Area History

If you look at the shape of Richland County on a map and pay close attention to detail, you will notice a small angular discrepancy in the line of its lower edge: like someone dropped it and dinged up the corner.

At first glance it would appear that everything on the south side of Fourth Street (left side of the photo) has vanished since this postcard view was made in 1911. Certainly in the most bricks-and-mortar sense that is true: all of the buildings are gone today.

Long before there were “dollar stores” in America there were “five cent” stores, and then “five-and-dime stores.” King of them all was Woolworth’s.

Before this begins let me be clear: Beethoven never set foot in Mansfield, Ohio. I have to say this or I’ll hear about it. Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) spent his entire life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and he was never anywhere near my community.

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume 3, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the third in a three-book trilogy. Volume 1 was Amelia Changes Her Tune, […]

In 1957 when a photographer captured this business block on South Main Street at the Square, the sequence of six buildings was occupied by nine different businesses.

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume 3, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the third in a three-book trilogy. Volume 1 was Amelia Changes Her Tune, while Volume II […]

ONTARIO — 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.