Area History

People who grew up in Mansfield speak of the Madison Theater in such a way that you would think the place was still open for business. That is easy to understand: places lodged in the heart never go away — even when the site has been an empty lot for 30 years.

MANSFIELD — It was February or March sometime in the 1970s. We had just figured out how to get up on the roof of Malabar High School. It was one of those sparkling clear winter nights with a full moon and we knew the view from up there would be pretty spectacular with the neighborhood […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of a young girl.  Amelia was not in her bedroom in Boston. Not in the bedroom at Oakland either. She was […]

The remarkable Galion depot was built in 1900, originally to service the Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad — known to folks back then more simply as the Big Four. In later generations, the railroad line associated with the depot was the New York Central.

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of a young girl.  The seagulls were calling from the wharf below. A salty breeze was drifting through the open windows, […]

For most of us today, all the connotations that accompany the idea of Memorial Day at the threshold of summer are pretty happy: fireworks, games, potato salad. In the era almost 150 years ago however, the attendant emotional anticipation was considerably less capricious, far more solemn. That was when the holiday was first established as […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of a young girl.  To Amelia, it looked like a small army heading to war: Uncle Jacob, his brother John, Isaac […]

When the photographer set up his tripod in the 1890s to capture this image of North Main Street, he was standing in the middle of a traffic lane and his equipment probably straddled a streetcar track.

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of a young girl.  Appleseed John was gone by the time Amelia got up the next morning, even though she had […]

Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of a young girl. Among the guests that entered the Oakland Inn each night were some rather unusual characters, as Amelia […]