Vienna Township Hall

Vienna Township Hall is located at 848 Youngstown-Kingsville Road, one-quarter mile north of Vienna Center on the east side of the road. It houses the government offices of the Township Trustees, the Township Fiscal Officer, and Township Zoning Inspector.

History of the Building

The building was constructed without a foundation in 1825 on the site of Vienna Presbyterian Church on Vienna Township Green to house religious services and government business. It was moved some yards to the west when the Presbyterian Church built a permanent structure in 1837. After 1841, it accommodated the Vienna Academy, a private boys' school run by the ministers of the Presbyterian Church, and continued to house government offices. When the church building burned on January 18, 1853, the 1825 building was damaged.

On April 1, 1861, "one hundred votes were polled for a tax to be levied on the township for purchasing the academy building and repairing it for a town hall."

The Academy stockholders agreed to sell the building to the Township in 1863.

The date of the removal of the building from the Green to its present site occurred some time between 1923 and 1940.  However a 1910 newspaper article about the Vienna Academy mentions that Town Hall had already been moved.

An open house at Town Hall and Vienna Township Safety Services Day at the Vienna Township Volunteer Fire Department were held on Saturday, November 2, 1991. The open house was to showcase the newly renovated Town Hall to the community.

Property Acquisition

Vienna Township Hall sits on three contiguous parcels of property on Lot #18. These parcels were deeded by owners to the Township in the twentieth century.

The first parcel of .17 acre was deeded to the Vienna Township Trustees on November 29, 1923, by Wilbur and Maggie Scovill for the sum of one dollar via warranty deed. The deed stipulated that the land was to be used for Township buildings, with no structures to be erected less than fifty feet from the road line, and that this same lot be kept fenced. The Township did not build upon this lot, but moved the 1825 building on the Township Green to this parcel.

The second parcel of .103 acre, located immediately south of the first parcel, was also deeded for one dollar to the Trustees by Wilbur and Maggie Scovill. This deed was transacted on July 4, 1940. Conditions of this sale stipulated that any and/or all buildings erected upon the lot were to be used only for Township purposes, and that gambling and/or the use or sale of liquors of any kind be prohibited. The garage that later housed the Vienna Township Volunteer Fire Department and later Township equipment is built on this parcel.

The third parcel of land was deeded to the Trustees by Harold and Inez Woodruff on January 22, 1971. This lot connects the other two parcels to the east and contains .038 acre of land. The sole purpose of this purchase was for the addition of a septic system for the Township complex.

The total acreage of the Township Hall site is 0.319 acre.