Area History

Take a drive down Main Street in Bellville today and the sights are remarkably, and rather comfortingly, similar to what you might have seen if you took that same drive 100 years ago. The hitching rails are gone now, as you might expect; but if you study these two examples of then and now — […]

This is kind of a sad story, but don’t stop at sad because you’ll miss the truly heroic part. There are many heroes in our community — they all have found ways to rise above themselves in order to embody a spirit of humanity at its highest level of achievement: that of selflessness. We like […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume VI, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the 1860s and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the sixth in a series. The books are available from Lintern for $25 a […]

When you look north down the hill at the east side of Main Street below Third Street, the view has a beautiful building on the corner and a very large open space behind it. Had you stood in the same spot 100 years ago, the very large open space would have been filled with quite […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume VI, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the 1860s and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the sixth in a series. The books are available from Lintern for $25 a […]

Look closely at the foreground of these images from then & now, and you’ll see how a skinny little city tree can grow into a significant element of the streetscape in 100 years. The home nearest the photographer was built by J.E. Brown for his family when the top of Sturges hill was the height of […]

In many parts of the world, there are buildings that achieve the status of a shrine not through any religious overtones, but simply because of their age and noble historic stature in the community.  The buildings are held sacred because of the place they hold in the heart of the collective family. Mansfield has a […]