Hiram Inn (Hiram, Ohio)

 place with historical importance, inn

The Young House was built on land given by Daniel Tilden to his daughter Lydia, wife of Thomas Fitch Young. The original house was built in 1824, with additions built during later years. At some undetermined date, the house was operated as an inn called Young’s Exchange, which ceased operation around 1870.

Many visitors who came to attend commencement stayed at the Inn, where dinners were served and horses stabled. Thomas Fitch Young was the first postmaster in Hiram as well as the town clerk, and the post office was located in the house. The house was also the site of the first Portage County Library.

The Young property was the nucleus of what is now the main Hiram campus and Hiram village. The house was home to four generations of Young’s. The last owner, Clinton T.J. Young, once expressed the wish that “…the Young house will have a growing place in the life of Hiram.” In 1992, Hiram College purchased the house from his estate.

The Young house is the second oldest house in Hiram. The purchase of the house and its transformation into The Hiram Inn was made possible by the generosity of Robert F. Merwin and Betty MacKay Merwin of Erie, Pennsylvania. Robert Merwin was chairman and Betty Merwin was secretary of Erie Magnetics Company, which Mr. Merwin co-founded in 1942 with his father, Orange F. Merwin. Mr. Merwin was a member of the Hiram College Board of Trustees and served on numerous committees. Both Mr. and Mrs. Merwin were 1936 graduates of Hiram College.

When he served on the Hiram College’s Board of Trustees, Robert Merwin often lamented the fact that visitors to the college had to drive to Aurora in find an overnight accommodation. In 1995, Mr. and Mrs. Merwin gave a $1.2 million gift to the college to build an inn at the corner of State Routes 700 and 82, the site of the Young house. Renovated and expanded in 1996 into The Hiram Inn, it remains an example of New England-style architecture.

www.hiraminn.com/