Crist Lyle M. - Alliance

This cabin is believed to be one of the first constructed in the area. It was built by John Grant, who purchased nearly 1,000 acres of land from the U.S. government in 1809. The structure was located in a ravine several hundred yards from the northwest corner of Main Street and Union Avenue. Mr. Grant was a great-uncle of Pres. Ulysses S. Grant. Mr. Grants daughter Sarah married J. Ridgeway Haines, and their Colonial home, on the corner of Haines Street and West Market Street, was built of brick made by John Grant, who fired the first bricks in his kiln in Lexington Township

The Freedom Public Square Monument is located on the corner of North Park Avenue (originally called Main Street when Freedom was its own community) and Keystone Street. The original stone for the village well is still located on the lot next to the monument.

The Clem Rockhill Residence was built in 1820. Located on West Wayne Street, the home was built by Samuel Rockhill and named for his son Clement. It is one of Alliances oldest homes.

This marker was placed by the Alliance Historical Society on the site of the Village of Lexington square and well. The town was founded in 1805 by Amos Holloway, who later became prominent in the abolitionist movement. Holloway was responsible for helping many blacks escape from their slave masters in the South to freedom in Canada.

The Freedom School was erected in 1838 in the Village of Freedom. Located at 705 North Freedom, the brick structure has been covered with siding for a number of years. It is the oldest remaining school building in Alliance.

Mathias Hester, founder of the Village of Freedom, is seen here with his brothers and sister in the late 1800s. Seated (from left to right) are Samuel, Mathias, and Martin. Standing are John and Eliza. Mathias Hester was born in 1793 in Green County, Pennsylvania. He moved to New Lisbon, Ohio (now Lisbon) in the early 1820s. He met a Salem girl, Susan Gaskill, married, and moved to the Village of Mount Union in 1834 where he established a grocery store on the southwest corner of the square.

The Hester Block, which was located on Hester Avenue near Freedom Triangle, was one of the oldest brick structures in Alliance. Built in 1838, the architectural style was Federal. The bricks were made in the clay pits which now form the beautiful lake in front of Glamorgan Castle. The bricks cost $2.50 per thousand and had to be hauled by ox and wagon. The Block was used as a residence for Hester and his family and also as a general store. The building was condemned in the 1980s and later destroyed. The north section still stands today.

The Samuel Shaffer residence, built in 1842, was located on Main Street (now North Park) in the Village of Freedom, on the square. Shaffer, a German immigrant, moved to this area from Pennsylvania to operate a general store. In 1851, the Village Council and railroad officials approached Shaffer notifying him of the possibility that the Cleveland and Wellsville Railroad might pass through the community. Shaffer offered his home to the community, making it the very first railroad station in what would soon become Alliance.

Popularly known as Freedom Tavern, this frame structure stood at the corner of Vine and Walnut Streets in the Village of Freedom. The tavern (also known as American House) has a vital link to the opening of the great Western frontier. Because of its location, many people who traveled by Conestoga wagon spent the night here enjoying good food and rest. The house was built in the 1830s and was torn down in the mid-1930s.

Elisha Teeters (18141899) settled in Lexington Township in 1835. That same year, he married Eliza Webb and built a frame structure on the corner of Rockhill and Vine Streets. It still stands today, directly behind the Old Sebrell Farmhouse. Mr. Teeters, along with Mathias Hester, laid out much of Alliance. Teeterss son was instructed to take his horse and plow and make a path running from the railroad tracks to the edge of Teeterss farm. This dirt path became Main Street. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Teeters married Mathias Hesters daughter Sarah. He built her a fine High Victorian Italianate mansion at 323 West Vine Street. Mr. Teeters was involved in many business ventures, including banking with Dr. L.L. Lamborn and real estate.