Part of New Philadelphia collection on display at mayor’s office

Former New Philadelphia Mayor Mike Taylor now lives in North Carolina, but New Philadelphia is always in his heart. Taylor had a buyer for his collection of New Philadelphia memorabilia, which consists of thousands of pieces, but he wanted the collection to go back to the city that meant so much to him. Taylor also worked as a banker, realtor and antique dealer in the city.

The collection is now being managed and curated by the members of the Tuscarawas County Heritage Home Association. They accepted the collection and are now working on ways to display it so it can be viewed by members of the public. The collection brings back memories of former times, people, businesses and places in the history of New Philadelphia.

With the cooperation of the Tuscarawas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Liz Hipp has been using space in the organization’s basement to sift through the collection, and she is creating a spreadsheet of the items. Some of the best finds are now located in a display just outside the New Philadelphia Mayor’s Office. The exhibit was designed and built by Museum Acrylics Company of New Philadelphia.

For the exhibit outside the mayor’s office, the group wanted the pieces to be something interesting and a bit different with a lot of variety of pieces. The medicine bottles are made of glass, and there are handwritten prescriptions. There also are paper coupons people saved from stores to help them save money.

“We needed something that was easily displayable in a setting like this. So for the first go-round, we’ve got drugstore items, advertising fans and penny banks,” said George Laurence, a member of the TCHHA.

The prescription was written in 1901, and the fans are from between the 1930s and 1960s.

“These advertising fans are really unique,” Laurence said. “This is something that people just don’t have any idea existed — that was before air-conditioning.”

The response to the first display has been good, and the TCHHA is looking for more locations to place exhibits featuring the collection. The TCHHA would like a building for the collection or a museum or a room for the collection in a building that is already open but does not need to be a very big space. A lobby in an office building or someplace where the building will be open to the public most days would be ideal.

In addition to a description of the items on display, the item tags also list the name of the current business in a location.

“I think people like to see the relevance of what was there, a then and now kind of thing. I think that’s important,” Laurence said. “I think that made it more interesting for people to read and just understand what was there. Because that’s the thing with history, you have to understand what you had or what you lost. I think it’s important.”

The group hopes to switch out the displays at the mayor’s office as they discover and put together new exhibits.

There are larger pieces in the collection too, like a cast iron manhole or storm drain cover that is not yet on display.

“It’s probably three quarters of an inch thick, iron and heavy, and, of course, has raised lettering on it,” Laurence said.

One of the more unusual things that is not on display is from the opera house in New Philadelphia. The item is a ticket registry that opens up and has slots for the different seats.

“That’s one of the coolest things I think we have,” Laurence said.

More interesting pieces are showing up all the time.

“This is so new for us. It’s a matter of just delving into the boxes and seeing what’s there. We’ve just scratched the surface,” Laurence said.

Laurence’s favorite piece in the display is a rocket ship coin bank that was given out by the Reeves Bank. TCHHA member Tom Strickling likes a piece that is not yet on display but is a small safe about the size of a dorm room refrigerator.

“It’s got the fancy scrollwork and a little scene painted and the name of the company that had the safe,” Strickling said.

Caring for a collection is something new for the TCHHA.

“Curating this collection is a little outside of our box. Our mission statement is to promote and preserve awareness of historically significant structures in the county. So we’re basically focused on educating people about buildings. But at the same time, we appreciate all the history of the county,” Strickling said.

The TCHHA thanked Mayor Joel Day and the city of New Philadelphia for their assistance in making the display available to the public.

“I feel the same way you do; it needs to be seen. We need to know more about the city’s history,” Day said.

For more information visit the TCHHA website at www.tuschha.org or the organization’s Facebook page.