Wadsworth Area Historical Society

Wadsworth Area Historical Society The official page of the Wadsworth Area Historical Society, an organization committed to preserving the history of Wadsworth and surrounding areas.

05/13/2026

I'm looking at the calendar at my side realizing that mixed along with our busy days Wednesday has approached. So as a reminder we will be hosting our monthly meeting at the Wadsworth Public Library this Wednsday evening at 7:30.

Tom Weyand, Director of Wadsworth Square Foundation will discuss the Celestia Theater and the future of the Central School.

The program will begin at 7:30. Roger Havens will share any and all updates on the ongoing work at St. Marks.

Dates to remember this next several weeks are as follows:
May 25th is Memorial Day Parade.

June 23 is the annual Blue Tip Parade. Grab your favorite sitting spot and watch the large parade that has become an institution for parade fans all across our area.

We will be discussing the possibility of a fund raising bus tour to The Wright Patterson Museum this July. More news on that soon.

05/08/2026

Remember this Saturday is the herb and plant sale in beautiful downtown Wadsworth. I know there will a unique selection of gifts to browse through.

But don't forget to stop by the Johnson House Museum. We will be selling decorative potted plants from our mueum.

Along with that we have some antique chairs along with items that we already have in our own collections.

We have a double sided petroleum sign for your man cave. It was valued over $300. Also we have an old word processor that once was part of the News Banner. It weighs a ton.

Even though the sale goes on later, we will be selling only from 9 a.m. till noon, so make your way down early.

Also coming up Wednesday, May 13, at 7:30 will will have our monthly meeting at the library where we will be presenting Tom Weyand from the Celestia Theater. The theater has already gained a lot of attention in NE Ohio, and has been presenting numerous great concerts.

We have doing a lot of landscaping at St. Marks in preparation of putting in place the bricks and pavers along with the wonderful benches. Roger Havens will be filling everyone in on the progress.

The museum will continue to be open every Saturday 10 till noon.

05/01/2026

Hey, it's First Friday and soon it will be May 1st. Maybe by the time I finish writing this it will be May 1.

April zoomed past us so fast that I hardly finished April's news.

Well, May's First Friday theme is Hometown Hop so grab a warm jacket and a pair of Blue Suede shoes and twist your way to the Johnson House and buy a root beer float. Sorry no glass mugs, but the ice cream is good and the root beer is creamy. Much better than the local malt shop.

Hours are 5:30 till 8 p.m. They tell me the lawn and flowers have been mulched and the Johnson House looks nice and springy.

And yes, the museum is opened on Saturday morning. Stop by for a great tour.

Also on May 9th Wadsworth will once again be hosting the annual Flower and Herb sale. We at the Johnson House will be selling potted plants from our own gardens plus we will have a yard sale where we will selling donated goods along with museum duplicates. This will be from 9 a.m. till noon. The sales around town will run until a later times.

I will
list a few items we are selling later this weekend.

Like I said, it will likely be May 1st by the time I finish and now the big clock on the wall has struck midnight. More news soon to come.

04/08/2026

A quick reminder that our WAHS meeting is tonight (Wednsday) at the public library.

Tonight's speaker is from rhe Summit County Historical Society. The DAR had to cancel for an unknown reason.

If you have never looked into the history of the Ohio and Erie Canal you may find the speaker very interesting. Though the canal never came through Wadsworth the impact was great because commerce was able to move to the Ohio River bringing higher prices for the agricultural goods from our area. The nearest docks were in New Portage which soon became Barberton.

Later in the 1800s the rails soon took over and are still busy rails in the area. As often as the canals tried to hold on returning, the great floods of 1913 destroyed much of the locks, especially in Akron where they had to dynamite the locks to prevent Akron becoming a flattened out flood plane.

But enough of my two cents worth( as I was involved in Canal history when I came back to Ohio).

So come to the meeting tonight at 7:30 and learn something new on our local history.

04/03/2026

Seems like I always start the notice for First Friday with a weather twist. I try to start out with something relatable to tie the events we are hosting.

So, this month (April) I thought about changing it up to, well space rockets but I can't help myself.

How does that children's chant go? March goes out like a lamb and April showers bring the flowers. Need I say more. Well, yes I do.

This Friday, April 3rd is our monthly First Friday and for the first time in months it will be an Egg Celent day to stop by the Johnson House for some of the homemade delicous ice cream you have come to love.

Even just as eggs- sighting is the annual art show by the crafty hands of our local elementary students and if I may say, there is some awesome artwork.

The art display will be up for two weeks so if you don't get the chance tommorow night remember the Johnson House is open for tours on Saturday from 10 till noon.

