Medina’s iconic gazebo marks 50 years on the Square

Paul Wood, Director of the Town Hall and Engine House, recently asked museum visitors why they moved to Medina from London, England. Their initial goal, they explained, was to move near North Royalton, where their children lived. As they searched for homes online, they discovered images of Medina.

“We saw the Square and the Gazebo and knew we had to live here,” they said.

Their answer did not surprise Wood. He was raised in Medina but lived in upstate New York and Maine for 35 years before returning 10 years ago.

“My friends couldn’t believe I’d be going back to Ohio,” Wood said. “I told them our Medina Square is more New England than most New England towns. I grew up in this beautiful New England town, but it was in Ohio, and that’s where my heart is.”

He moved into an English cottage-style historic home on North Jefferson Street, which had previously been owned by his fourth-grade art teacher, Jean Evans. She remembered him and attended his housewarming party.

His love of Medina history led him to join the Historic Preservation Board, and he became vice president of the Friends of the Cemetery. He also volunteered with the Town Hall and Engine Museum and took over as Director from Roger Smalley in November.

Wood was recently looking through a Medina High School yearbook with Beth Girman, who is preparing for the 50th reunion for the Class of 1975. They found a photo of her classmates posing in the gazebo, which appeared to be still under construction.

“It was then that we realized the gazebo must be 50 years old,” Wood said.

He went to the library, found newspaper articles, and confirmed that this year is the 50th anniversary of Medina’s beloved gazebo. The dedication ceremony was on June 13, 1975. Wood celebrated the anniversary using the windows of the Engine House Museum, which face the gazebo. He hopes that the anniversary will also be noted at summer band concerts.

Cynthia Szunyog was a member of the Community Design Committee (CDC) when the idea of the gazebo was conceived.

“There was a fountain in the center of the park for a long time,” she said. “The first was an elegant Victorian fountain which was eventually replaced by second one. When I was a child, there was a third fountain with goldfish in it.”

She recalls that in the early 1970s, the Community Design Committee sought a way to enhance Uptown Park, so they hired a landscape architect to create a Master Plan, which included a gazebo to replace the fountain. They consulted Ross Trump, a Medina antique dealer and an expert on Victorian architecture. He suggested that the CDC look at the 1879 gazebo in Bellville, Ohio.

Upon seeing the gazebo, the CDC knew that a duplicate would be perfect for the Square. Members went to Bellville, took exact measurements from that gazebo, and hired an architect to design a perfect reproduction. A basement was added to store the equipment needed for the band.

Initially, the design was to be painted in bright colors, but that didn't look right. Again.

Trump was consulted and suggested soft colors. The gazebo looks today as it did 50 years ago.

Funding to build the gazebo was provided by the Letha E. House Foundation.

“They were going to pay $93,000 for the gazebo, and the average cost of a house in Medina back then was $25,000,” Wood said. “People thought it was outrageous to spend that kind of money for a gazebo, but if you look at the ornamentation on this building, you can see why.

“I’ve been to Bellville, and you drive in and it’s a pretty little gazebo, but it doesn't have the stature that ours has. It's because ours is in the middle of the Square. It looks spectacular, and theirs looks nice.”

Szunyog was also a trustee of the former Letha House Foundation. She explained that they provided the funding to build the gazebo with the understanding that the City would schedule an annual inspection and make the necessary repairs.

An architect performs the inspection each year. The gazebo gets hard use and requires a lot of maintenance.Recently, the Medina Park Trust has funded the reworking of the railings to strengthen them.

With the discovery of the gazebo’s anniversary, Wood and Smalley realized that the photos of Medina’s history on the museum walls stop at 1975.

“We only have the ancient history of Medina,” Wood said. “We decided to find more recent pictures to put up on our boards. I found some pictures of kids in front of pay phones. That is historical. We want a picture of the Munson house being moved and one of the Super Kmart opening parade. Things that happened even 20 years ago are still history.”

So far, they have added a photo of Medina’s Matt Amodio, who won 38 consecutive “Jeopardy!” games in 2021, and the images showing the construction of the new hotel and the ACME Fresh Market store.

He urged people who have noteworthy Medina photos taken since 1975 to bring them to the museum. It is open whenever there is an event on the Square, and on the third Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.