LOUDONVILLE — Central Park in Loudonville is often an idyllic setting for community events and celebrations.
But it also has a surprising history of bitter controversies, from farmers grazing livestock on “public land” in the 1800s to the village cutting down trees in more recent years.
It’s said that when James Loudon Priest donated the land for Central Park to the village, he did so with stipulations limiting what the land could be used for as well as well as terms for its ownership to potentially revert to his family. In 1865, descendants of James Loudon Priest, Junas and John Priest, were taken to court for cultivating the land in Central Park and planting corn.
The Priest’s argued that their family owned the land. Abithar Stockman and the Village argued otherwise.
The Priest’s lost their case and were barred from ever “molesting, or in any way, interfering with use of Loudonville Square.”
In 1870, Loudonville attempted to lease part of the square to the school district for 999 years, with the intention of building a school there. However, another lawsuit was filed and this time the Village lost — the ruling being that such a lease was equivalent to selling the land.
Another such controversy embroiled the town in the late 1960s. For nearly 50 years the Municipal Hall & Opera House, built in 1909, had served the community not just as the Ohio Theatre and city hall, but also by housing the public library, fire department, and public restrooms.
The fire department was quickly outgrowing the space and the Village offices were also quite cramped.
Despite this, the Village approved the purchase of a new ladder truck, which of course would not fit in the garage bay of the theatre. Therefore a new fire house needed to be built, and in 1966 council agreed to move forward with building one that also included space for a new city hall.
The Village projected construction to cost approximately $150,000 to $200,000. A previous village levy had already portioned income tax for the construction project.
A number of locations were considered for the construction of the property, namely razing the existing theatre, but that was not well received and quickly thrown from discussion. The Village would lease it out once they vacated the premises.
Other locations such as Central Park, the Derrenberger building (now the Health Clinic on Main Street), an empty lot off of Main (approximately where Mickey Mart is), a number of residential homes located in various parts of the village that could be purchased and razed, and finally the “Banks Property” on the corner of North Market and Butler Street.
Central Park and the Banks property quickly became the frontrunners. The park was an ideal, central location and more importantly it was free as the village already owned it, while the Banks property would have to be purchased.
Mayor Mel Shilling was a strong supporter of the park location, but there was some initial concern about the aesthetics and previous legal battles over the past century and a half that had council weary of building there. The Banks property, council decided, was a safer choice.
Mayor Shilling refused, even though Council approved the purchase of the Banks property. He would not execute the order.
Council be damned, “I don’t see how a $150,000 municipal building located on (Central Park) could not be more attractive than restrooms and a log cabin,” he rebuked. The Workman Cabin had only been moved there two years prior in preparation for the sesquicentennial in 1965, which had now passed.
The cabin was always intended to be temporary, but it seemed to be popular with the citizens of the town and no other site had been found for it yet. The restrooms were an unsightly structure built into the hillside behind the cabin, by many accounts they were poorly maintained and unattractive at best.
Shilling continued by reminding Council that purchasing the Banks property would cost upwards of $30,000 that the village did not have appropriated, and furthermore would remove a taxable enterprise that generated income for the village coffers. In addition to Shilling, the Chamber of Commerce endorsed the park plan.
Council finally gave in to Shilling’s demands and unanimously approved the park location. According to the Loudonville Times, “Mayor Shilling was smiling. However, before the ‘ink was dry’ … a party or parties ‘unknown’ began spinning the wheels of ‘de-progress’ by retaining local attorney Donald L. Nash for the purpose of preventing construction.” Prominent resident J. Austin Smith, an executive at Flxible, was the leader of the opposition that Shilling labeled the “againers.”
While Smith and Attorney Nash looked for loopholes to prevent construction in the park, Shilling told the press he was confident he would win the case.
Two criteria determined the past lawsuits regarding the park: Does the village own the land? If a building is erected, is it for public use? Both, according to Shilling, were a resounding yes. Case closed … at least in his mind.
Smith and dozens of other residents attended the next meeting. Smith lectured the council, “This community is growing and will continue to grow … I believe it would be sacrilege to touch Central Park. The cabin that is located there now is not merely a cabin — it is a monument that should be preserved by this village.”
Smith then announced his favor for a fire house at the Banks property and the construction of a municipal building later. Councilman Nave agreed.
Pete Weidner, on behalf of the Street Fair, raised concerns regarding the fate of the fair if part of Central Park is no longer available … and then exclaimed: “I think what this town needs is free parking! If we don’t start working along these lines, we won’t need a fire station or city building.”
