Medina Steak Home as Stagecoach Cease? Get hold of US

The outdated Medina Steak Home, now the Serenite Restaurant and Culinary Institute, has a protracted oral custom, usually repeated, that it began its existence as a stagecoach cease. Additionally house to the Medina Restoration Middle, prior to now the constructing has been used as “a restaurant, an inn, a resort, a brothel, a bookie joint, grocery retailer and as a stage coach cease.”(Medina Put up 2015 article)


Now I do not anticipate finding it listed as both a brothel or a bookie joint in revealed data. Since each these actions are unlawful, the house owners or operators would have taken motion to maintain their companies clandestine and out of print. However absolutely a stagecoach cease can be documented, would not it?

Possibly not.

The place is it written that the constructing was a stagecoach cease?

1.  A  Medina Solar Sentinel article revealed on 29 October 1981 about Medina Haunts, says “The constructing itself is full of historical past, constructed about 1858 as a stagecoach cease then used as a prepare stopover…”
2.  A 14 March 2015,  Medina Put up article written by Kevin McManus says, “The constructing itself was reportedly constructed by Harrison G. Blake as a stagecoach cease in 1858.”

However I couldn’t discover any documentation sooner than these two articles.

To begin with, some historical past:

Within the U.S. stagecoaches and or boats (together with canals) have been the principle technique of public transportation till the railroads got here in. In most areas of Ohio, railroads have been the norm by the 1850’s and in 1854, Medina leaders tried to convey a railroad in. A bunch of buyers fashioned the Cleveland, Medina and Tuscarawas Railroad and bought the right-of-way from Grafton to Seville. They graded the route after which tried to boost the cash to put down the tracks. They failed. It will be virtually one other 20 years earlier than a railroad got here to Medina.

Element from the 1857 map of Medina County. The pink star is roughly the situation of the outdated Medina Steak Home. Nothing is positioned there on this map. It’s simply a part of C. Hubbard’s property. The chopped curved line from prime to backside that’s to the left of the star is the railroad mattress for the failed Cleveland, Medina, Tuscarawas Railroad.

Utilizing Bob Hyde’s “Beyond the Storefronts” site and  newspaper articles, the constructing could be tracked again in time by means of its numerous incarnations.

1968 image of the outdated Steak Home from Bob Hyde’s “Past the Storefronts” site. Neither the microfilm or the NewspaperArchive digital photographs have been as clear as this photograph of a clipping from Bob’s assortment.

Medina County Gazette advert for the Medina Steak Home. 23 Could 1968, web page 3.

An earlier incarnation of the steak home, as Roepers. Medina Gazette 2 Nov., 1945 web page 4

An advert from 14 Could 1925 Medina Sentinel. The property was often known as the Miller Home or the Miller Home Lodge from 1900 to the 1930’s.

Undated and uncited image of the outdated Steak Home from when it was the Miller Home Lodge from  Bob Hyde’s “Past the Storefronts” site.

From 1884 to 1900, the constructing was named the Germania Home Lodge, John Gluntz proprieter.

Previous to that it was referred to as the Palmer Home Lodge.

Underneath Bob’s Palmer Home Lodge itemizing for 1873-1874 he says, “Palmer Home Lodge turned a stagecoach inn and cease as indicated by enamel marks on posts by wooden consuming horses referred to as cribbers”.  The constructing didn’t should be a stagecoach cease for cribbing horses to gnaw at its hitching rails.

In Could of 1872, H. G. Blake bought property to J.W. Palmer. Dr. Palmer and his son constructed the resort.

By 1875, the resort had modified palms and W.L. Stoaks was the brand new proprietor. Medina Gazette 12 Nov., 1875, web page 2.

Maybe Dr. Palmer and his son ought to have stayed within the patent medication enterprise? Medina Gazette 3 Could 1872, web page 4.

What is understood for sure?

• As late as 1857 (map above) there was NOT a stage coach cease there. 
• The constructing is one half a mile west of uptown Medina. Why construct a stage cease so removed from the principle enterprise space at the moment?
• The constructing that exists now at 538 West Liberty was constructed round 1872 by Dr. J.W. Palmer.
• The brand new railroad opened in November of 1871. There can be no want of a stage coach after that.            
• Was there a stagecoach cease there 1858-1871? It’s nonetheless potential…

From the land and deed data obtainable at FamilySearch.org, we study that H.G. Blake purchased and bought quite a few properties from the 1850’s by means of the 1870’s. This means that he considered land as funding alternatives.

