Public checks out new Elida Historical Society's new building at monthly open house

ELIDA, OH (WLIO) - A young but rapidly growing historical society welcomed the public to their new location on Sunday. 

The Elida Historical Society hosted their first monthly open house since moving to a new museum on Main Street. They first opened their doors in a much smaller building back in October of 2023, but they've gotten so many donations from the public that they quickly found themselves in need of more room. Shelves and display cases have everything from Elida yearbooks and sports memorabilia to early maps and information on prominent village figures over the years. 

"We also have some memorabilia from the different businesses here, along with the village, and with our founder, Griffith John, who founded the village in 1878. He was just an interesting man from what I read about him and heard about him, and he named the community after his brother Elida too, which I also found pretty cool to see," said Jace McDonald, a historian and Elida Historical Society board member.

"There's several of us on the board and affiliated with this that we just feel there's so much from back 40-50 years ago, more 60 years ago, that younger people today and the people in the city do not understand what went on then, and we're hoping to share that information," added chairperson Jayne Vaske.

The Elida Historical Society is open every third Sunday of the month from 1-4 p.m. To learn more, you can follow them on Facebook.