Brandywine is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Summit County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

History

A variant name was Brandywine Mills. A post office called Brandywine Mills was established in 1825, and remained in operation until 1855. The community took its name from nearby Brandywine Creek.

Brandywine Village

Brandywine Village, Ohio is a former settlement located near Brandywine Falls. It is within the boundaries of the

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in Ohio that reclaims and preserves the industrial, commercial, and rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron, Ohio, ...

. The site lies on the border between Northfield Center Township and Sagamore Hills Township. The Village of Brandywine was first settled in 1814 when George Wallace, taking advantage of the

water power Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kin ...

, built a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

at Brandywine Falls. It was a thriving community. Over the next decade, the Village of Brandywine added a whiskey

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

, woolen mill, and a dozen houses. In 1824, Wallace transferred his property to his sons who then formed the Wallace Brothers Company. Business thrived for the next 30 years. Eventually, Brandywine's prosperity dried up. The

Ohio and Erie Canal The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron, Ohio, Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio ...

, and later the railroads, shipped goods to the cities of

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

and

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, leaving towns like Brandywine behind. Except for the barn and house built by James Wallace in 1848 only a few hidden foundations remain of the Village of Brandywine. Near the falls, some foundations of the old gristmill can still be seen. The James Wallace House has been restored and now serves as a

bed and breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...

, The Inn at Brandywine Falls.

Gallery

References

Unincorporated communities in Summit County, Ohio Unincorporated communities in Ohio {{SummitCountyOH-geo-stub