Medina Public Square Park - Uptown Park

The land on which current day Medina sits was surveyed back in 1817 by Elijah and Anne Boardman of the Connecticut Land Company. This land was to be settled upon and made into a village and that opportunity was given to a young man by the name of Captain Austin Badger in 1818. Medina's long history had begun. Austin Badger was a pioneer who traveled from Buffalo to Cleveland with all his belongings in his knapsack in the years after the War of 1812. When given this opportunity, he got right to work starting out by clearing away the forest area that the square now sits upon today.

Quickly becoming a small village by the 1830s and expanding at an exponential rate, life in Medina was bustling and busy. The county surrounding this area was expanding and as such, a larger courthouse was needed. Replacing the original small brick courthouse, the larger one you see today has been restored to its original beauty through various restoration projects since its construction in the 1840s.

The streets were busy, the shops were filled, life in Uptown Park was peaceful, and the city was ever growing. On the night of April 14th, 1870, a fire destroyed dozens of buildings surrounding the park. On the morning after, the leaders of Medina met outside the courthouse, surrounded by the devastation, and set out to rebuild this once beautiful area using brick.

The amazing views seen today in the heart of Public Square were created out of the rubble of this tragedy. Without this terrible event, the Victorian style buildings and architecture might have never have been created and Medina would not have the same character. 

The gazebo that sits in the center of the park offers a throwback to the past as it represents the same character of the Victorian buildings that surround it. At one time there was a fountain that sat in the center of the park but it was replaced by the structure you see today. Built using the template of a gazebo in Bellville OH, the Uptown Park gazebo remains the centerpiece of beauty and peace in this historic square.