he Weymouth Preservation Society is dedicated to preserving the history and enhancing the beauty of our historic Western Reserve village. We have restored the historic 1925 Weymouth School into a museum with exhibits of local history.

We are open the second Sunday from March through December from 2-4 or by appointment!

 

 

2024 Activities  

WPS Museum Exhibit

WPS Museum Exhibit

The WPS Museum is open the second Sunday of every month from March through December or by appointment.  

This year’s exhibit: Girls’ Toys 1820-1950’s.

Over 200 items from a private collection.

 

“The Sea Was Never Far” Book Presentation: February 11th, 2024, 2pm

“The Sea Was Never Far” Book Presentation:  February 11, 2024, 2pm

Author Marion Boyer will speak about how she uncovered her grandmother’s secret that led her to travel to England and write her book “The Sea Was Never Far”.  Join us as Boyer unfolds the mystery, shares documents of London’s historic Foundling Home, and recreates the historical of fishermen and gutting girls during the English herring industry’s boom from 1900 to 1913.  She will tell of shipwrecks and salvage in the treacherous North Sea, of witness to the bomb dropped from a Zeppelin-the first aerial bombing of England, with images to accompany these fascinating stories.

Tickets are $10 at the door.  Light refreshments.  Event, parking and restrooms are adjacent and accessible.

Spring Presentation and Dessert Sunday,  March 10th, 2024

Spring Presentation and Dessert Sunday: March 10th, 2024, 2pm

The Weymouth Preservation Society will present Carol Starre-Kmiecik as Jackie Kennedy Onassis.  We enjoyed Carol’s presentation in 2023 as Dorothy Fuldheim.  This year she presents Jacqueline Kennedy, endowed with beauty, brains, wealth, and fame, yet suffered from tragic loss and an early death.

A dessert reception will follow.  Event, restrooms, and parking are adjacent and accessible.

Tickets are $30 by sending a check to WPS 3314 Myers Rd Medina 44256 or by using the QR Code.  Please include your email or text.

 

Annual Plant Faire, Saturday, May 11, 2024, 10am-1pm

Annual Plant Faire: Saturday, May 11, 2024, 10am-1pm

Annuals, perennials, herbs, ground cover, vegetables, and gardening items for your spring planting.   Free to attend. Event, restrooms, and parking are adjacent and accessible.

 

Community Potluck Supper, August 10, 2024, 6pm

Community Potluck Supper, August 10, 2024, 6pm

Everyone whose heart is in the greater Weymouth community is welcome to come and visit with friends and neighbors. We will provide plates, silverware, tables, coffee, tea and water. BYO beer or wine. Please bring an entrée, side dish, salad or dessert to share.  Free to attend.  Event, restrooms, and parking are adjacent and accessible.

Weymouth Day: Saturday, September 14, 2024   10am-2pm

Weymouth Day:  Saturday, September 14, 2024   10am-2pm

A tradition now spanning over 50 years!  Check out our WPS Museum, learn from historic displays, play vintage children’s outdoor games, and enjoy live music, crafters, demonstrations, lunch, snacks, root beer floats, and lawn sales at local residences.  Free to attend. Event, restrooms, and parking are adjacent and accessible.

Annual Luncheon December 7, 2024,  12pm-2pm

 Holiday Luncheon “Titanic and the End of the Victoria Era”:  December 7, 2024, 12pm-2pm

The Holiday Luncheon: “Titanic and the End of the Victoria Era”.  Mandy Altimus Stahl, Archivist of the Massillon Museum will illustrate the changes brought on by the tragic loss of the Titanic and the realization that society was not invincible.  Everyone will receive a name of a traveler to see what happened to them. 

 

Tickets by check for $35 or by QR code.  Please provide your contact information, along with whom you would like to be seated with, if applicable.

Event, restrooms, and parking are adjacent and accessible.

Historic Weymouth Cemetery: Open Daily Dawn to Dusk

Historic Weymouth Cemetery: Open Daily Dawn to Dusk

The cemetery, located on Remsen Road across from the WPS, has 277 historic graves. There is a self-guiding brochure at the entrance. Free parking at the school. The graves include soldiers from the War of 1812, the township’s first schoolteacher Eliza Northrop, and other interesting people. Cemetery maps and driving tours of Weymouth and Medina Township are available at the entrance.

Little Free Library

Little Free Library

“Take a book, leave a book”. Stop by our Little Free Library at the school. Grab a book and “read, rest, reflect and relax” on the bench.  There is even a leash hook for your pup!

 

Halloween Fun

Halloween Fun

Trick-or-Treating by hay wagon and hot cocoa and donuts to warm us up!

Historic House Plaques

Historic House Plaques

The WPS offers house plaques for houses in the township.  They are 9″ x 15″, solid aluminum, with our pinecone logo.  The plaques cost $90 each ($80 for WPS members).  The WPS will underwrite half of the cost for buildings over 100 years old.  The WPS will provide the date of the building and it’s original owner, and all available  history and photos of the building and it’s residents over the years, which we will research for you.

New “Weymouth, Ohio” tee shirts are available from small to XXL Adult sizes.  $20 by check or use the QR code.

Please Support the WPS!

We welcome your participation in our events and activities. Please provide your email address or phone if you’d like to be on our mailing list.

Individual: $15

Family: $25

Sponsor: $50

Benefactor: $100

If you have any photographs, artifacts or information to share, your items would be most welcome. We’ll take good care of them, or scan and return them.

