Explore Alliance history during Carnation Festival

Special to The Alliance Review
·4 min read
Carnation Festival logo
Carnation Festival logo

Area residents and Carnation City visitors will have many opportunities to explore Alliance history during the 63rd Greater Alliance Carnation Festival that runs Aug. 3-13.

Alliance Historical Society, Alliance Preservation Society and the Castle Crusaders have scheduled open houses in their historic sites, and guided and self-guided tours of Alliance City Cemetery are also planned.

Mabel Hartzell Home

The Mabel Hartzell Historic Home in Alliance is home to the Alliance Historical Society. The home, which was built in 1867, was willed to the society by Mabel Hartzell upon her death. It was constructed using bricks that were manufactured in the Alliance area.
The Mabel Hartzell Historic Home in Alliance is home to the Alliance Historical Society. The home, which was built in 1867, was willed to the society by Mabel Hartzell upon her death. It was constructed using bricks that were manufactured in the Alliance area.

Alliance Historical Society will offer tours of Mabel Hartzell Historical Home and the Alliance History Mini Museum from Aug. 6 through Aug. 11, from 1 to 4 p.m. each day. A donation of $5 per person is requested, children under 12 and society members can enter for free.

The Victorian home, which is celebrating its 156th anniversary this year at North Park Avenue and Vine Street, was constructed in 1867 for Matthew and Mary Edwards Earley. The house was located on a lot in the old village of Freedom, one of the three villages, along with Williamsport and Liberty, that went on to become Alliance.

The Earleys also owned the land across Vine Street to the north of the home, which is now Earley’s Hill Park.

Their adopted daughter Mabel Hartzell helped start the Alliance Historical Society in 1939 and, upon her death, willed the home and its contents to the society in 1954.

Some furniture and items in the home are original to the Earley-Hartzell family, and some items have been donated to the society since its founding in 1939.

The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 and is an Alliance Local Landmark.

The Historical Society also will participate in the festival’s Grand Parade on Aug. 12 with Shawn Watson and his 1966 DIVCO milk truck, courtesy of Twin Meadow Farm, and will be joined by the “Marking Time in Alliance” Mini driven by Jim and Karen Perone.

The Haines House

Haines House in Alliance is home to the Haines House Underground Railroad Museum.
Haines House in Alliance is home to the Haines House Underground Railroad Museum.

Alliance Area Preservation Society will offer tours of Haines House from Aug. 6 to Aug. 11, from 1 to 4 p.m. each day. Special activities are planned each day, and a donation of $5 per person is requested, with children 10 and younger entering for free.

The Haines House was built in stages between 1827 and 1842 by John and Nancy Grant, among the earliest families to settle in Stark County.

Located at 186 W. Market St., the Grants’ daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Ridgeway Haines, operated a station on the Underground Railroad in the House in the years before the Civil War. Their son, John Columbus Haines, fought in the Civil War. He and his brothers were active in the growing Alliance community throughout the second half of the 19th century and founded the Alliance City Band in 1859.

Today, their home is the Haines House Underground Railroad Museum, where visitors can view the restored mid-Victorian parlor, the early 19th century kitchen, the hands-on child's room, the Grant bedroom, the attic where fugitive slaves were hidden, and the herb garden.

Also on display are changing historical and preservation related exhibits, and a “Timeline of Slavery and Abolitionism in the U.S."

The Haines House has been recognized by the National Park Service's Network to Freedom program and the Ohio Underground Railroad Association.

Glamorgan Castle

Glamorgan Castle in Alliance, which is owned by Alliance City Schools, was built in 1904 for Col. William Henry Morgan. Over the years since it was built, it has been used for various purposes, including company headquarters, and as the Alliance Elks' lodge.
Glamorgan Castle in Alliance, which is owned by Alliance City Schools, was built in 1904 for Col. William Henry Morgan. Over the years since it was built, it has been used for various purposes, including company headquarters, and as the Alliance Elks' lodge.

The Castle Crusaders will offer self-guided tours of the Glamorgan Castle from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 5-6. A donation of $10 per person is requested.

Glamorgan Castle was originally built as a private residence for Col. William Henry Morgan in 1904. It cost $400,000 to build and remained in the Morgan family until 1938.

While the United States was deep in the throes of the Great Depression, the widowed Mrs. Morgan sold the castle to the Elks organization for $25,000. They used it as their lodge until 1964.

Merrick Lewis purchased Glamorgan Castle for $51,000 to use as the corporate headquarters for Alliance Machine. During this time, there were extensive renovations to the building; for example, a wine cellar was added.

A year after the school district built a new high school on a portion of the grounds directly behind the castle in 1972, Glamorgan Castle was sold to Alliance City Schools to use as administrative offices. That was made possible through a federal grant and through the generosity on the part of Merrick Lewis.

The Castle is at 200 Glamorgan St.

Cemetery tours

Guided tours of Alliance City Cemetery by Frank and Michal Barret will be offered at 2 p.m. Aug. 6 and Aug. 13. Self-guided tours using the Clio phone app will also be offered. The cemetery is at 541 W. Vine St. and tour-goers should meet at the chapel.

The Alliance City Cemetery opened in 1865 as a place to bury the dead of the Civil War. The cemetery consists of 52 acres, and 33,000 people are buried there, and room for another 30,000. Ten private family mausoleums exist in addition to the main cemetery mausoleum and 10 sarcophagi.

The tour is sponsored jointly by the Alliance Historical Society and Alliance Area Preservation Society.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Explore Alliance history during Carnation Festival