Keep in mind who owned the land in keeping with the 1857 map above? C. Hubbard. In 1851, H.G. Blake purchased 7 acres on the west aspect of Medina from Charles Hubbard and his spouse. This was earlier than the tried railroad venture of 1854. Extra land hypothesis? However why is C. Hubbard nonetheless listed because the proprietor in 1857?  An error within the map, just like the railway mattress line that’s marked as a railroad line? He held onto the land till the 1870’s, after the railroad got here in. The worth of the land would have vastly elevated .

The 2 nineteenth century histories of Medina County, Pioneer Historical past of Medina County (1861) and The Historical past of Medina County and Ohio (1881) don’t point out any stagecoach cease run by H.G. Blake. The coach traces talked about that got here by means of Medina are the Chidester Home Lodge on the south aspect of the sq. and the American Home Lodge on the north finish of the sq. are each talked about as stops at totally different instances.

Shopping by means of the early newspaper from the 1850’s and 1860’s many commercial for all types of providers are discovered. A few of them selling H.G. Blake’s pursuits:

Medina County Gazette 26 Could 1859, web page 2.

Medina County Gazette 19 Could 1859,web page 2.

Medina County Gazette, 17 Could 1872, web page 1.

So clearly, Blake believed in promoting to advertise his companies. Why not promote a stage cease?

The reply may lie on this 1877 article criticizing the Palmer Lodge for promoting liquor:

This wording appears to point that solely land exchanged palms. There was no constructing included, and no stagecoach cease. Medina County Gazette 23 Feb., 1877, web page 5

Whereas this doesn’t meet the usual of proof that there was by no means a stagecoach cease at that location, the dearth of proof that there ever was one, does solid doubt on it.

What do you assume?

SOURCES:

• Colton, G. Woolworth. Colton’s railroad & township map of the state of Ohio, drawn by George W. Colton, engraved by J M. Atwood. New York, 1854. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . 
• Geil, John F. Map of Medina Co., Ohio. Philada.: Matthews and Taintor Publishers, 1857. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .
• Hyde, Robert, “Past the Storefronts” MedinaSquare.org, accessed on-line September 2019.
• King, Joann, Medina County Coming of Age, 1810-1900, Angstrom Graphics, Cleveland, OH, 2016.
• Medina County Gazette
• “Blake, Sales space, Tyler & Co., commercial”, 19 Could 1959,web page 2, Medina County Gazette microfilm on the Medina Library, accessed September 2019. 
• “Dr. Palmer & Son, commercial, 3 Could 1872, web page 4, Medina County Gazette microfilm on the Medina Library, accessed September 2019. 
• “H. G. Blake, commercial”, 26 Could 1859, web page 2, Medina County Gazette microfilm on the Medina Library, accessed September 2019. 
• “Outdated Miller Home Lodge“, 5 July 1968, web page 7, NewspaperArchive, accessed on-line by means of Akron Library, September 2019.
• 23 Could 1968, web page 3, NewspaperArchive, accessed on-line by means of Akron Library, September 2019.
• “Native Objects”, 23 February 1877, web page 5, NewspaperArchive, accessed on-line by means of Akron Library, September 2019.
• “Palmer Home, commercial”, 12 Nov., 1875, web page 2,  NewspaperArchive, accessed on-line by means of Akron Library, September 2019.
• “Phoenix Financial institution, commercial”, 17 Could 1872, web page 1, Medina County Gazette microfilm on the Medina Library, accessed September 2019. 
• “Roepers Steak Home, commercial”, 2 Nov., 1945, web page 4, NewspaperArchive, accessed on-line by means of Akron Library, September 2019.
• Medina County Sentinel
• “The Miller Home, commercial” 11 June 1925, web page 5, NewspaperArchive, accessed on-line by means of Akron Library, September 2019.
• Medina Put up
• “Medina Steakhouse” on PHDelicious.com circa 18 March 2011, accessed on-line September 2019. 
• Mershon, Peggy, “Stagecoaches Have been A Acquainted Sight”, Mansfield Information Journal, https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/history/2016/07/22/history-stagecoaches-were-familiar-sight/87432230/  , accessed on-line September 2019.
• Perrin, William Henry, Historical past of Medina County and Ohio.
  Containing a Historical past of the State of Ohio, From its Earliest Settlement to the
  Current Time, Baskin & Battey, Chicago, IL, 1881. Accessed on Web
  Archive September 2019. https://archive.org/details/historyofmedinac00perr/page/n6 
• “Report of deeds, 1818-1871; index to deeds, 1790-1923”, Medina County Recorders Workplace, accessed on-line at FamilySearch.org September 2019.
• Shapiro, Eleanor, ed., Historic Highlights of Medina, Meyers Lithographers, Medina, OH, 1966.
• “Stagecoach Routes In Northern Ohio”, Encyclopedia of Cleveland Historical past, Case Western College, https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/stagecoach-routes-northern-ohio , accessed on-line September 2019.