John Sweeney was born to Irish
immigrant parents near Rochester, New York in 1824. After the death of his
parents, the young McSweeney was raised by Mrs. Grimes of Canton, Ohio. He
attended Western Reserve College, studying law. At the age of 21, he came to
Wooster and began working for Judge Ezra Dean. In 1851, he married Catherine
Rex. During the 1860s, McSweeney rose to prominence and worked cases from New
York to Chicago. He worked nearly all the major cases of northern Ohio between 1868
and 1878. He also gave speeches at Democratic conventions and before local elections.

John McSweeney was a court officer in the Court of Common Pleas who became a nationally-renowned lawyer. A member of his family, John McSweeney Jr., was also an attorney who defended John Callahan in a notable murder trial (John Callahan is the only person to have been hanged in Wayne County). In this house, the first John McSweeney entertained U. S. presidents and other important people. The McSweeney home remained in the family until 1949. Today, Hothem Enterprises resides in the old house.

John McSweeney House

This tour begins at the Wayne Center for the Arts and works its way north through downtown Wooster and the College of Wooster with stops at several historical and cultural institutions and landmarks such as the Wayne Center for the Arts, the Overholt House, Kauke Hall on the College of Wooster campus, and the Old Wayne County Jail which is now home to a historically-themed restaurant. Be sure to also visit the Barnhart Rice Homestead just to the south of downtown Wooster.

The idea for the Wooster Art Center was proposed by former College of Wooster art department chairman Arn Lewis when the Severance Gymnasium was replaced with the Timken Gymnasium. Lewis proposed that the art department move to the newly vacated gym and that the former art department space in the Frick Museum be used as a cultural center for the community. He also suggested that faculty and staff from the College of Wooster could run the center under the direction of a community-based board.

After its inception in the early 1970s, the Wooster Art Center expanded in the 1980s. In 1983, the Rubbermaid Foundation bought the abandoned Walnut Street School (built in 1902) for $75,000 and renovated it for the art center. The community also donated $650,000 for further improvements. A month before the new location opened, The Wooster Arts Center changed its name to the Wayne Center for the Arts in October 1984. The building was officially donated to the Wayne Center from the Rubbermaid Foundation in June 1999.

In November 2013, the Wayne Center for the Arts celebrated its fortieth anniversary in Kittredge Hall on the College of Wooster’s campus. Festivities included a formal meal, performances by the Wayne Center Ballet and Children’s Chorus, and art exhibitions and demonstrations.

The Wayne Center for the Arts, founded in 1973 as the Wooster Art Center, was one of the first community arts centers located on a college campus. It was originally housed by the Frick Museum at the College of Wooster in the 1970s, though it moved to the old Walnut Street School in 1984. Since then, the Wayne Center has continued its programs of art education and exhibition.

Wayne Center for the Arts

The Wooster Theater opened in 1912 as the Lyric Theater. At that time, tickets were ten cents for adults and five cents for kids, and the movies were operated by a hand crank. In 1914, the theater had to close temporarily as a result of a scarlet fever outbreak. Three years later, the 300-seat theater was renovated to fit 700 seats. The theater closed again due to the flu epidemic in 1918. The Lyric became Schine’s Wooster Theater in 1931 after it became associated with the Schine’s Theater chain and was remodeled to include 1,100 seats.

In 1967, the theater’s owner, Ed Mott, sold it to the Panther chain of theaters. Locals Henry and Chell Bishop bought and renovated the Wooster Theater in the 1970s and kept it open until operating costs forced them to close it in 1981. From 1982 to 1988, the building was used as the Theatrical Lounge nightclub, which eventually went bankrupt. The structure was then left vacant until it was demolished in 1999.

The Wooster Theater, originally called the Lyric Theater, was opened by Ed and Zella Mott in 1912. It featured gray-white bricks, a large lobby, faux box-seat balconies, and uniformed ushers. It became a part of the Schine’s Theater chain in 1931 and was sold to the Panther chain in 1967. Henry and Chell Bishop ran the Wooster Theater in the 1970s until 1981 when high operating costs led them to close it. The theater’s last showing was “The Jazz Singer.” The Wooster Theater was later demolished in 1999.

Schine's Wooster Theater (1912-1999)

The Wayne Theater opened in 1937; it was operated by Walter Brubaker and the Mott family, who also owned the Lyric Theater (later renamed the Wooster Theater). In 1956, the Wayne Theater closed. The Daily Record newspaper bought it two years later. The Brubaker family then reopened the theater in 1968 as the Lyric II, though it closed again in 1978. It has since been demolished.

