1874 Town Hall

The 1874 Town Hall is located on Bedford Public Square at 30 South Park (Squire Place). The three story brick building is constructed in the Second Empire Style. It has been renovated and upgraded periodically over the years. In 2004, the Historical Society a rear addition allows the building to be handicapped accessible. The building is home to the Town Hall Museum housing the major collections, library, archives and general offices of the Historical Society. It is on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.
Significant Collections within the Town Hall Museum:

• Various home, farm and business tools from the 1800s;
• Extensive home furnishings mainly from 1850 to World War I;
• Extensive clothing and textiles; military uniforms, small arms and assorted memorabilia;
• Bedford Fire fighting equipment;
• Early office equipment;
• Extensive forms of lighting;
• Wm. Jacka 1876 Centennial coin and memorabilia collection;
• Extensive Walker China collection;
• Extensive Taylor and Marble chair collection;
• Hazen early baseball card collection;
• Indian artifacts including local arrowheads;
• Sportsman’s Park racing memorabilia collection;
• Railroad equipment collection.

Library:

• The 12,000 volume library is broadly based on general Americana, with special emphasis on Ohio history.
• It is strong in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Western Reserve books and periodicals.
• The Lincoln & Civil War Room contains the Squire collection of 1,000 books on Abraham Lincoln with a compiled bibliography.
• The Civil War Room also contains the Barnum Civil War library including collections of letters and documents, regimental histories and rosters and service records of 261 Bedford Township men who served in the Union Army.
• Library holdings also include: books from Bedford’s first library, 1880s;
• U.S. 1876 Centennial books;
• Early periodicals including National Geographic, Scientific American, Life;
• Leonard Siegel Railroad and Trolley books and periodicals;
• Extensive holdings of Bedford newspapers.

Archives:

• Bedford township journals and papers covering the period 1834 to 1951;
• JP docket books, trustee minutes, district school records, road records;
• The City of Bedford records include 180 volumes of town records from 1860 to 1950.
• As the designated depository for the city, other documents include an extensive accumulation of Bedford governmental papers, reports, directories, election records and other holdings.
• Additional archival information includes area farm journals and ledgers, merchant account books and invoices, records of local industries and manufacturers, clubs, lodges and diaries;
• Field notes, sketches and maps by naturalists exploring the Tinker’s Creek Gorge and environs in the Bedford Reservation;
• An extensive map collection;
• An extensive photograph collection.

Genealogy:

• The genealogy section contains numerous published books about local families;
• Binders of indexed local individuals and families;
• Burials in Bedford Cemetery;
• Local newspaper obituaries and death notices;
• Military records of Bedford Township residents who served during the Civil War, War with Spain, World War I & II, Korean War and Vietnam Conflict.