We hosted a sweet program on the origins of maple sugaring earlier this month.
Geauga Park District Naturalist Karie Wheaton describes the history of maple sugar and maple syrup production in Northeast Ohio. She’s hosting another talk about the science of maple sugaring on March 10 that you can register to attend here.
Rick Porrello – the author of The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia, To Kill the Irishman and Superthief – talked about his new book on the life and crimes of notorious Cleveland mobster, Alex Shondor Birns, when he visited us earlier this month.
Birns was an important figure in the Cleveland underworld for nearly half a century. He was killed after falling out with fellow Cleveland gangster Danny Greene.
Porrello is also the former chief of the Lyndhurst Police Department. However, his interest in the Cleveland mafia is personal. His grandfather, Raymond Porrello, and great-uncles were involved in the underground and helped supply the corn sugar that bootleggers used to make liquor. He was killed in 1932 during a card game.
Photographer and urban explorer Jeffrey Stroup has spent the last 15 years capturing pictures of Cleveland’s abandoned factories, mansions, malls, churches, and more. He’s collected his best images in his new book, Abandoned Cleveland.
Stroup visited us earlier this month to share his photos and anecdotes from more than a decade of combing the forgotten parts of our region.
Afterward, we interviewed him and he offered advice for aspiring urban explorers and the single scariest thing that ever happened to him while investigating an abandoned building.
By the way, you can visit our YouTube channel for dozens of more interviews with authors, including bestsellers like Christina Baker Cline, Paula McLain, Karin Slaughter, and Bernie Kosar.
Thomas Matowitz, the author and local historian who literally wrote the book one Mentor, Ohio, returned to the library to share some of his best stories.
Matowitz is the perfect person to discuss prominent Mentor families like the Garfields, landmarks like the Wildwood Estate, and more. But he also has a mindful of spectacular Mentor stories that nearly nobody else knows, including:
For more from Matowitz:
Speaking of history, you can also join us for our 200th anniversary party at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 12, on our Main Branch lawn. Help make a community mosaic of Mentor with Gail Christofferson of Animal House Glass.
Also, Tom Todd, the Amazing One Man Band, will perform from 6 to 7 pm. Bring your lawn chairs or blankets, sit back and enjoy a little bit of Jimmy Buffett. We will also have cake and contests. All are welcome and no registration is required for our party.
Mentor Library’s first building of its own is taken on the road in 1960. Courtesy of David Gartner.
As part of our bicentennial, we asked for your historical photos from Mentor Public Library. And, wow, did we get a doozy this week.
Local photographer David Gartner snapped some gorgeous photos on the day our original library building moved down the street.
A little history is helpful here:
For nearly the first century of our existence, Mentor Library didn’t have a home of its own. Our books were housed in private residences or, later, in Mentor Village Hall.
We finally moved up and out at the beginning of the 20th century when a Mr. Addison Goodall offered $1,500 to $2,000 toward a library building if our Board President James R. Garfield and the rest of the board could raise the remainder.
(To keep your Garfields straight, James R. Garfield is the son of President James A. Garfield.)
Abram Garfield, a famous architect and another son of President Garfield, designed our new building. It opened on May 31, 1903, at the corner of Center Street and Mentor Avenue.
Now, this building may look familiar. It still exists and currently houses the Confectionary Cupboard.
So you may be wondering (1.) why isn’t it a library anymore and (2.) how did a building move from Mentor Avenue to the intersection of Center and Nowlen Streets.
The answer to your first question: we outgrew our first home and moved to what we then called our Garfield Unit in 1960. You now know it as our Main Branch. It’s been expanded and renovated in the last 60 years, but it’s been one of our homes ever since. (Well, not counting the two years we needed to relocate to Tyler Road.)
As per the second question: the credit for saving that historical building goes to one heroic woman, Lila Moore Schaefer. Ms. Schaefer recognized the value of the building, purchased it and had it moved to its present location in 1960. She lived in the building and also used it to house her real-estate business until she passed away in 1964.
Then, insurance brokers Don and Marguerite Krueger purchased it. In 1979, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Thanks to David Gartner for making it possible!