A history of Elyria,
since 1817
Postcards, papers and photographs of Elyria from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The village of Elyria was founded in 1817 by Heman Ely, who built a log house, dam, gristmill, and sawmill on the village's site along the Black River. Ely began to build more houses to accommodate European-American settlers migrating to what was, at that time, within Huron County, Ohio.
By the turn of the 20th century, Elyria was a town of about 8,000. In 1908, Elyria Memorial Hospital was built. In the first half of the 20th century, the town developed some manufacturing, as well as a range of retail businesses.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Elyria’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewThe Falls, 1905: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Elyria
See all 65 →
Elyria, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Elyria is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Elyria has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Patrick Carlin House in Elyria, 1.9 miles away.
Elyria and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as The Falls (1905) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6) and the National Register (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.