Is Amherst really the "Sandstone Center of the World?" In fact, it is, but it should share its title with South Amherst. Both Amherst and South Amherst have a vast amount of sandstone quarries. Not surprisingly, Amherst sandstone feels rough and gritty. After all, sandstone literally contains sand.

The first Amherst settlers in the early 1800s used the sandy rock to form grist mills and saw mills. Jacob Shupe was the first resident to build a grist mill on Beaver Creek and became quite wealthy using his sandstone grindstones. Not until 1847 did quarrying sandstone become big business in Amherst. A Canadian industrialist named John Worthington developed the first quarry using techniques developed by John Baldwin in Berea. Over the years several dozen quarry companies developed on the various quarries within Amherst and South Amherst. Large scale quarrying brought railroads through Amherst. It also contributed to an increase in the population. In 1830, Amherst's population was 552, growing to 2,482 by 1870. By 1924, most of the smaller companies had been bought out by the Cleveland Quarries Company (CQC) which still owns the majority of the local quarries today.

By the 1950s sandstone was used less widely as building material for homes and buildings. The CQC therefore ran an advertising campaign promoting the use of sandstone in the steelmaking process for linings in furnaces and ladles. For a while, CQC provided three fourths of U.S. steel manufacturers with their sandstone. Because of low demand, however, CQC shut down operations in 1992. It reopened later in the decade but now conducts only a fraction of the amount of work that it had in the past.

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Present-day Amherst is located within what was once the Western Reserve in the Northwest Territory. This land belonged to the Connecticut Land Company who surveyed the land between 1796 and 1806 and divided Amherst, which was five square miles, into 100 lots. The first known permanent settler who purchased the land from the Connecticut Land Company in 1811 was Jacob Shupe. Shupe settled in northern Amherst on Beaver Creek. Using the area's sandstone and the creek's waters, he developed the first saw mill, grist mill, and whiskey distillery in the area. Many other early settlers to Amherst were veterans of the War of 1812 who had been given tracts of land by Congress for their military service. Each family settled on or near Beaver Creek and used its waters to develop their farms. Josiah Harris of Massachusetts arrived in 1818 and purchased the land where the Old Spring stands today. At the time, the area of Amherst was known as "The Corners," as the five main streets converged near the spring on Beaver Creek.

As the village grew in population through the mid-nineteenth century the spring became the center of economic activity. By the early 1900s the water was pumped into storage tanks, and later the spring was used by a brewery. In 1914, a free running pipe was installed for easier access to the drinking water from the spring.

By the 1930s both local and federal money helped restore the spring. In 1930, August Nabakowski, a local roofer whose business was located across the street from the spring, built an archway at the entrance to the spring with recycled materials, including broken tiles, pebbles, sandstone and cement. In 1936, workers from the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA) built stone tables and a fireplace at the site, and reinforced a guard wall in the area between the Old Spring and Beaver Creek.

Since the rejuvenation of the public space in the 1930s, families have often picnicked or simply spent time down the small steep hill behind Town Hall to enjoy the scenery, the sound of rushing water or a fresh drink. Although most houses had indoor plumbing, some families who lived on the outskirts of town could not drink their running water and still had to rely on the Old Spring for drinking water. By the 1960s the water from the Old Spring was deemed unfit for human consumption because of the high level of bacteria. Some Amherst residents blamed people who put chemicals on their lawns, which became a popular practice in the 1950s. A sign today still warns visitors to the spring not to drink the water.

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Did you know that there is an opera house in Amherst? In the upstairs of Amherst's Town Hall, a performance space was built where operas and lectures were held in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The building of a town hall in Amherst was many years in the making. Starting in 1875 Mayor A.C. Moore requested of the city council that a town hall be built. In a speech he gave to council on April 11, 1876 he stressed the need for a community space, but did not want to rush the process: "What kind of structure will it be? Where shall it be located? How shall the necessary funds be raised?...There are questions that require mature thought." Mayor Moore also described his vision of the hall: "Symmetry and neatness have much to do with beauty and can be obtained without extravagance...A commodious hall is one of the means which invites lecturers on literary, scientific, and moral questions."

Not until 1884 was a town hall finally built. Costing between $2,000 and $3,000, the hall was located on land given by Judge Josiah Harris and originally set aside for a public square. The building material of choice was, of course, sandstone. The bottom floor housed the Amherst Police, the first floor became city offices, and an auditorium was constructed on the second floor. Operas and lectures could now come to Amherst.Tickets for the events at the Opera House were sold at Kuss' Drug store on Park Avenue. School graduation ceremonies were also held upstairs. By the early 1940s, Amherst high school students performed plays on the Town Hall Stage including "The Night of January Sixteenth," "Our Town" and "Death Takes a Holiday."

In 1915, a large sign was constructed in front of Town Hall, boldly stating "Amherst: Sandstone Center of the World." This phrase was coined by local businessman O.H. Baker, who first used it on his stationary in 1910. In 1955, South Amherst residents claimed that the title was rightfully theirs and the sign was removed. It was later restored after Cleveland Quarry officials confirmed that both communities had massive amounts of sandstone in their quarries. In 2003, the Ohio Bicentennial Commission officially recognized Amherst's title of "Sandstone Center of the World" and placed an Ohio Historical Marker near the original sign.

By the late 1950s, the Town Hall Stage fell into disrepair and was being used by the Amherst police as a shooting range and storage facility. Although the Amherst police eventually moved out and took their target practice elsewhere, the auditorium in the Town Hall still sits empty and unused today.

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