square begins in New Milford, Connecticut where Elijah Boardman was born in His grandfather, the Rev. Daniel Boardman had been called as the first minister to the area that would soon become New Milford. In order to obtain him as a minister, the inhabitants of the region MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 3 petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly for township rights and the privilege to levy a tax to pay for a minister s wages in Rev.

Boardman accepted the call in and with his acceptance both the First Congregational Church and the town of New Milford were founded. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, many colonial New England villages generally consisted of a small group of buildings. At the center of the village would be a common or green usually consisting of an open meadow area with a meetinghouse either located on or adjacent to it. The commons were not of any particular size, shape, or configuration. In some instances, such as in Guilford or Saybrook, the meetinghouse fronted the green. In other places, such as Fairfield, the meetinghouse stood at the junction of streets that crossed the green.

The green could be used for herding animals, serving as an impromptu farmer s market, or serving as a parade ground for the drilling of a militia. Important events such as proclamations or speeches would also occur on the common. In some instances, cemeteries or gallows were placed on the green. But the primary purpose of the village green was to create a stage upon which the meetinghouse could be established as the focal point of everyday life within the community. In a written history of the First Congregational Church of New Milford, the following is stated: The beginnings of the town of New Milford and the church are so intermingled that they are inseparable. What occurred to the church occurred to the town.

Town meetings were held in the church and all matters of government and discussion were held within its walls.1 The meetinghouses were simple, unadorned, white in color, cold, and sturdy. Not only were they used for worship all day on Sunday but they were also used on Mondays for a town meeting and often as a place to store shot and gunpowder for defending the town against hostile natives. The First Congregational Church of nearby Litchfield underscores the importance of the meetinghouse by stating Everything that related to our town occurred in that all-purpose place of assembly 2 Not surprisingly, the leaders of these churches were also the leaders of the town or village.

While freedom of religious expression was coveted in New England at this time, the separation of church and state was not. Therefore, Rev. Daniel Boardman became an influential and wealthy leader of New Milford until his 1 From History of The First Congregational Church New Milford, Connecticut at 2 From First Congregational Church of Litchfield Our History at MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 4 death in Elijah Boardman never knew his grandfather because he died 16 years before he was born. The second minister, Rev. Nathaniel Taylor would have been Elijah s minister for the first thirty years of his life. In this role, the Rev. Taylor would have instructed Elijah in second languages and other academic studies.

The type of worship service Elijah could expect to attend at the New Milford meetinghouse, led by Rev. Taylor, can be described as follows: the sermons were often hours long, and the services could last a full day with no heat except that provided by individual foot stoves While services seemed harsh by today s standards, the motivating factor may well have been the spiritual implications involved in non-attendance: rather a live, tired believer than a sleep-in, dead, witch. 3 Elijah s father, Sherman, was a successful businessman and a Deacon in the church. Because of his family s prosperity, the son was able to pursue a classical education under private tutors, in addition to the minister s teaching. Rev.

Taylor s patriotic sermons encouraged his congregation to support the rebellion against England and, not surprisingly, Elijah served as an American Soldier in the Revolutionary War at the young age of 16. After the war, he successfully pursued his family s mercantile interests. In Elijah purchased investment property in New Connecticut or Connecticut s Western Reserve as a shareholder in the Connecticut Land Company. The Western Reserve was an unsettled portion of land in the Northwest Territory, what is now known as Northeast Ohio, and included Medina and Boardman Townships.

In he built a store next to his home in New Milford, presumably to sell goods and outfit settlers heading out west to the New Connecticut.4 In Elijah personally traveled to Youngstown to help survey his nearby Boardman Township property. The township was surveyed in a rectilinear fashion. Adopting the grid as the standard for platting in the Western Reserve had firmly been established by the passage of the Land Ordinance of by the United States Congress. This ordinance, championed by Thomas Jefferson, established a hierarchy for subdividing new lands in the Northwest Territory (including the Western Reserve) into rectilinear areas and sub areas. It is under this ordinance that the Connecticut Land Company completed their surveys of the Western Reserve.

3 Ibid (New Milford) 4 New Milford Historical Society section on the Boardman Store at MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 5 Intermittently from Elijah served as a Connecticut State Representative or State Senator. It is also during this time period that he had Medina Township and the Village of Mecca surveyed. In he was elected as a United States Senator from Connecticut. On August 18, Elijah died while visiting Boardman, Ohio.5 He was interred at the Center Cemetery in New Milford several weeks later. Two years after his death, the Village of Mecca was renamed as the Village of Medina. Elijah Boardman lived in two different worlds. The strict, puritanical society introduced to the New England colonies in remained virtually unchanged for nearly two hundred years.

