BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      Boardman Park will host Community Day on Sat., July 18. The event will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. featuring family-friendly activities, entertainment, local organizations and opportunities for fellowship.
      Community Day will conclude with a fireworks show.
      Expected to be open for public tours during the event will be the Oswald Detchon home that is located in a historical section of the park.
      The Detchon home is named after one of the first 27 families to move to Boardman more than 200 years ago.
      It was formerly located near Southern Blvd. on Rt. 224 and was moved to Boardman Park in 1985, and now serves as home to a significant collection of local history collected by the Boardman Historical Society.
      At the age of 40, Oswald Detchon, a native of England, came to Boardman in 1801. He owned 800 acres of land in Boardman, and by 1803, old records show he was the second-largest taxpayer in the township, paying annual taxes of $1.30.
      Detchon was a noted tanner and was among the early caretakers of Boardman Cemetery. He was known for paying good prices for hides and pelts.
      His son, Oswald, was born in Boardman in Jan., 1837 and the Detchon home in Boardman Park is believed to have been built about 1870. (Source: Boardman Park District Oswald Detchon fact sheet)
      Detchon died in 1910 at the age of 73, and many years later, Judge Harold Doyle and his new wife called the Detchon home ‘their home’ for several years; and after that it contained the offices of the John Fithian Contracting Co.
      In 1984, a car dealership (Stadium Lincoln-Mercury) bought the property on which the Detchon House was located and the Boardman Rotary Club provided the funding to move the structure to the historic village in the park, where it now sits (along with Olde St. James Meeting House and the Schiller-Chuey Summer Kitchen House).
      Among the thousands of historical items in the house are old tools, photographs, Boardman High School yearbooks, clothing, furniture, documents, knick-knacks and other items commonly of the past.
      Last summer, members and friends of the Boardman Historical Society spent countless hours restoring the interior of the home and reorganizing the artifacts it contains.
      Among those involved with the work were former Boardman Fire Chief and local fire department historian Jim Dorman, former Boardman Local School Board member Robert Wright, Historical Society member Mike Orwell and a relative of Oswald Detchon, Matt Detchon, of East Liverpool, Oh.
      “Our mission was to make sure when visitors to the Detchon Home look at something, they will know what its history is,” Dorman said, noting thousands of items were reviewed.
      Now, with everything in the Detchon House cataloged, Historical Society president Deb Libtak says the site will soon be open for tours.
      “Community Day is going to be the launch for tours of the Detchon Home,” Liptak said.
      The Boardman Historical Society will meet at Olde St. James Meeting House in Boardman Park on Sat., June 13 at 10:00 a.m. where local historian Tom Welsh will speak about the history of the church.
      Then, on Community Day, Sat., July 18, at 10:00 a.m. the Historical Society will meet at Old St. James Meeting House in Boardman Park at 10:00 a.m. where Mark Luke will speak abut the history of Boardman.
      “We’re gearing up Community Day and this is all to tie in America 250 Boardman. And we’re going to offer tours that day. Then, of course, we’ll have a table at the Community Day because we want to recruit volunteers and new members. We want people to join the historical society,” Liptak said.
      Membership information for the Boardman Historical Society, or information on donating to the society can be obtained by calling Deb Liptak at 330-770-3114.
      THE BOARDMAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY will open the Detchon House in Boardman Park for tours later this year as part of the community’s America 250 celebration. A significant collection of Boardman Township’s early history and artifacts are kept at the site.
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