Milan, OH (9/26/2015)

Saturday, September 26, 2015
After brunch at Big Al's in the Larchmere neighborhood, we headed once again to Milan, OH.
First there was the native settlement of Pequotting, where the Moravians had a mission in 1804-1809. Milan was an important Great Lakes port after the 3-mile Milan Canal connected the city with Lake Erie in 1839, mainly to export wheat. That ended with the railroad and the flood of 1868.

14 N Edison Street (1877) Victorian

This Victorian Italianate home had additions

Buckeye fan's fall decorations

9 E Front Street (1882)

Milan business district

Wonder Bar (1826) and town square gazebo (1960s)

Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1867)
and Town Hall (1889)

Kelley Block (1880)

Young Edison (1984) by Michael Tradowsky

29 E Church Street (1845 as a stage coach inn)

Street light with an "Edison" light bulb-shaped lamp

Milan Public Library (1912 using a Carnegie grant)

Zipcode bench outside the post office

This time the museums were open. The Milan History Museum has several buildings. We handed in our Groupon tickets at the Lockwood Smith & Company General Store.

Lockwood Smith & Company General Store

Pumpkin wreath

Read the small print at the bottom

Milan has its own stone brought by the Ice Age glacier from Canada

Hoover Potato Digger (invented 1885);
"Milan's gift to the farming world"

Sisty Blacksmith Shop

Four Seasons Sculpture Garden

The Edna Row Newton Memorial Building (opened 1971)
was purpose-built to house the collections of
Edna Newton and her husband, Bert,
from their world travels

All the cross-stitching was done by Edna Newton

Galpin House (1846) housed several exhibits
including an extensive glass collection

Glass includes insulation for the Apollo 11 spacecraft

It sure looks like a Dale Chihuly installation!

Interesting enameled vase by
Ludwig Moser & Sons

Tartan glass

Light fixture and young artists' wall

Kent and Brynne wait at the Sayles Victorian Home

This is actually the front of the Sayles house (1843)

Big maple tree

Finally, a visit to the Birthplace of Thomas Alva Edison.

Birthplace of Thomas Edison

When Samuel Edison brought his family from Canada to settle in Milan, he built a house in 1841-1842. He worked as a shingle maker. Samuel and his wife, Nancy, had three more children here, with Thomas Alva Edison being the seventh and last child, born February 11, 1847. In 1854, the family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Thomas's sister, Marion Edison Page, bought the house in 1894 and added a bathroom. He became owner of the house in 1906, and upon his death in 1931, his wife, Mina, and daughter, Madeleine, took on the project to restore the home to its appearance when Thomas Edison was born. It was opened as a museum in 1947, the centennial of Edison's birth.
Our tour began in the house next door, where we were shown the progression of the invention of the phonograph, and heard samples played on a celluloid cylinder and a thick lacquer disc. Next a spirited fast-talking woman, in what she called her "Little House on the Prairie outfit," came to guide us through the Edison house. Because much of the family furniture was kept by the sister Marion, many original pieces were present in the house, including a high chair that may have been used by Thomas.
Many household items of the period were displayed, and of the most interest was the pole ladder, with hinged rungs which could be "folded" down so that the two sides of the ladder came together to form a pole. Very handy!

Pole ladder showing grooves where the rungs fold in

One small room held items from Edison's laboratory and a few examples of his inventions, including the Edison Talking Doll, known as Thomasina, where a man was likely used to make the recordings of the nursery rhymes the doll recites, creating a very creepy toy.

The backyard, behind which are the woods that
now cover the former Milan port

Time to head back home.