Web Design in Milan, OH

Milan, Ohio

Milan is in Erie County.

Well-Known Places in Milan

Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum, Milan historic district and public square, Edison Pen Company.

About Milan, Ohio

Milan is a village in Erie County, Ohio (a small portion extends into Huron County), sitting on the Huron River about 12 miles southeast of Sandusky. It was laid out in 1816 by Ebenezer Merry and named after Milan, Italy. During the 1800s the Milan Canal made it a major grain-shipping port, and it is the birthplace of inventor Thomas Edison.

History of Milan

• The village was laid out in 1816 by settler Ebenezer Merry, who built flour and sawmills, and was named for Milan, Italy; Moravian missionaries had earlier established a mission village called Pequotting on the site in 1804.
• The Milan Canal, begun in 1832-33, opened to Lake Erie navigation on July 4, 1839, linking the village to the Huron River and Lake Erie roughly 10 miles downstream.
• Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan on February 11, 1847, in a brick house at Front Street and Choate Avenue.

The Milan Economy

• During the canal era Milan was a major grain-shipping port; local histories record about two million dollars of commodities exported in the 1847 peak year, ranking it among the world's largest wheat ports.
• The town was also a Great Lakes shipbuilding center, producing roughly 75 lake vessels between 1840 and 1866; the railroad's arrival in 1854 and an 1868 flood that destroyed the canal's feeder dam ended its port economy.

Community Life in Milan

• The Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum, a brick house built in 1841, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and opened as a museum in 1947 by Edison's daughter Madeleine.
• Milan was named a Distinctive Destination by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2002 and retains many 19th-century homes and commercial buildings around its village square.
• The Milan Historical Museum operates a complex of historic buildings in the village.

Local reference: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com, milanohio.gov