The Medina County Historical Society broke ground this past Friday on a new history center rising behind the McDowell-Phillips House Museum at 205 S. Prospect Street, a $1.2 million building meant to finally give the society's growing collection of artifacts and documents a proper home. Society president Brian Feron welcomed guests to the ceremony, thanked the project's supporters, and joined Medina Mayor Jim Shields in turning the first shovels of dirt behind the 1890 mansion.
According to cleveland.com, the groundbreaking ceremony drew society members, donors, and public officials to the site on October 2. Mayor Shields led the Pledge of Allegiance before he and Feron broke ground together, and guests later walked a new sidewalk back into the museum, where they viewed building plans and enjoyed refreshments. Charlie Ramer, the society's vice president, and David Arbogast, its treasurer, were also named among the organization's leadership at the event.
A Building Years in the Making
Design work on the history center began back in 2023, according to the same cleveland.com report, and the society hired Artisan Building and Design in 2025 to construct it. The project cleared permit approval just last month, after what the outlet described as a stretch complicated by rising construction costs and shifting market conditions throughout 2026.
The finished structure will include a 2,400-square-foot first floor, a 400-square-foot partial loft, and an 1,800-square-foot basement, all fully ADA accessible. Per cleveland.com's account, the space is designed to hold exhibits of artifacts, archival storage for historical documents, and a room suited for seminars or small-group gatherings — the kind of climate-controlled, code-compliant space a 19th-century house museum was never built to provide.
Funding the $1.3 Million Push
The historical society set a $1.3 million fundraising goal to cover both the new building and improvements to the Medina Street parking lot, the same report notes. A $250,000 state cultural grant helped push the campaign toward its target, and the society has now raised enough to proceed with construction. That state money flows through Ohio's capital budget allocation process, which directs funding to local governments and nonprofits for public cultural and historical facilities, according to the Ohio General Assembly.
Ahead of the ceremony, the society had already completed the new Medina Street parking lot, which cleveland.com reported was paved and lined in time for guests to use it. The new sidewalk connecting the lot to the museum made it possible for attendees to walk directly to the groundbreaking site.
Why the Collection Outgrew the Mansion
The need for more space traces back to how the historical society came to own the McDowell-Phillips House in the first place. The society acquired the property in 2019 after descendants Drew and Miriam Phillips offered it below market value, launching a $500,000 capital campaign to purchase and rehabilitate the mansion, according to Ohio History Connection. Built in 1890 for Old Phoenix Bank president Robert M. McDowell and designed by Medina-native architect George Nettleton in the Queen Anne Shingle Style, the 14-room house with seven fireplaces sits on two acres within Medina's Bankers Row Historic District and is counted among Ohio's few remaining Shingle Style residences.
The home stayed in the same family for nearly 130 years until 2019, and the family left behind five generations of intact heirlooms — including late 19th-century presidential campaign banners for Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley, per the same source. Robert McDowell's wife, Elizabeth Blake McDowell, was the daughter of Harrison G. Blake, a U.S. Congressman and abolitionist who helped found Medina's original Phoenix Bank, Ohio History Connection notes — deep civic roots that help explain why the collection grew so large in the first place.
A Growing Historical Campus
The historical society's main headquarters and museum are housed in the John Smart House, according to the Medina County Historical Society. The organization traces its own roots to March 1922, evolving from the Medina Pioneer Association formed in 1875, as reported by The Medina Gazette.
This year, the society began offering joint public open house hours on the second Sunday of each month, letting visitors tour both the John Smart House and the McDowell-Phillips House Museum in the same outing, per the organization's own announcement. The McDowell-Phillips campus has already been recognized for preservation work, having earned Main Street Medina's Best Residential Rehabilitation Award for 2020 after the society's initial restoration of the mansion. The society has also previously announced plans to relocate a restored 1942 World War II War Bond Building to the rear of the property, further building out the site as a multi-facility historical campus.
The new history center is projected to hold its grand opening in June 2027. In the meantime, the Medina County Historical Society continues to post information about its activities and upcoming events online.