WPS Leadership

WPS Leadership

  • President and Historian: Susan McKiernan
  • Secretary and Artist: Janet Baran
  • Treasurer: Richard Clark
  • Trustee: Judy Sutherland
  • Trustee: Nancy Scholz
  • Trustee: Lila Lehrer
  • Trustee: Cindi Hagerman
  • Trustee: Lynda Purser

Volunteers are always welcome!

Local History

Local History 

We have accessioned over 1000 items and photographs relating to our history. Your donations are welcome and will be well documented and cared for.  This “walking” spinning wheel was owned by the Blakslee family, pioneers to Weymouth in 1817.

 Lost Medina Places

Take a look in this document to see if you now live in a “Lost” Medina Place.

LOST MEDINA TOWNS

 

 

Cook Road Bridges

Have you ever driven over the Rocky River on Cook Road?  We now have a brief history of the bridges from Cook Road.  Check it out!

THE COOK ROAD BRIDGES

 

Medina Count ’49ers

The WPS has discovered that 27 early Medina County residents braved the arduous trek west to California to discover gold and make their fortunes.  Take a look at this document to learn more!

MEDINA COUNTY ’49ers

Weymouth Restoration

Weymouth Mural Restoration

In the summer of 1968, the owner of the Weymouth gas station, Zed Davis, paid Craig Staufer $200 to paint a mural of historic Weymouth on the wall behind the bar. Craig was only 16 but already well known for his artistic abilities. Craig talked to some of the older village residents and did lots of his own research to come up with how the village may have looked in 1856. Over the years time took its toll on the mural. The current owners, Rob and Marlene Shurell, (at left) looked for years to find someone to restore the mural. Janet Baran, new to Medina but a life-long professional artist with ties to Weymouth’s Lathrop Seymour, answered the call. Thanks to Rob, Marlene, Craig and Janet for bringing this beautiful and historic mural to life.   The Methodist Episcopal Church (1845-1906) above Marlene’s head was totally missing.

 

Weymouth Church Restoration

Richard Clark of the WPS spent 10 months restoring the original 1835 church windows and preparing them for new cedar storm windows.

 

 

 

 

Wells Cottage

Located on Medina Parks property on Rt. 18, this Second Empire Cottage built in 1872 has a new roof and the exterior will be restored by the WPS in the Spring of 2024.  Saved from demolition, it will serve a new purpose in the community.

 

New Discoveries

Weymouth Abolitionists 

The WPS was awarded an Ohio Historic Marker for the Weymouth Church. It was built in 1835 as the First Congregational Society and served until 1920 when it became the Weymouth Community Church. Our 49-page application was also awarded a grant to cover the nearly $3500 cost. The church building is important because the facade, though sided, is a nearly original example of the Greek Revival architectural style. Also, it is the oldest church building in Medina County and one of the oldest in Ohio, and it had a strong presence in the anti-slavery movement. In 1848, the congregation drafted 14 resolutions against slavery that they expected the Northeast Ohio presbytery to adopt. When they were refused, they withdrew and joined the Oberlin presbytery. The most famous abolitionist of the day, William Lloyd Garrison spoke at the church in 1853.

Where Exactly is Weymouth?

Where Exactly Is Weymouth?

A question that we hear often! The original area of Weymouth was the entire township, into what is now Medina City, and into Granger, Brunswick and Hinckley Townships. Weymouth had the only post office, “high school” (to 8th grade), stores, and churches in that entire area. People got their mail addressed as “Weymouth, Granger Township, Medina county, Ohio”. Other small neighborhoods in the Township were Hamilton’s Corners (one-room schoolhouse and cemetery), Fenn’s Corners (schoolhouse), Windfall (schoolhouse and cemetery), Bagdad, Northropville (schoolhouse and private family cemetery), and Medina Center (schoolhouse, cemetery and township hall). Weymouth had a post office from the 1820s to 1906.

Van Deusen Diaries

Van Deusen Diaries

Follow this link below to the diaries of Newman L. Van Deusen (1847-1930) that span 67 years of his life! Van Deusen lived in nearby Hinckley, Ohio, and wrote in his diary every day from 1863 to 1929. These notes were transcribed from over 24,000 pages in the original journals, now housed at the Hinckley Historical Society. His writings are valuable in understanding the incredible changes that took place during his lifetime, right in our own local area.

Van Deusen Diaries 1847-1930

Weymouth School Teachers

Weymouth School Teachers

The township’s first school was a log church built on March 11, 1817. Eliza Northrop was the first teacher. Other Weymouth one-room schoolhouses were built in 1829 and 1840. In 1872 the Weymouth Sons of Temperance Hall was purchased by the school and a “high school” (to 8th grade) was added. In 1925 the village residents built a two-classroom brick school designed by noted Cleveland architect Paul Tressler Cahill. That school served until 1956. Of five schoolhouses from 1817-1956, four still stand. Follow this link to information about the teachers.

Weymouth School Teachers 1817-1956 VOLUME I

Weymouth School Teachers 1817-1956 VOLUME II

Weymouth Doctors

Weymouth Doctors 1829-1937

Here is a link to doctors who practiced in Weymouth from 1829 to 1937. Their biographies show the interesting careers that the doctors had in Weymouth and beyond. Dr Frank Young was our well-loved doctor from 1870 to 1895. He served as a surgeon in the Civil War and had a “cabinet of curiositie,” a collection of interesting and rare animals, birds and minerals.

Doctors of Weymouth 1826 to 1937

Early Aviation in Medina

Early Aviation in Medina

Take a trip back in time and see how Medina played an important role in early aviation.

Early Flight in Medina