Elijah grew up in a culture where religion and politics were synonymous. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution was not adopted until Prior to that, State and Religion, particularly in puritanical New England, were virtually one-in-the-same. Because of his family s background, Elijah enjoyed the benefits of this culture. His family prospered and was well respected within their church and town. After the American Revolution, and particularly with the adoption of the United States Constitution and its related Bill of Rights, Elijah entered a second world. This world shifted power towards the government and away from the church. State and federal governments (including the judicial branch) enjoyed powers through new laws never before known in America.

This shift was not lost upon Elijah. He quickly became a statesman in and shepherded his sons into law schools so that they could also gain standing and prosperity in this new world. It is interesting to contrast Elijah s land holdings in Boardman to that of his Medina property in the Nineteenth Century. When Elijah was surveying Boardman Township near Youngstown in there were no settlers in the wilderness 80 miles to the west that would later become Medina County. It would be at least 10 more years before there were any settlers in this area. By when Medina Township was just being surveyed for the first time (and still likely had no residents), there were already 850 settlers living in Boardman Township.6 Elijah Boardman only lived long enough to see the beginning of Medina.

It is unfortunate that he died without ever seeing how it would develop. Having made many trips to New Haven, Connecticut for his duties as a representative, and as a father of sons that attended Yale; Elijah was well acquainted with its rectangular village green. Furthermore, he was familiar with the importance of establishing an architectural icon such as a state house, a courthouse, town hall, or meetinghouse on the green. Finally, he knew how the presence of a government building in a town could encourage the town to grow, just as he had 5 Biographical Directory of the United State Senate at 6 History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties (Volume II), Williams and Brothers, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 6 seen in Hartford and New Haven.

One can only speculate if Elijah envisioned Medina becoming a mini-New Haven. During Medina s (then called Mecca) first Fourth of July celebration in the streets surrounding the Medina Public Square were named Liberty, Washington, Court, and Broadway by a rough and tumble settler from New York named Austin Badger. Presumably he had been a captain during the War of but was now a surveyor and contractor. It was Badger who laid out the Square, cleared the Square, built the first jail, and built the log house that was used as a courthouse until the first real one was constructed.7 The first real courthouse in Medina was built on the western side of Public Square on one of the lots donated for such purpose by Elijah Boardman.

Benjamin Lindsley originally started this project in The building was a brick, Federal-Style courthouse with a cupola. The bricks for the building were reportedly made on Public Square. For unknown reasons, Lindsley was dismissed and it took until to complete this project. This building still stands today as a pizzeria. It is interesting to note that in its early years the single largest difference between Medina s Public Square and a New England village green was that the courthouse had replaced the meetinghouse as the major architectural feature on the green. If Medina had been settled prior to the American Revolution, like New Milford, it is more likely that a meetinghouse or church would have been the central architectural feature overlooking Public Square, not a county courthouse.

The second biggest difference between Medina s early Public Square and a New England village green was that the Square had a strong, grid-inspired geometry, whereas most New England greens were irregular in shape. Lithographs and photographs of Medina Square through the show it as an open, square green space with no paved paths. Until the few trees can be found in the Square. Not surprisingly, farm animal grazing was permitted on the Square until the The Square was used as a parade ground for local militia during the with little more than a flagpole present. An photograph shows a dilapidated bandstand or speaker s platform on the Square in front of the Courthouse.

Another photo dated from the shows a more traditional gazebo at the center of the Square with the community band riding around the Square on the bandwagon . A white board fence was placed around the Square in and remained until at least the The purpose of this fence, much like the early fenced greens in New England, was to temporarily hold herded farm animals. 7 History of Medina County by the Medina Historical Society, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 7 It was not until after three major fires between and that the character of Public Square began to dramatically change. The importance of these fires in developing Public Square cannot be underestimated. The devastating fire of destroyed nearly every building on the western and southern sides of Public Square.

In total, over 40 buildings burned to the ground. Amazingly, the first courthouse survived all three of these fires. The main reason it survived was because it was built from brick and not wood. By the first courthouse was already too small to accommodate the needs of a growing county. Weed was contracted to build a second brick courthouse on the eastern side of Public Square. This building was expanded in in the Second Empire-Style and remains as Medina s architectural icon on the Square to this day. Other burnt buildings were replaced with new ones, built of brick, that represented the best American architectural styles of the Victorian era at the end of the Nineteenth Century.

