Chidester House

 Follow the blue arrows on the signs as you walk

The large white apartment building across Third Street was first one of Massillon’s early grade schools, then it was the Chidester home.  Mr. Chidester, editor of The Evening Independent, was best known for his popular column called “Cyclorama” that colorfully covered random events and observations about the community.
Do you notice the empty lot just to the left of the Chidester home?  Until the early 1940s, Sippo Creek ran through that property.  As the initial part of Massillon’s mammoth flood control project, the creek was routed through an underground conduit from just a little east of here all the way to the Tuscarawas River.  In 1822, James Duncan built a mill just west of here, four years before he founded Massillon.  The mill used water power from Sippo Creek, more than a century before it was routed underground.  He carved out space in one corner to house Massillon’s first school.

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