Plum Street School Mystery (Guest Blogger)

During my internship here at the Ramsayer Research Library I have been involved in the reorganization of the Stark County photograph files. This has been a bit time consuming, but a very interesting project for me! Hailing from Canton myself, it has been rather neat seeing how much Canton has changed, learning more about my hometown, and making connection between Canton’s past and the way I remember it growing up here.

Currently, I have been working on reorganizing all of the photograph files of many of the different schools that have been or currently are in the Canton area.

Recently, I came across a particularly interesting mystery. I found the library had two separate files labeled “Plum Street School” and “McKinley Avenue School” but low and behold, when looking at the building in these pictures, they appeared to be one and the same! What??

S. Plum Street School ~1887

McKinley Ave School, 1st grade April 21, 1897

After some research for a previous mystery related to the Garfield Avenue School, I came across an article on The Canton Repository site citing “A Collection of School Histories: Canton Public Schools” by Gordon G. Humbert as a source of information. So, of course I had to hunt this source down to see what else it had to offer. Fortunately, I did not have to look far as I soon discovered the book is posted in its entirety on the Canton City School District’s website: A Collection of School Histories

In former Superintendent Humbert’s collection I finally found some information on this mysterious South Plum Street School. As it turns out, South Plum Street, McKinley Avenue, and Wells School are in fact all the same building. In 1875, the Plum Street School was built and named after the street it faced. In 1875, it was a four classroom building, by 1896 eight additional rooms were added. During the “McKinley era” Plum Street was renamed McKinley Avenue and consequently the school was renamed as well. From what I can gather, this change happened some time in the 1890’s.
In 1918, when McKinley High School was built on Market North across from the McKinley home, McKinley Avenue School was once again renamed, this time to Bezaleel Wells School after the founder of Canton.

– Lisa Bailey, Intern

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Progress Through Preservation…

Last Tuesday, February 24, 2015 Progress Through Preservation held there monthly meeting at the Historic Onesto Lofts.

The McKinley Ballroom

The group asked me to create a movie based on the life of Francis A. Onesto, and how his hard work helped him create the most luxurious hotel in Canton, Hotel Onesto.

They were very pleased with the photographs from the Lovaty Collection, and the other information we gathered at the Ramsayer Research Library for this project.

Before dinner there was a time when we could gather in the hotel lobby.  I was very honored to meet two of Frank Onesto’s relatives, a great-nephew, and a niece.  Marilyn Stevens told me she worked for her Uncle Frank in the hotel offices upstairs, in order to keep her safe from the boy callers.  She also told me the story of Uncle Frank’s Cadillac El Camino Convertible he bought after the “War.” Marilyn talked about how her Uncle would let her drive his car to Hartville to buy fresh fruit.

Marilyn Steven

Original Plates and Goblet from Hotel Onesto

Thank you to Phil for sharing your original artifacts!

My niece Jennifer Jacobsen, and I enjoyed the company of Jan and Brett Haverlick, the Project Manager of the the Onesto restoration.  The buffet style meal was absolutely amazing, and the atmosphere was  delightful.

After dinner Steve Coon spoke on the restoration of Hotel Onesto, and gave us a tour of the lofts.

 

Thank you to Progress Through Preservation, Brett & Jan Haverlick, Steve Coon, and John Miller!

Thank you also to the Staff & Volunteers of the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum!

More Later…