With the meeting looking to spiral out of control, Shilling asked Council to get the ball rolling. Nave made the motion to start legislation for construction in the park.
“That settles the question for the time being, anyway,” Shilling commented.
J. Austin Smith and his “Citizen’s Committee” continued to protest. He began submitting editorials to the Loudonville Times, which the editor refused to print. Smith then submitted paid ads, which the Times began rejecting as well. Shilling’s camp essentially silenced the opposition, and Smith was not pleased.
If Shilling and the Times wanted to play hardball, Smith was game.
He began taking paid ads out in all the surrounding papers — Mansfield, Ashland, Wooster, Mount Vernon — and soon the whole region was talking about the battle over the parks in Loudonville. According to many editorials submitted by other residents, Smith’s campaign soon began personally targeting Shilling.
Residents asked for a moratorium on the editorials and attacks … but that request fell on deaf ears. Councilman Lester Albertson complained of receiving phone calls on a nightly basis, beginning at 9 p.m. and continuing to 3 a.m. … and that he intended to prosecute whoever it was.
In December of 1966, an effigy of J. Austin Smith was hung in Central Park. The Times posted a tongue-in-cheek photograph of it titled “somebody disagrees,” and gave little extra thought.
Shortly thereafter a cheeky sign was posted in the park: “No Trespassing — Sacred Cow.”
Smith, being ignored now by the press and the mayor, offered a princely reward for information leading to the perpetrators, while council merely “regretted” that it happened. The same month, Council voted to force the Mohican Historical Society to remove the Workman Cabin from Central Park, but following the vote continued discussion and held a new vote resulting in a split decision.
The park debate began gaining international attention: a recreational trade publication out of Canada visited Loudonville to cover the topic. The National Recreation and Parks Association attempted to contact Shilling regarding his plans, but were first ignored and then received a harshly worded letter from his office.
The NRPA responded by printing the letter in area papers, damaging Shilling’s reputation with some residents.
New Years of 1967 brought little change, although now Smith’s opposition was circling petitions calling for the issue to be settled by vote in the spring elections. Shilling didn’t think they would get the signatures — they did.
When the petitions were submitted in March, the Village immediately threw them out. Village Solicitor Francis Smith nullified the petitions on the grounds that a “verifiable copy” had not been submitted in advance.
Smith had lost many supporters after his negative attack ads, but many in the village were now in favor of taking it to a city-wide vote and calls for the ballot box to settle the issue had been heard for months.
In a council meeting, J.B. Stout informed the Council that he had defended democracy in World War I and that as long as he breathed he would be in favor of democracy. So, put it to a vote.
Council finally heard enough, but the spring election was going to be held too late to make changes to the location before the new ladder truck was delivered.
So Council voted in favor of a special election held as soon as possible to settle the matter. Editorials in the paper raised concerns of it becoming a straw poll.
In April of 1967, with growing opposition and a looming legal battle, Council announced Central Park was no longer the future home of the fire house.
Shilling remarked, “In my own personal opinion, we haven’t lost — the Village has. Speaking as an individual and taxpayer, as far as I’m concerned there is no ground in Loudonville worth an estimated $30,000. I believe that in time, people will realize that a savings of this size could have been used for many improvements in Loudonville.
“However, we could not wait out a legal hassle, so we are going to seek a site elsewhere. I thought we were supposed to save taxpayers money — this appears as a mandate for us to spend some $30,000 that could have been saved.”
The new location for the fire house was still up for debate. In May, Council approved the purchase of the Simokat-Frangkiser property on Water Street for $12,000.
Although considerably less than the $30,000 price tag on the Banks property, the Fire Department strongly urged Council to reconsider.
They felt that the Simokat-Frangkiser property was ill-suited for their needs. One volunteer fireman who was also a real estate agent estimated the value of a brick home on the Banks property to be worth $10,000 and asked Council to consider that option of selling the house to be relocated — effectively cutting the cost to $20,000 … but that plan never materialized.
It wasn’t until a month later, in June, that Council finally agreed with Banks on the purchase of his lots for a reduced price of $20,000.
The nine-month controversy had come to a close …. for the time being. Shilling and Council still intended to build a new municipal building in Central Park, after the fire house was completed, but their support in town had dried up.
Eventually renovations were made to the existing city hall, and the village continues to operate out of the historic building.
More information on the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum can be found at this link.
