PHOTOS BY JESSE DAVIS / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
CZECH HERITAGE … A restored room of the Heritage House in Metamora is filled with displays honoring the history of immigrants from the Czech Republic who settled in the region.
SCHOOL DAYS PAST … Memorabilia from the Fulton Centralized School and Metamora High School fill a room of the recently restored Heritage House in Metamora, operated by the Metamora Area Historical Society.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
After years of restoration and occasional use, the Heritage House in Metamora, operated by the Metamora Area Historical Society, is opening on a regular basis for visitors to tour the home and the exhibits of local history staged within it.
Historical society Vice President Cheryl Geer said the renovation of the home – which was donated to the organization – took roughly two years and included everything from stripping multiple layers of paint from the staircase and railing to removing carpet, scraping off the glue, and refinishing the original hardwood floors.
New tile in an original Jack-and-Jill bathroom and other improvements brought the house back to life in or very close to its original form.
Although the historical society doesn’t have records of when exactly the 343 W. Main Street home was built, they believe it was constructed in the 1920s.
After the restoration, exhibits were installed in the rooms on the second floor featuring a variety of the area’s history, from the origins of Metamora to the community’s Czech immigrant population and its early schools.
Geer noted that the second floor is not accessible to all visitors. “We’re hoping to be able to do a video of it because we’re not handicap accessible and there’s really no way that we can be up here,” Geer said.
“We have also got the three-car garage, we call it the annex, where we’ll be able to put small farm equipment and things that don’t need climate control.”
The goal for the home is to hold open houses once each month, like the one held in mid-February.
In September, the house will also be part of the Ohio Open Doors event offering tours of historic sites throughout the state. The Heritage House will feature an exhibit on Metamora’s sports teams.
Existing exhibits at the house will rotate with exhibits at other locations in order to keep the tour fresh and give visitors a reason to keep coming back to learn something new each time.
The house also has a workroom for the historical society where they store a wide variety of records and artifacts. Everything has been catalogued, and members are now entering the records into a digital database. The system will allow easy indexing by other members of the Fulton County Historical Alliance, which also includes the Fulton County, Swanton, Lyons, and Bean Creek historical societies.
The Metamora Area Historical Society was founded in 2004. For more information on the organization, contact the Evergreen Community Library at (419)644-2771 or visit them at 253 Maple Street in Metamora.
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