"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

This year marks the beginning of the Centennial celebration of O. C. Barber’s Mansion To celebrate this event we are issuing a new hard bound Barber Mansion cookbook containing great Barber family recipes, photos of the interior of the sumptuous Mansion and stories about holiday traditions in the Mansion and on the Anna Dean Farm.
“The Barber Mansion Cookbook and Holiday Traditions” by Bernie Gnap and Stephen Kelleher, features great recipes from the Barber family. This large format book contains over 200 pages in a hardbound foremat with color dust jacket. This beautiful book takes a loving look at the Barber Mansion, which would have been 100 years old this year. Printed in a very limited quantity, like almost all of our publications, we expect this new book to sell out in a matter of weeks.

The book will retail for $21.95 at our online gift shop, but if you want a copy simply email us your name and USPS address and we will reserve your copy now. Send no money. We will bill you in November when the book is going to be released. However reservations are coming in so fast for this book that it will probably not sell retail in any stores at Christmas so get your reservation in now.

Please consider the following special offer. We are releasing a new DVD about Barberton in the 1950’s entitled the Magic City in the Fabulous Fifties” This 90 minute DVD will retail for $19.95. You may reserve your copy now by emailing us at Barbertonhistsoc@aol.com. We will notify you when the DVD will be available for shipment. Reserve both our new Barber Mansion Cookbook and our new DVD, send no money now and we will bill you for only $36.95 when they both arrive. This is a savings of $7.00.

Historical Society has Purchased the O. C. Barber Wishing Well

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED. THE WISHING WELL IS NOW OURS!!

HISTORY
On Easter Monday in 1909, the world famous industrialist and Barberton’s founder, Ohio C. Barber, began the construction of the Barber Mansion with it’s surrounding 40-acre park. To landscape the expansive park grounds, Mr. Barber hired the famous landscape architect O. C. Simonds of Chicago.

Simonds was the founder of the “middle western movement” of landscape design and was the only Midwesterner among the 11 charter members of the American Society of Landscape Architects. It was Simonds’ design of the Barber Mansion’s landscaping that led to the creation of the stone Wishing Well, or the Old Oaken Bucket, as it was called in Barber’s day.

The Wishing Well sat on the gravel path directly due north of the Barber Mansion and was a well-visited beauty spot on the Anna Dean Farm. It was also Mr. Barber's favorite place to sit and reflect.

The Barber Mansion was demolished in 1965 and today all but two acres of the 40-acre Barber Park have been developed into home sites. One acre contains the O. C. Barber Wishing Well.

The Barberton Historical Society was recently honored by a grant of $22,500 from the Barberton Community Foundation to help us purchase and preserve the Barber Wishing Well. To commemorate the Centennial of the Anna Dean Farm in 2009, the historical society was able to purchase the O. C. Barber Wishing Well property to preserve not only the well but also the many large trees planted by the Wishing Well which were planted by Mr. Barber. Even the daffodils planted by O. C. Barber in 1910 still bloom near the wishing well. To accomplish this project we have raised a matching amount of $22,500. – AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT !!

Now Available
from the Barberton Historical Society

The Barberton Historical Society has three Barberton History books and one DVD currently available:

“Construction of O. C. Barber’s Anna Dean Farm”, “Ghosts Along the Tuscarawas” and “Anna Dean Farm – A Centennial Remembrance” are $21.95 post paid. “America’s Match King – Ohio Columbus Barber” is $24.95 post paid. Vist our giftshop page to order.

Face Book

Have you ever looked at the Social networking site Facebook? Everyday we try to post something new on this site in the way of photos, and Barberton historical information. You can visit us by joining Facebook or just by pasting into your browser : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barberton-Historical-Society/270728740436?ref=ts

"The Anna Dean Farm can give you what you need, all that you desire, and more than you deserve."
-Ohio C. Barber 1915-

Annadeanfarm.com is the website of the Barberton Historical Society and we will attempt to show you Ohio C. Barber's Anna Dean Farm. The view of this website is to show the Anna Dean Farm as it would look in 1915. Unfortunately today, only 8 of the original 35 Anna Dean Farm buildings survive. The Barberton Historical Society owns five of the remaining eight Anna Dean Farm buildings, which we are currently restoring. Please visit all of the buildings on the Anna Dean Farm, but why not start with the Mansion of O. C. Barber, which upon its completion in 1910, was considered to be the finest mansion between New York and Chicago. The first thing you will encounter on the site are the floor plans of the Mansion. To take a virtual tour of the Mansion you will only need to click on the individual room.

The Barberton Historical Society is a non profit 501(c) 3 organization, so all of your donations are tax deductible. If you would like to help us our please visit our gift shop, or click on our DONATIONS button below which contains information on how you can make a tax deductible donation to help preserve the remaining Anna Dean Farm buildings.

In the meantime to contact us to ask us any questions, you can reach us via e-mail at Barbertonhistsoc@aol.com or call us directly at 330-830-1444. We have over 3000 individual photos of the Anna Dean Farm and Barberton Ohio. However we are always looking for more. Please keep us in mind for any old photos of Barberton.