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Relaxing Willoughby Ohio

Willoughby is the only town in America that has belonged, at one time or another, to six counties (Washington, Jefferson, Trumbull, Geauga, Cuyahoga, and Lake).

Downtown Willoughby now stands a few miles south of where the town began at the mouth of the Chagrin River. Erie Indians and French pioneers were the first inhabitants of the area. In 1798 a settler from New England built a grist mill. Eventually a small settlement developed at the site of an old Indian ford, north of the present center of town. An inn for stagecoach travelers between Buffalo and Cleveland brought their business to the settlement. Development gradually moved southward. Present day Erie Street and its surrounds were once called Mill Hill. This was the industrial part of town, with grist, saw fulling (part of the production of woolen cloth) an cider mills as well as other factories. Inns, hotels and taverns sprouted up to serve the workers.

The town was called Charlton under the French, then Chagrin River and eventually Chagrin. Dr. Westell Willoughby was one of the founders of the Willoughby Medical College, considered at its time to be one of the best facilities outside a large city. Willoughby promised to leave to the town all his worldly possessions if it were renamed in his honor. The name change was made in 1835, but legend has it, all Willoughby actually left was his portrait - and a scholarly tradition that spawned five educational institutions as well as the city's public schools. Willoughby Fine Arts, Lake County's pre-eminent arts education and performance organization, was founded in downtown Willoughby and is still located close by.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, which was to become the New York Central railroad, brought the larger world to Willoughby in 1853. A second railroad, the Nickel Plate line, arrived in the 1870s. Willoughby's economy, like those of so many cities of the era, experienced huge growth as a result. In 1895 the Cleveland, Painesville and Eastern electric railroad began service, greatly increasing local transportation between Public Square in Cleveland and Lake County. This interconnection increased the sophistication of Lake County residents as locals were given the opportunity to experience city life and, in converse, members of the wealthy classes based in Cleveland began to enjoy their leisure time in the countty building great countty estates and resorts here.

At the same time as the trolley, electricity also first became available to Willoughby residents. Willoughby's charming town center mainly dates to the mid to late 1880s. After a series of devastating fires, the town mandated that new buildings be built of brick or stone only. In the first half of the 1900s industry abounded. Steel manufacturing, a rubber company, a torpedo plant, saw mills, and a brick plant were just a few. The Willoughby area employed thousands of people in the area just in manufacturing alone.

The business district thrived until the 1960s when the advent of the shopping mall drew much business away and left the downtown area to stagnate. Local efforts to save and revitalize downtown Willoughby began in the late 1970s and were in full swing by the 1980s. Design standards were put in place to preserve the quaint, historic look of the area. In the mid 90s, Willoughby's downtown was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.