Area History

Elizabeth Sherman was born on Park Avenue West just a couple blocks off Central Park, so her playground growing up was the public square, in front of her father’s office. At that point in Mansfield’s history—1857—the park was only newly established as a green space, so she got to watch the young grass become established […]

The snow storm in 1913 left “two feet on the level, and drifted in places so that it was more than six and seven feet deep.” Traffic was tied up, and business in general was “demoralized.” When the photographer set up his tripod in front of 105 N. Main Street, he was capturing the snow […]

MOUNT VERNON — It’s a never-ending marketing game to try and claim superlatives, but Mount Vernon’s Woodward Opera House earns its tag of being the nation’s “oldest authentic 19th century theater.” In contrast, the oldest continuously operating theater in the United States is the Walnut Street Theater, in Philadelphia, which has been running since 1807. […]

There are all sorts of small, incremental steps on the road from ignorance and intolerance, to the place where people are equally respectful and supportive of one another in a community, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, gender, capacity, or beliefs. The length of the stride is measured in significance largely by the decade in which […]

When this photo was taken of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Springmill Street in 1909, it was so new the ground was still broken. At the time, it was referred to in the papers as ‘St. Mark’s Fifth Lutheran Church,’ because it was the fifth congregation of Lutherans in Mansfield. It had originated a few […]

I remember as a kid, reading about how our town got the name Mansfield, and being somewhat underwhelmed that it was named after a guy who never even set foot here. And the history went on to say that it was given that name by the founders of the town because Mr. Mansfield was their […]