Crazy Man's Hollow
and Station Road

Station Road
Brecksville, Ohio

History

During the 1800s, a powder works (or gunpowder factory) existed on the east side of the Cuyahoga River here near Station Road. It supplied Union troops during the Civil War. According to local legend, a soldier was stationed at the powder magazine to guard it in the isolated area. It is said that he went insane from loneliness and scrawled diagrams and other graffiti all over the building. (In another version of the story told by artist and author Joe Jesensky, a night watchman stayed on in a building at the site long after the company folded. He became a hermit and was found dead in the building.) From that day on, the spot was known as "Crazy Man's Hollow."

The road is so named because a railroad station for the Valley Railway was built here on the west shore of the river. In 1881, a steel truss bridge was built by the Massillon Bridge Company to span the Cuyahoga. The road was largely abandoned after construction of the Route 82 High Bridge in the 1930s. The National Park Service dismantled the bridge and, after extensive rehabilitation, it was reassembled at its original site in 1992. Today, it is the oldest remaining steel bridge in the valley.

Hauntings

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Photographs

Brecksville Station and lumber yard in early 1900s.

Another view of Brecksville Station from Station Road.

Station Road bridge in 1937.

The closed bridge before renovation in 1985. (HAER)

Documents