Festival to herald reopening of museum

By Elise Franco

CANFIELD — The oldest log home in the Western Reserve is reopening a year after financial burdens caused its closure.

Bruce Neff, of Canfield and a Canfield Heritage Foundation board member, said the reopening of Log- hurst Museum on U.S. Route 224 will kick off with a music festival Aug. 15.

Neff said the benefit concert, featuring JD Eicher, Melva, Rumble Daddy, Side B, Tao Jones and several other bands, is an event geared toward high school-age kids, but residents of all ages are welcome.

He said the gates open at 5 p.m., and cost is $5 for limited on-site parking and a $5 donation. Neff said bands will play until 11 p.m., and guests can participate in a corn-hole tournament.

“We do hope this music festival will become an annual event,” he said.

The money raised will help with operational costs for the museum, Neff said.

“We want to raise around $5,000 to continue an educational program and sustain some of Loghurst’s yearlong programs,” he said.

The home, which was built in 1805, was owned by Conrad Naff, who Neff said was one of Canfield’s earliest settlers. He said the land was passed down through many families before Josephine Kyle gave it to the Western Reserve Historical Society in the late 1970s.

“She was the last heir to the farm,” Neff said. “She gave it to the Western Reserve Historical Society so that it could always be used as an example of early Western Reserve life.”

The Western Reserve, circa the early 1800s, was made up of Huron, Lorain, Cuyahoga, Medina, Portage, Geauga, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties. Trumbull County was later divided to form Mahoning County.

Neff said the house closed last year because, with a budget of close to $24,000 per year, operating costs exceeded the amount of revenue museum programs brought in.

“As with all historical societies, the WRHS funding has been impacted negatively because of the economy,” he said. “We were afraid it would be lost and developed as a commercial property.”

In order to reopen, Neff said a group of local history enthusiasts formed the Canfield Heritage Foundation through a cooperative agreement with the WRHS.

“The Canfield Historical Society has a commitment to the Mahoning Dispatch building and felt they couldn’t do both,” he said. “So we formed our own organization.”

Canfield Heritage Foundation Board director Barb Loewit, of Boardman, said she’s happy to be a part of the new organization to get the museum up and running again.

“There’s such a wealth of information here that shows our growth through the community,” she said. “I’ve always felt comfortable here. It felt like my grandmother’s house.”

Neff said the seven-acre property that is home to the Loghurst Museum runs educational programs for children, historical encampments and re-enactments, tours and master-gardeners programs. He said they hope to establish a yearly farmers market.

“We’re enthusiastic that we’ve been able to preserve what we feel is a gem in the community,” Neff said.

efranco@vindy.com