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Mansfield had a happy day in 1960 when Burger Chef opened its doors at the corner of Lexington & Cline Avenues. You can’t beat 15-cent burgers served in all that sparkling glass and aluminum. They pushed fast food for about a generation until 1984 when it became a Hardee’s, and then you could buy your […]

I was just exactly the right age the first time I read about the Flying Machine: young enough to dream; old enough to go searching for it. The article said it was located near Woodville School, and I was 10, so I got on my bike and pedaled over there to find it. Later I […]

There are landmarks in the city that are so familiar, and so woven into the fabric of everyday experience, that they become sort of invisible; so that once they are gone, we hardly miss them. Until, of course, something brings them to mind, and we realize how much we miss them. The old pagoda building […]

When a city has a heart that is strong, and a soul that is plugged in, it generates an aura like a magnet that attracts people. People are drawn; they all want to visit. So there is only one essential commodity that the vital city needs: an abundance of nice places for all the visitors […]

When the Richland Mall was built in 1968, it was an absolutely state-of-the-art shopping experience. The enclosed indoor space was intended to be so futuristic, it included even the outdoors…in an abstract artistic interpretation. The sounds of rushing water from several fountains set the tone of “a natural glade” throughout the wings of the structure; […]

In 1849, when word was confirmed that gold was available for free in the hills of California, there were countless men all over the US who suddenly dropped what they were doing and headed for the other side of the North American continent. Quite a few of those men were from Richland County. As soon […]

This familiar and loved landmark in Loudonville was built originally by grain magnate AA Taylor in 1851; though it has been known for most of its history by the name of a later owner, as the Graven House. When the remarkable home was built, it stood on 600 acres; but within a few generations it […]

One thing I have learned studying history: old men weren’t always old; and there is no saying what amazing things they witnessed or accomplished when they were young. Here is a great example. There was a table full of old men who met every year of the 1890s in February, to commemorate a day 40 […]

It was a century ago when the big news broke in Mansfield: the old empty Baxter Stove plant on Fifth Street was being retooled to make electrical appliances for Westinghouse. As soon as the factory was remodeled to display the familiar W logo, people in town walked down Fifth Street to take a picture of […]

Two boys who grew up in Mansfield in different eras each developed a talent for drawing animals that make people smile; and they each took that art out into the world and touched the lives of millions of people. I’d like to prove this now because I met a young man in Mansfield who told […]