EveryMuseum.com - Milan Historical Museum

The Milan Historical Museum maintains 6 historic sites:

The Galpin Home
The 1843 Sayles House
Edna Roe Newton Memorial Building
The Doll & Toy House
The Blacksmith Shop and Carriage Shed
The Lockwood, Smith & Co. General Store

Milan can boast of several attractions - its picturesque streets and village square often described as a New England town in Northwestern Ohio; its remarkable history and growth as an inland canal port; its distinction as the birthplace of Thomas Alva Edison.

Milan lies in the Firelands, the western-most tract of land of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The Reserve consists of land given as compensation to Connecticut families burned out and driven from their homes during the Revolutionary War. A survey of the Firelands in 1807 identifies the Indian Village of Petquotting, later the site of Milan. Moravian missionaries settled in the area in 1787 but left for Canada in 1804. Among later permanent settlers was Ebenezer Merry who founded the town in 1816 and built a flour and sawmill. The settlement was first known as Merry's Mill and later rechristened Milan.

The town's history is one of tremendous growth. The Huron River was navigable to within three miles of Milan when spirited businessmen of the village conceived the idea of a man-made canal from Milan to the Huron River. This link to the Great Lakes became a reality in 1839 when the first ship entered the Milan Canal Basin. A tremendous boom in trade swiftly resulted. Warehouses surrounding the turning basin soon had a storage capacity of 300,000 bushels of grain. Hundreds of wagons coming from as far as 130 miles lined the roads daily. Milan in the 1800's, feeling secure as a canal town, fought entry of the railroads. But rails, not canals, were the future of inland transportation. Milan's canal and warehouses were eventually abandoned and slowly became a part of the village's history.