The Wayne Theater (1937-1978)

Charles Gasche (not the Wooster artist of the same name) was a town trustee around the time he built this house in 1849.&nbsp; Gasche later served as an infirmary director in for eight years beginning in 1868. He added a brick addition to the house in 1864.

In 1905, the Ames family bought the property. Five years later, John Ames added an Italian-style front porch to the Gothic-style home. His daughter Marjorie lived in the house until her death in 1985. Jo and James then purchased the home in 1986 and turned it into a bed and breakfast. They sold it to John and Lauresa Durham in 1994, who then sold it to Marcia Blum in 2006. In 2017, Genevieve and Bill Everett took over the business.

The Charles Gasche House became the first home built on what is now known as “Historic Founders Row” in 1849. The house, which features elements of both the Gothic and Italian styles, has passed through only six owners. The Gasche family sold it to John Ames in 1905, who then bequeathed it his daughter. After her death in 1986, the house became and bed and breakfast and has had three more owners.

Charles Gasche House

<div>One of the more notorious aspects of the restaurant’s history is its time as the Wayne County Jail, when it was the site of the only public hanging in Wayne County’s history. On October 2, 1879, John Callahan killed John Tormie at the old Wayne County Fairground following a brawl between Callahan and his friends and Tormie and his brother-in-law. Tormie’s murder provoked public outrage, as he was an esteemed member of the community. Contrastingly, John Callahan, a second-generation American whose father was an Irish immigrant, was the victim of the anti-Irish sentiment of the time period. According to a previous exhibit by the Wooster Digital History Project, “Many Woosterites interpreted Callahan’s actions as typical of the ‘belligerence of being an immigrant’ or, as some put it in the local newspaper ‘the drunken Irishman’ acting out”. This sentiment may have been connected to his eventual public execution, as Callahan, who was twenty-two years old at the time of his death, is the only person to have been hanged as a means of execution in Wayne County. Although 2,000 members of the community appealed to Governor Charles Foster to spare Callahan’s life, their attempt was unsuccessful. 5,000 people attended the hanging and 3,000 came to see Callahan’s body the next day.A fascination with death links the history of public executions to today’s dark tourism. Although dark tourism, in which people travel to locations remembered for their macabre history, is not a new phenomenon, the way many business owners now brand their location— emphasizing the site’s grim history— is a recent development. Olde Jaol is particularly interesting because it combines the histories of food and death. Olde Jaol exemplifies this, as the restaurant’s aesthetics are based on the building’s dark history. For example, the tavern menu advertises “bail burgers” such as the “bandit burger” and the “bounty hunter’s burger.” Is it morally correct to eat an Executioner’s Chicken Sandwich, which Olde Jaol claims is a “perfect last request” at the site where a real person was hanged publicly? What is the appeal and what are the drawbacks of this kind of marketing? Dark tourism marketing raises complex ethical questions. Is it appropriate to visit sites where extreme violence has happened in the past? What type of attitude should one have when visiting one of these sites? Should ethics matter to business owners? While these questions have no definitive answers, they show that location and the nature of its history matter when considering the use of local spaces as commercial food-based attractions.Conversely, location can also enhance the dining experience. Recently, Olde Jaol added the “Prohibition Room” as a third option for guests. This room, which is designed to be reminiscent of a Prohibition era speakeasy, does not serve food but is intended to be a place for guests to enjoy a drink before or after their meal. This room features a wide variety of bourbons, whereas the tavern and main dining rooms primarily serve wine and beer. Olde Jaol uses Certified Angus Beef®, providing customers with the highest quality meat. Although the Certified Angus cattle are not raised locally, the headquarters are located in Wooster. Many restaurants choose to work with Certified Angus, in order to receive guaranteed high quality products. Olde Jaol’s fine dining menu is comprised of traditional steakhouse cuisine, including a variety of Certified Angus steaks and ribs, as well as classic appetizers such as the shrimp cocktails. The tavern offers a much more casual fare, and is a charming and less formal setting than the steakhouse itself. The tavern’s menu consists of a collection of soups, salads, sandwiches, and as well as other meat, seafood, and pasta dishes. The beer cheese soup is a local favorite, which many guests choose to enjoy on the covered patio. The patio brings a tropic feel to Ohio, although indoor seating is also available. Both menus also include alcoholic beverages.</div>

The Wayne County Jail opened in 1865 in downtown Wooster. 130 years later, a Wayne County resident bought the building  and converted it into a restaurant called The Olde Jaol Restaurant and Tavern, a quintessential American steakhouse. Today, it is owned by Dave and Dalila Schauble and guests can dine in a variety of settings, including historic jail cells. The jail has a rich history and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 

Old Wayne County Jail

Wooster Church
of Christ was founded on July 26, 1835. Its first sanctuary, built in 1847, was
located on Walnut and South Streets. A new church was constructed from 1890 to
1891 on North Buckeye Street. The church changed its name to the Central
Christian Church in 1951, eight years after buying the Harvey Howard House.

