Ward-Thomas Museum
McKinley Federal Savings and Loan Company.
Ward — Thomas
Museum
Home of the Niles Historical Society
503 Brown Street Niles, Ohio 44446
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J.S. Benedict General Store |
McKinley
Federal Savings and Loan Company. There were other reliable reports that an ice cream parlor had also rented space on the site. Niles was growing, however and Lot 20 was too valuable an asset to allow an older, smaller residence to take up the space that could be better occupied by a more modern building. Sometime before 1875 the house was enlarged and converted into a store owned by J. S. Benedict. In 1890 the land upon which McKinley’s house stood on Main Street, was needed as a site for the City National Bank (later McKinley bank). It was not known who undertook and financed the project, but McKinley’s house was cut in two and the part in which McKinley had been born was moved to Riverside Park along the Meander Creek, sometime after the park began operating, possibly as a museum attraction. The second half of the house was moved to Franklin Alley and used as a shop where the Harris rotary offset presses were made. |
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West side of South Main Street, 1894 |
In
the meantime, the northern half of Lot 20 became a bank building
occupied first by the City National Bank and then by the Dollar
Savings Bank until it moved to its present location, at the intersection
of South Main Street and East Park Avenue, in 1917 . After that,
it became the home of the McKinley Federal Savings Bank and a small
plaque commemorating the site of McKinley’s birth was added
to the building. Photograph on the left shows the west side of South Main Street as it appeared at the turn of the century in 1894. Left to right: Benedict building, old City National Bank building, Clingan building, Deither-Carter building, Holton building, Harris house, later the site of the Niles Bank building. (Across Park Avenue) the Swaney building, IOOF building and the Wagstaff building. |
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City National Bank building, 1894 |
City National Bank SO1.37a
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J.S. Benedict General Store
Dollar Bank Building, 1895 |
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Interior view of McKinley Federal
Savings Bank, 1935 before renovations. |
Renovated bank early 1950's |
Bank with demolition for drive-thru,
early 60's |
Bank with demolition for drive-thru,
early 60's |
Bank with drive-thru completed
in 1962. |
Demolition of bank completed. |
The McKinley Birthplace Home |
In the 1990s, the McKinley Memorial Library Board of Trustees worked to obtain the land where the original house was located and constructed the McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center. The McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center is a reconstruction of the home where President William McKinley, the last President to have served in the Civil War, was born on January 29th, 1843. The Center is located at 40 South Main Street,
Niles, OH 44446. 330.652.1774 or http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/
The McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center is now open to visitors. Please check their Website for information. |
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