Back in the early 1900s –long before it was ever considered the soon-to-be visitor center for Cuyahoga Valley National Park –the Boston Mill building was serving an alternative purpose.
The original function of the Boston Mill Visitor Center building was a general store that was constructed in 1905 for the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company. The company was formed in 1902 when the Standard Bag and Paper Company and the Cleveland Paper Company merged with the Akron Paper Company. The mill manufactured flour sacks and roofing paper. In addition to the store, the company also built six employee houses on Main Street and two duplex houses on Riverview Road. The company provided housing for some workers, while others built their own.
Shown above, The Cleveland-Akron Bag Company built this company store just south of the plant on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. The Boston General Store sold to workers on credit, but a motto on the sales receipt read “all bills must be paid in full every regular pay.” Chester and Julia Zielenski managed this store for the bag company for years. The Zielenskis purchased the building in 1925. Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio).
Photo of the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company. Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio).
This photograph shows the village of Boston, Ohio around 1910. The Cleveland-Akron Bag Company is at the left, with the company houses on Main St. above. The general store sits to the right of the covered bridge. Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio).
This photograph is of the interior of the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company around 1910. These machines mixed pulp. Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio).
Boston saw its greatest period of growth between 1900 and 1923. Employing nearly two hundred people, the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company provided an economic boost to the town. Many of these people were Polish immigrants from Cleveland, changing the population of Boston.
Pictured are a group of workers at the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company on August 8, 1910. Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio)
Stations were built along the railroad –this photograph shows the station at Boston Mill. The mill’s effect on Boston was so overwhelming that the Valley Railway changed the name on the depot from “Boston” to “Boston Mill.” Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio).
In 1923, the bag company closed, and its workers found employment at the Jaite Paper Mill located a few miles north. The Cleveland-Akron Bag Company facility was acquired by the Union Trust Company in 1928 and then sold at a sheriff’s auction to the Cleveland and Boston Company. In 1923 the mill was torn down.
Visible in the left corner of this photograph is the Boston Mill Store. Photo courtesy of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society (Peninsula, Ohio).
Although the mill has disappeared, the store remains to this day. The store will house the visitor center and function as a “front door” to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, giving visitors a central, one-stop resource to plan their journey.