This house was built by Harvey Howard, a druggist, in 1860. In 1893, after passing through many owners, Captain James B. Taylor bought the property. Taylor had served in the 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and worked as a lawyer. The death of Taylor’s wife Emelie prompted him to sell the house in 1906. It then became Wooster’s first city hospital until 1943. That year, the Central Christian Church bought and restored the home and used it for education programs.

Harvey Howard House

The Wayne County Historical
Society dates back to the inception of the Wooster Museum in 1905. The museum
was located on the second floor of the new Wayne County Public Library and contained
a taxidermy collection and later, Native American artifacts and a mineral
collection. George Schwartz served as the curator from its opening until his
death in 1924. The next curator, local business owner Alvin Rich, continued to
expand the museum’s holdings and documented the county’s history.

The Wayne County Historical
Society was officially incorporated in 1954. The College of Wooster then agreed
to permanently lease the historic Beall-Stibbs Homestead to the society. The society
and the Wooster Museum merged when the library asked the Wayne County
Historical Society to take the collections of off its hands so they would have more
room for books. The collections were moved in 1957, and the new museum opened
to the public in 1958 after several renovations.

Over the next five decades, the
Wayne County Historical Society acquired a carriage building, a pre-Civil War
log cabin, the Fredericksburg General Store, the 1873 Number 3 Schoolhouse, and
other remnants of Wayne County’s past. The society is currently housed in the Kister
Building, which features a small research library and temporary exhibits. It
was built in the 1970s and expanded and updated in the 1980s/90s. Recently,
underground tunnels between the Kister and other Wayne County Historical
Society buildings were completed.

The Wayne County Historical Society was officially organized by local historians and educators in 1954. After merging with the Wooster Museum, which was located in the Wayne County Library beginning in 1905, the historical society moved into the Beall-Stibbs Homestead. As the Wayne County Historical Society has grown, it has purchased and preserved such historic buildings as the Fredericksburg General Store and 1873 Number 3 Schoolhouse. Today, the society offers temporary and permanent exhibitions based out of the Kister Building.

Wayne County Historical Society

Reasin Beall was born on December 3, 1769 in Montgomery County, Maryland. He joined the military in his early twenties and was appointed battalion quartermaster under famed Revolutionary War hero General “Mad” Anthony Wayne by 1793. Beall moved to Ohio in 1801. During the War of 1812, he became a brigadier general of the Ohio militia. From April 20, 1813 to June 7, 1814, Beall filled a vacancy in the U. S. Congress after Representative John S. Edwards died. Beall returned to Ohio, moving to Wooster and building this home, after his term as congressman. He remained politically active by serving as the register of the land offices at Wooster and Canton, Ohio for ten years. Reasin Beall passed away on February 20, 1843. His daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Joseph Stibbs II lived in this house after his death.

The College of Wooster later obtained the property and used it as a dormitory called Bowman Hall. In 1957, the college donated the Beall-Stibbs house to Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio. All collections from the society and the Wooster Museum were moved to the house. Recently, the structure was converted from a museum to a recreation of how the house looked in the 19th century.

The Beall-Stibbs House was built by General Reasin Beall from 1815 to 1817. It is now the oldest surviving residence in the City of Wooster. After Beall’s death, the home was inhabited by his daughter and her husband, Joseph Stibbs II. The house was later turned into a dormitory for the College of Wooster and a museum. In 2008, the restored Beall-Stibbs Homestead opened to the public as a recreation of life in the 19th century.

Beall-Stibbs Homestead

The Number Three schoolhouse was built in 1873 and held its last class in 1939. It was then used for storage until the Triway Board of Education donated the schoolhouse to the Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio in 1964. The building was dismantled and rebuilt at is present location between 1964 and 1966. The society held a dedication ceremony for the schoolhouse on December 7, 1966.

Today, the schoolhouse has been restored to look as it might have in the 19th century. It features a reed pump organ, antique writing pens, early typewriters, and an 1856 map of Wayne County. The one-room schoolhouse is also available to rent for events. Recently, for example, the Wayne County Historical Society hosted Professor Virginia Gunn as she gave a lecture on the “Textiles and Lifestyles of the Downton Abbey Era.”

