South Euclid - Lyndhurst Historical Society Museum

General Moses Cleaveland of the Connecticut Militia came hereabouts with a group of surveyors after the Connecticut Land Company, of which he was a director, bought most of Connecticut's Western Reserve. The surveyors found this swampy area much more difficult than expected. Faced with a revolt, Cleaveland offered them discounted land on a township of their choosing they chose this somewhat larger township with lake access and named it Euclid in honor of the Greek inventor of their mathematical milieu.

The Village of Euclid occupied much of the northern township while Bluestone (now part of S. Euclid), South Euclid, Euclidville (now named Lyndhurst), and Claribel (now named Richmond Heights) most of the southern part. A 1916 school bond issue failed causing the township trustees to consider closing Euclidville's only school (now known as Lyndhurst's Little Red Schoolhouse). Euclidville discovered that, if they incorporated as a Village, they'd control their own school and so in 1917 they did so. They then also, by statute, controlled the schools of other adjacent unincorporated schools. And so also in 1917 both South Euclid ans Claribel also became villages to protect them.

In 1966 South Euclid Mayor George Urban started the South Euclid Historical Society, originally headed by his wife Helen. They gathered historic information and published a book titled Golden Jubilee: 1917-1967, South Euclid. They incorporated in 1967. We were offered facts but also artifacts and in 1977 the South Euclid - Lyndhurst Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, owners of the Telling Mansion estate offered us most of their Caretaker's Cottage as a museum. In 1989 Lyndhurst formed a similar society but it ceased operation before 2000. Realizing that a large percentage of the South Euclid Historical Society membership and board were Lyndhurst Residents, in 2011 we changed our name and scope to include Lyndhurst after getting the consent of both mayors.