Best Web Design in Amherst, OH (2026)

Web Design for Amherst, Ohio

Amherst, pronounced AM-hurst, is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, 28 miles west of Cleveland and inside the Cleveland metropolitan area. It sits 2.5 miles south of Lake Erie at an elevation of 646 feet, covering roughly seven square miles of which a small fraction is water. The population was 12,681 at the 2020 census. Its climate is humid continental, Koppen Dfa, with very warm to hot humid summers and cold winters carrying moderate snow. It uses ZIP code 44001 and area code 440.

AppWT works with Amherst, OH businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Amherst

History. Pioneer settler Jacob Shupe came to the area in 1811 and founded the original village, while the area that became downtown was settled by Josiah Harris in 1818. Shupe's land in the Beaver Creek Settlement, about a mile north of the later village site, was eventually taken into the Amherst city limits, and he built his own grist mill, saw mill and distillery there. The place was known only as Amherst Corners in the early 1830s. The village plat was officially recorded in 1836 under the plain name Amherst, became Amherstville around 1839, changed later to North Amherst, and returned to Amherst in 1909. The first post office of the 1820s carried the postal name Plato and kept it into the 1840s, after the local government name had already become Amherstville by 1840. By the latter 1800s the community had acquired the title Sandstone Center of the World. Census counts climb steadily from 1,542 residents in 1880 through 2,106 in 1910, 2,844 in 1930 and 3,542 in 1950, then jump to 6,750 in 1960 and 9,902 in 1970, reaching 10,620 in 1980, 11,797 in 2000, 12,021 in 2010 and 12,681 in 2020.

Local economy. Amherst's historical economy is sandstone. The city carries the title Sandstone Center of the World from the latter 1800s, and stone quarried at Amherst traveled well beyond Ohio, with the Ingham County Courthouse in Michigan faced in Berea Sandstone quarried in Amherst. The regional stone itself was named Berea Grit by Ohio geologist J. S. Newberry in 1874 after Berea, Ohio, and Berea Sandstone quarrying began in 1830, producing only grindstones until roughly 1840 to 1845 before diversifying into building stone and flagstones. More than a dozen companies worked the stone before consolidating into the Cleveland Stone Company by 1893, at the time the largest sandstone producer in the United States. Earlier local industry included Jacob Shupe's grist mill, saw mill and distillery. In 1950 John Penton and his brothers opened a motorcycle dealership in Amherst that sold BSA, BMW and NSU machines.

Culture and community. Henry Dwight Stratton was born in Amherst on August 24, 1824, attended its public schools and then Oberlin College, and in 1854 helped organize Bryant & Stratton College, a chain that had grown to as many as 50 schools by 1864. Joel Hills Johnson sold his farm in Pomfret and moved to Amherst around 1830, was baptized a member of the Church of Christ there on June 1, 1831, and soon became president of the church's Amherst branch before a mission to New York in 1832. John Alfred Penton, born August 19, 1925, was a lifelong resident of the Amherst area who learned to ride on his father's 1914 Harley-Davidson, represented the United States seven times at the International Six Days Trial between 1962 and 1970, and set a transcontinental record riding a BMW R69S from New York to Los Angeles in 52 hours and 11 minutes on June 8 to 10, 1959. He died in Amherst on September 7, 2025, nineteen days after turning 100. Ryan Rua attended Marion L. Steele High School in Amherst and became the first player in that school's history to be drafted, taken by the Texas Rangers in the 17th round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft. Jerry Lawler, the wrestler and commentator, lived in Amherst from the ages of 7 to 15 after his father was transferred to a Ford Motor Company assembly plant in nearby Lorain, and the stay influenced him for life.

What makes Amherst distinct. Amherst Corners, then the 1836 town plat of Amherst, then Amherstville around 1839, then North Amherst, then Amherst again in 1909, while the post office ran under the separate name Plato from the 1820s into the 1840s. The 2023 population estimate of 12,928 is an estimate, not a census count. It is located 28 miles (45 km) west of Cleveland." Also distinguished for the sandstone material: Berea, Ohio in Cuyahoga County is the town the stone is named for, not Berea in Madison County, Kentucky.

Amherst is a Lorain County city west of Cleveland whose identity grew from its 19th-century sandstone quarries, earning it the motto "Sandstone Center of the World."

Amherst Landmarks and Local Life

• Sandstone Village - Amherst Historical Society heritage village on Milan Avenue with restored historic buildings and a quarry museum
• Amherst Historical Society - Nonprofit founded in 1973 preserving the town's sandstone-quarrying heritage

Amherst at a Glance

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2023.

• Median household income: About $93,043
• Adults with a bachelor degree or higher: About 32.3%
• Housing: About 87.7% of housing units are owner-occupied
• Housing: Roughly 87.1% of housing is single-family detached homes