New commercial buildings in the High Victorian Italianate, Eastlake, and Second Empire architectural styles encircled the Square creating the Victorian appearance of the district that remains predominant to this day. In the streets along the western and southern sides of the Square were paved in brick. The following year, the other two sides were paved in brick. As a result, the streets fronting Public Square were the first ones paved in the city. An Sanborn Map of Medina shows the now familiar octagonal form of radiating walks evident on Public Square. However, an photograph shows a random, crisscross pattern of footpaths across the lawn of the Square from heavy pedestrian use.

Obviously, it was planned to lay new walks in the Square by however, the decision to add walks was apparently resisted by some in the community. At the time, one woman was quoted as saying that she was opposed to adding paved walks on the Square because it would eliminate the tradition of building bonfires on it. Eventually the dispute was resolved and flagstone walks were added to Public Square in The photograph also shows that the fence had been removed, a cast iron fountain placed at its center and mature trees were now growing around the Square. Public Square was well on its way to being developed as a Victorian Park, typical of the era.

It appears that little changed on the Square after until With the exception of the current band stand and the gazebo, the Square during this period appears much as it does today. A photograph clearly shows the flagstone walks, the Lathrop Cooley Memorial Fountain, the original World War I artillery MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 8 gun, and mature trees on the Square. A photograph shows the second fountain made of piled stone at the center of the Square and cracks beginning to appear in the flagstone walk. It is believed that the Snyder family replaced the stone fountain with a brick one donated in By the the Square and the buildings around it had started to decline in appearance.

Competition from developing suburban shopping centers threatened the livelihood of stores around the Square. The Old Phoenix Bank needed to expand and its board considered leaving the southwest corner of the Square that it had inhabited since The Medina County Courthouse was slated for demolition because it had become obsolete. During the support grew among local merchants and citizens to revitalize the Square. As a result, the revitalization effort outlined above in the Description section occurred and continues to this day. Today, Medina Public Square is the heart of the Medina community at both the city and the county level.

Its Victorian-era style is a far cry from the Village Green that Elijah Boardman would have been familiar with, but nonetheless, an enduring tribute to the person who had the foresight to understand the importance of providing a public open space as the focal point of a new community.

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OH-12. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Volume 48 , page of Ohio History The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society Volume 101 of Ohio History The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society City of Medina Sanborn Maps, and Volume page 111 of Ohio History The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society Walter Havighurst, Wilderness For Sale: The Story of the First Western Land Rush (New York, Volume 38, pg. of Ohio History The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society Volume 51 of Ohio History The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society History of The First Congregational Church New Milford, Connecticut at First Congregational Church of Litchfield Our History at MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO.

OH-12 PAGE 9 New Milford Historical Society Biographical Directory of the United State Senate History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties (Volume II) Williams and Brothers, History of Medina County by the Medina Historical Society, Many of the historical photos of Medina Square can be viewed at Much of the material in this report comes from a master plan report completed by the author/historian for the Uptown Park Advisory Committee while employed by Behnke Landscape Architecture,

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OH-12. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

P. Jeffrey Knopp, ASLA July 17, Entry HALS Challenge: Documenting City or Town Parks MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 10 Current Plan of Medina Public Square (Jeff Knopp, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 11 Medina Public Square hosts numerous special events including Friday Night Concerts with the Medina Community Band. This band has existed since (Jeff Knopp, The original Federal style County Court House started construction in and was used until It has survived three major fires and still exists to this day on the northwest corner of Medina Public Square (Jeff Knopp, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 12 The second Court House started construction in and was expanded in in the Second Empire-Style and remains as Medina s architectural icon on the Square to this day.

Note the First Congregational Church in the background sits catty-corner to the Square but not directly on it like the Court House (Jeff Knopp, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 13 Today Medina Square is a passive town square when special events are not scheduled (Jeff Knopp, For over 100 years the general layout of Medina Public Square has consisted of eight pathways radiating outward from a gazebo in the center of the park (Jeff Knopp, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO. OH-12 PAGE 14 The gazebo built in is a replica of a Victorian one built in Bellville, Ohio in (Jeff Knopp, Beginning with the buildings along Washington Street in most of them around the Square have been restored to Victorian-era splendor (Jeff Knopp, MEDINA PUBLIC SQUARE HALS NO.

OH-12 PAGE 15 Close up view of Town Hall and Engine Company first restored in (Jeff Knopp, Plaque in Medina Public Square memorializing Elijah Boardman s donation of land for the park (Jeff Knopp,