Lost Stories: Yesterday and Today in Mentor, Ohio

History is often lost on today's youth.  The Mentor of my youth no longer exists.  Pencils, slide rules, LP records, typewriters, and transistor radios replaced by calculators, computers, iPods, and cell phones.  The sites of my youth are now almost gone (Center Street Mill, Bargain Fair, Bavarian Inn, Castello Florist, Mentor Post Office, the Drive-In et al.) and until I reached the AARP generation, I didn't give it much thought.  Occasionally at family events or with friends a story of days past is revisited.  Today's blog asks the question, Do You Remember?

       A partial Timeline of Mentor History-

• 1814 Warren Corning build the first frame building.  It stood on the corner of Center Street and Mentor Avenue.  It was the D.G. Branch Tavern.
• 1815  Mentor Township is formed.
• 1833  The first Mentor Township Hall was built on Jackson Street.  The Hopkins and Sawyer families were donors to the project.
• 1851  The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad reached Mentor.
• 1854  Mentor Cemetery was established.
• 1855  Mentor Village School District was formed.
• 1868  First factory was built on Station Street.  It was known as the Hart Nut and Washer Co.
• 1876  James A. Garfield purchased the Dickey Farm ( an original Corning property).
• 1888  Mentor Village Hall is constructed.
• 1916  Wayside and C. Merkel Nurseries are begun.
• 1921  Klyn Nursery was established.
• 1922  Mentor Lumber and J. Fracci Florists opened.
• 1923  Mentor High School (Memorial site) replaces Center Street School. Center Street School becomes an elementary - JHS.
• 1925 (1940)  Wyant nursery was established.  Public retail site began in 1940.
• 1926  Nick Castello Florist opened.
• 1928  Bosley Nursery began.
• 1937  Joseph Havel salvages ornamental greenhouse from George Ball estate in Cleveland.  Florist business opened in Mentor Twp.
• 1942  Fire Station #1 on Jackson Street is opened.
• 1961  The Great Lakes Mall is opened.  It was the largest in the U.S. at the time.
• 1965  The new Mentor High on Center Street is opened.  Memorial becomes a JHS.
• 1973  The Cleveland Museum of Natural History dedicated 619 acres of Mentor Marsh property as a nature preserve.
• 1986  Center Street Mill torn down.

The list is not meant to be all inclusive but rather serves to remember just a few of the lost stories from yesterday.  Stories remembered from my school years or passed down to me from my family and neighbors.  Either way, this is a Mentor heritage tour worthy of exploring as you drive the roads of Lake County.