03.18.25 MEETING MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council Tuesday, March 18, 2025 Page 4 Open Portion — For Public Comment (5-minute limit imposed by Chair) Janice Baker 6515 Annandale I am with the Mayfield Township Historical Society. I live in Mayfield Heights. My kids went to Mayfield High School. I wanted to thank you for allowing our Historical House to hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of every month over at the Community Room. Also, I wanted to thank you for your donation to our Historical Society. It helps keep the Bennett VanCuren House up and running. We are all volunteers, but every little bit helps. I would like to tell you a little bit about the Historical Society if you are not familiar with it. Many of you are, but some of you are not. It is made up of the four communities that make up the schools, Mayfield Village, Mayfield Heights, Gates Mills and Highland Heights. We are located now at 606 SOM Center Road next to the police station. The house was moved there in 1987. It was built in 1847. It was located in front of the area where Yours Truly Restaurant is. On April 6, 1987 it was moved up SOM Center Road when it was just a two-lane road. We got a new basement and the house was furnished as a museum. If you ever want to come and visit us, we are open most Mondays from 10:00-1:00 or by appointment. We also have our monthly meetings. There are two left until the summer recess. They are held on the second Wednesdays at the Community Center. April is the Cultural Gardens and May is Murder in Mayhem in Cleveland. One of the highlights that we have though is our third grade tours. We are heading into that time now, April and May. For about 5 weeks we will have approximately 350 children from Mayfield Schools as well as private schools come to the house. We have groups of 50 kids when they come because we certainly can't take them all at once. They are then divided into smaller groups. The Bennet Van-Curen house has 13 rooms in it. The rooms are not set up as an 1847 house. It is set up more like the timeline like the school district has for the children from 1805 we have a log cabin in the basement to a 1930's kitchen. We also have a schoolroom in the basement which has some of the original desks from the old Center School on 784 SOM. After they visit, the teachers have the children write letters to us and tell us what they liked about the Bennet Van- Curen House. We keep them on file. Kids can come any time. I brought a couple of them. I wanted to just read a few. These are third graders, 8 and 9 years old. Usually they are accompanied by a picture. "Dear Volunteers — thank you for letting us visit the Historic House. I really enjoyed the music room. It was my favorite because the room was nice back in the day." "Dear Historical House Volunteers — thank you for teaching us about the past in Mayfield. My favorite room in the house was the nursery. I loved seeing the toys and the little clothes. The best part was learning about how the past is and how people got their neighbor's attention and how to use a printing press."