We have a good lineup of events coming up April and May, including our herb and flower-yard sale coming up in May.

First Friday events are from 5:30 till 8 p m. So come out and enjoy spring- Wadsworth style-we really know how to do it.

03/13/2026

The Johnson House Museum will be closed tommorow, Saturday, due to city halls parking lot paving project. Hopefully we will reopen next Saturday from 10 till 12 noon.

03/11/2026

A quick reminder that today, Wednesday, is our monthly meeting and speaker.

This evening Brian Feron, president of the Medina County Historical Society will speak to our group about the many artifacts in their museum. Many of those are local.

So if you like digging up local artifacts then you will surely want to attend.

The meeting starts at 7:30 tonight at the Wadsworth Public Library.

Of course we will fill you in all the upcoming events, and we have many great things in our calendar as we move into spring.

03/05/2026

OUR MARCH FIRST FRIDAY THEME TIS’ SHAMROCK AND ROLL

Okay friends, as you may know I spent the last three months complaining about the weather for our Wadsworth Area Historical Society events. We even avoided the past few months opening The Johnson House First Fridays due to weather concerns.

Well, no more as I rub my lucky Blue Tip match box and toss Wadsworth Salt over my right shoulder, chanting, “There will be no more nasty cold, or snowy First Fridays.” If this silly chanting works, then viola, we will be entertaining the Leprechauns this Friday at the Johnson House with green Ice-cream courtesy of Roger Havens. Gosh be darn even if the weather isn’t the best, we will still be here.

Now it won’t be mint but ice cream, just a tad bit of the ol’ Irish green to welcome the gentle lamb of March since we left the lion behind somewhere in February. And of course, we be knowin’ it will please the little people who live abouts our historical city. As usual, there will be crafts for the children in the museum.

So, we hope to see you all from 5:30 till 8 p.m. Friday.

The Johnson House Museum is now open on Saturday mornings from 10 till noon. There may be some parking restrictions while city hall remodels their parking lot. There is parking behind the bank next to city hall.



A few Irish sayins’-----

MAY YOUR TROUBLESS BE LESS, AND YOUR BLESSINGS BE MORE.

MAY YOU BE IN HEAVEN A HALF AN HOUR BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD.

YOU WILL NEVER PLOW A FIELD BY TURNING IT OVER IN YOUR MIND. (overthinking a plan)

ERIN go BRAGH (Ireland forever)

02/11/2026

Maybe, or likely Wednesday will keep us hoping that our days of freezing half to death are over.

It's time to reset our thoughts from winter to hopes that spring will arrive soon.

Many of us look to our library to keep us with good reading books, programs and opportunities to discover more about our great community.

Hopefully many of you were able to attend the hundred year celebration of our library. There was a surprising array of sweet treats, a little jazz and a few speeches.

If you were not able to attend or want to hear more about the future of our Library then come to our monthly Wadsworth Area Historical Society meeting at said library.

The meeting, tomorrow, Wednesday Febuary11th at 7:30, when Daniel Slife will speak on the future of our wonderful library.

As a side note, the Johnson House Museum will once again open the doors after a couple of months of winter's rest. We wanted to reopen last week but the freezing weather changed our plans. So this Saturday we will once again reopen the doors for our visitors from 10 till noon. And we will take part in March's First Friday once again.

More on that soon.

02/06/2026

Well, we had plans on re-opening the Johnson House Museum tommorow (Saturday) but mother nature says no. The weather man says about 4 inches of snow, wind and falling temperatures.

We all know the weather bureau does not have a perfect record, so we have to take caution, because winter is very unforgiving and this year the season is cold, snowy and did I say cold. It's about a fifteen mile drive for me so it can be a tricky commute

So, enough complaing about the weather. I want to bring attention to what maybe a long City of Wadsworth project. Our parking lot and the east section of the municipal parking lot will be closed for construction.

Parking behind the bank and walking that short distance is the alternative. This construction may go on for a few months.

The history room at the Wadsworth Public Library is now open. Go take a look.

I have more news but I wanted to get the weather notice out there.

I was really looking to get back to the museum .

01/22/2026

I will be short and to the point on this post. We, the WAHS, have raised the full amount through the kind donations of area residents and businesses. The historic St. Marks now belongs to the Wadsworth Area Historical Society. It is now safe from developers.

I, along with the board and voulenteers would like to thank everyone who helped secure a this part of Wadsworth history.

I especially want to give thanks to Roger Havens who started the dream of purchasing St. Marks. He has put a lot of energy into purchasing the church.

He also wrote several grants to find money to redo the event center.

Address

161 High Street
Wadsworth, OH
44281

Telephone

+13303365548

Website

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