Eugene Smith, to a group of Medina citizens in early 1976. Smith’s photos of Medina showed a classic Victorian square overrun with gaudy neon signs and ugly storefronts. Many local citizens did not like what they saw and quickly formed the Community Design Committee (CDC) to suggest an alternate vision. The restoration of Medina's Historic Uptown Square began in 1968 with the 1878 Town Hall and En
gine House. The color rendering created by CDC artist Elmer Zarney convinced the Mayor to fund the building's restoration. The transformation was dramatic and inspired other building owners to seek assistance from the CDC. The basic premise of the CDC was an old one - "One picture is worth a thousand words." Several artists in that group pored over vintage photos and history books and created colorful renderings of how the buildings might look once the layers of neglect and ugly additions were removed. Other members of the CDC - armed with the renderings - made countless presentations to community groups and building owners. Using no tax dollars or government incentives, the uptown property owners embraced the CDC's suggestions for restoration and transformed the city's heart. Within five years this privately financed Victorian restoration revived pride in the historic city center and garnered an award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for "Significant Achievement in Historic Preservation in the U.S." Today the results of the CDC's vision are plain to see, not only in the Engine House but in all the grand buildings of our historic square.
