06/04/2026
Another blast from the past from the archives of the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society museum
Here’s the next in a continuing series of posts from the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society museum, 2083 Cook St. Hope you enjoy them!
Since this week is International Museum Week, we thought that this would be a great time to share a brief history of the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society museum.
Several years after the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society was founded, we opened a small museum in a former classroom at the Quirk Cultural Center (formerly Grant Elementary School) in 1986.
By 2000, we had outgrown a larger classroom space at the Quirk Cultural Center and moved across town to the former Rigoletto’s restaurant building at 2751 Hudson Drive. When the landlord for that property proposed a sizeable rent increase, the historical society began working with the City of Cuyahoga Falls to identify a new venue for the museum.
Thanks to the combined efforts of the City and the historical society, we opened our current museum, on Cuyahoga Falls’ historic East Side, in the Spring of 2007.
Like the city of Cuyahoga Falls itself, our museum building has a fascinating history. In the early 1950s, our building was a neighborhood store. According to the Akron City Directory for 1950-1951, 2083 Cook Street was home to H.J. Stutzman, who established a “mom and pop-style” grocery store on his front porch. This location was the original Stutzman’s. In later years, Stutzman’s moved to a larger building at 2054 East Bailey Road.
Later in the 1950s, our building housed Skidmore Manufacturing Co., which produced various wood products.
In yet later years, the Cook Street building had a number of other uses.
At one point, this building had two businesses under one roof – and two separate addresses. (If you stand outside and look to the right of the front doors to our building, you can see an outline of where the building number 2081 was once affixed.)
Immediately prior to the museum moving to 2083 Cook Street, the building housed a business known as Vernon Custom Draperies.
The right half of the building (the current primary display area of the museum) contained rows of sewing machines, where employees produced draperies and curtains. The left half of the building was where the business displayed its samples.
This building has seen a lot of history over the years. In 1944, a P-40 Warhawk airplane piloted by a local soldier crashed near the back of our building. (Apparently in that era, it was not uncommon for WWII pilots to fly their plane over their hometown.) The plane experienced some sort of mechanical problem while in flight, and the pilot had to eject. He parachuted to safety and landed in a tree without suffering any major injuries. The airplane fell to the ground, narrowly missing a nearby house.
The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society museum is open Mondays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon (except for holidays) and by special appointment. Admission is free but the memories are priceless.
People have a variety of reasons for visiting the museum. Some just love local history or are researching their family genealogy. Others are writers or historians, looking for information for their books or research projects. Some are parents, seeking to encourage their children to learn more about local history. (Most young children are fascinated to see their parents’ photographs in old Falls High yearbooks – especially the clothing and hairstyles of that era.)
Others visit the museum as part of school or scouting field trips or class reunions.
With more than 10,000 artifacts in our archives, the museum has something of interest for everyone. We hope to see you there too!
