Find New England Charms And Architecture In The Midwest At This Quaint, Shop-Filled Ohio Town

In central Ohio, just 30 minutes east of Columbus, you'll find a charming downtown with a 19th century shopping district filled by independent, local shops, and a history that includes Native Americans, Welsh immigrants, and settlers from New England. The village of Granville is just one place that expresses the unique spirit of Ohio, a state where you can find an iconic nudist retreat that makes a friendly, relaxing outdoor paradise, a cozy alpine style town that's called the Little Switzerland of Ohio, or natural attractions, like the world's largest geode, which you can stand inside.

As an early Ohio settlement founded in 1805, a visit to Granville is to explore Ohio's heritage and history. It begins with the Hopewell Native Americans, who left historic earthwork mounds that can still be seen. In a war between the U.S. military and Native Americans in the 1790s, the freshly-formed United States seized lands in Ohio, forcibly moving the indigenous inhabitants north and west, while Revolutionary War veterans were granted land parcels by the U.S. government. Many Welsh veterans happily made their homes there, but it was a group of New Englanders from Massachusetts and Connecticut that planned the village of Granville and turned it into a New England-style settlement, complete with a planned downtown and colonial-style architecture.

The business district block of East Broadway, with two-story Italianate-style buildings dating from the 1830s and beyond, features ground floor storefronts with brightly-colored awnings and shops that can trace their heritage to meat markets, haberdasheries, and hardware stores. The history oozes here, as if you're on the trail of Michigan's breathtaking Thumb Coast, hunting down antiques. Today, you can find an artist cooperative gallery with featured jewelry, ART@43023 (123 E.Broadway), a highly curated selection of current titles at Readers' Garden Book Store (115 N. Prospect Street), and a steaming, fresh cup of joe at the Village Coffee Company (132 E. Broadway) from Monday through Saturday in this historic district.

Reviewers on Yelp and Google love Cedar & Thread (1919 Lancaster Road), which has everything from clothes and jewelry to home decor, faux-floral designs, and original artwork. Open Tuesday through Sunday, visitors find lots to enjoy, with one Google reviewer saying, "I get myself in trouble every time I go there, I want everything."

Any historic tour of Granville's New England architecture begins on East Broadway, which contains early 19th century buildings, like the home of the Granville Historical Society (115 East Broadway), a stone building constructed in 1816. The society, founded by elders of the community in 1885, hosts events and a museum inside the building, making the interior accessible to visitors. The Avery-Downer House (221 East Broadway), which now houses the Robbins Hunter Museum, was built as a private residence in the style of a Greek temple, with four Ionic columns in front. Visitors can check it out for free admission from April through December on selected days.

Finally, the oldest continuously-operating building used as a hotel in Ohio, the Buxton Inn (313 East Broadway), is a 25-room inn that now occupies five historic buildings on the same block, thanks to a number of expansions. The original 1812 building, now called the Main House, was once a part of the Underground Railroad, and is said to still be the home of the ghosts of its first owners. If you don't extend your visit to Granville to stay for the night, you can at least stop in for a drink or dinner at the Tavern on Thursday through Saturday from 3 p.m.