This schoolhouse was constructed in 1873 and became one of five one-room schoolhouses in use throughout Wooster Township prior to the incorporation of graded schools in the early 20th century. The building was used for storage from 1939 to 1964. Desiring to preserve the historic school and use it for living history demonstrations, members of the Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio moved the school from its original location at the intersection of State Route 250 and McCoy Road and restored the building to match the way it would have appeared in the late 19th century. The schoolhouse is now open for tours and events throughout the year.

Number 3 Schoolhouse (1873-1939)

In 1865, Reverend James Reed came up with the idea to found a Presbyterian college in Wooster. &nbsp;Wooster resident Ephraim Quinby donated twenty-two acres of his land and Wayne County raised $100,000 for its construction. On December 18, 1886, the Presbyterian Synod authorized the creation of Wooster University, and over the next four years, a five-story building was erected. The building was originally nicknamed “the Bitters Bottle,” but is now better known as “Old Main.” &nbsp;It contained classrooms, a chapel, library, museum, office, eight coatrooms, and a laboratory.

On September 7, 1870, Wooster University’s first president, Willis Lord, welcomed thirty-four students and five professors to the new college. Lord declared that Wooster should be “not only a place of all studies, it should be a place of studies for all... &nbsp;The essential test of citizenship in the commonwealth of science and letters should be character, mental and moral quality, and attainment, not condition, race, color, or sex.” The school officially opened for classes the next day, and Wooster graduated six of its first students on June 28, 1871. In the coming decades, Wooster University added medical and preparatory departments, a graduate school, and a school of music and art.

On the morning of December 11, 1901, the Old Main chapel caught on fire. Soon, the whole structure was engulfed in flames, and it was destroyed. Only a year later, the university constructed five new buildings to replace it. The college’s first pipe organ, which was to be installed in Old Main, was moved to the Memorial Chapel and now forms the base of the Davis Memorial Organ at McGaw Chapel.

The University of Wooster became the College of Wooster sometime between 1914 and 1915 when faculty members voted to focus the institution on undergraduate studies and eliminate its graduate programs. Another change came circa 1930 when the college adopted the “Scots” as their mascot. Women’s teams were called the “Wooster Scotties” until 1987 when their name changed to the “Lady Scots.” Since the 2000s, they have also been known as the “Scots.”

In 1969, the Presbyterian Church released its ownership of the College of Wooster. Seniors were then no longer required to attend chapel; underclassmen later followed suit. Since then, the College of Wooster has maintained a voluntary relationship with the Presbyterian Church as an independent institution.

Constructed in 1903, Kauke Hall has long been the symbol of the College of Wooster and featured on college letterheads and logos. The College of Wooster was founded as a Presbyterian university in 1870. The college consisted of only one building in its early years. That building, known as Old Main, was destroyed by fire in 1901 and replaced by this Collegiate Gothic structure and four more buildings. Kauke Hall was built at the site of Old Main and named in honor of John Hauke, one of the college's founders and first trustees. The building was home to the humanities departments and classrooms as well as the administration in the early 1900s. In the 1910s, Wooster University became the College of Wooster when it decided to offer only undergraduate degrees. The college ended its formal relationship with the Presbyterian Church in 1969, though it continues a voluntary relationship today.

Kauke Hall, College of Wooster

Civil War Colonel Aquila Wiley
built Overholt House in 1874 in the Stick Style. The three-story home was
adorned with walnut woodwork, gingerbread décor, a square tower, and a “flying”
stairway. Eight years later, Wiley sold it to the Overholt family, who passed
it down each generation until 1973. The house later served as professional offices
and a bed and breakfast until it was purchased by the College of Wooster in
2001. By that point, it had already been moved twice. So, when the college
decided to get rid of the structure, it could not simply be moved another time.
Instead, it needed to be removed piece by piece. Because no one met the college’s
deadline to make an offer on the house, it was demolished in August 2017,
though individual features have been preserved. The porches, glass windows, staircase,
flooring, and fireplace are now stored in a warehouse where they can be sold
and reused.

Overholt House was built in 1874 by Civil War veteran and lawyer Colonel Aquila Wiley. The Stick-Style house was then sold to the Overholt family in 1882, and they kept it until 1973. The house was then used for a variety of purposes and added to the National Register of Historic Places before moving to the College of Wooster. Because it was not sound enough to move again, the house was demolished in 2017.

Tour of Historic Sites in Wooster Ohio

John McSweeney House

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources