City of Parma history

The area’s first white settlers were the Benajah Fay family from New York State, who settled along the Cleveland-Columbus Rd. (now Pearl Rd.) in 1816.

The Treaty of Paris (1817) established that the dukedom be passed to the Bourbons, and Carlo Ludovico arrived in Parma.

In 1819, this merchant and his family built a home and turned it into an inn and tavern.

By 1820, the inn and tavern that Benajah worked to build was becoming a busy place, as it was the“No.

The first death in Parma was that of Isaac Emerson in 1823, and the first marriage in Parma took place between Lois Small of Parma and Ephraim Fowles of Middleburg Heights.

On the 7th of March 1826, Greenbrier, which until then had been a portion of the civil township of Brooklyn, was formed into a separate township and given the name of Parma, after the city in Italy.

The first church in Parma was the Free Will Baptist Church, which started around 1830 and was located in the southeast corner of the township.

Parma joined the newly unified Kingdom of Italy with a plebiscite on March 18, 1860.

In 1911, following a dispute over Sunday alcohol sales, a portion of the township seceded to form the village of Parma Hts.

Pictured on the left is his son, Jeremiah Wilcox Fay and his wife Mary Ann (Bradley) Fay (circa 1913), courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project, standing on the porch of that brick building.

State Road School, located on State Road, was built in 1921 at the same time as Pearl Road School and Ridge Road School.

In 1924, Parma was incorporated as a village, and a new town hall was built.

Thoreau Park Elementary School was built in 1926 when Parma was a village.

The town was renamed Fidenza in 1927, recalling its ancient name, Fidentia.

The school started with half-day sessions for grades kindergarten through sixth and shared the school with older grades until Schaaf Junior High School opened in 1928.

Students of Parma’s John Muir Elementary School (built in 1930) would board buses to be transferred to John Glenn Elementary School in Seven Hills, in order to conserve natural gas.

The first city council meeting occurred on January 5, 1931.

Sadly, the theater caught fire in November 2012. It was the very first movie theater in Parma, it opened in 1936.

During the Second World War, the enormous damages caused by bombings and numerous battles prompted the formation of a zone controlled by partisans until the liberation on 25 April 1945, especially in the valleys of the Taro and the Ceno rivers.

The General Motors Chevrolet Plant was being constructed in 1947, and the Union Carbide Research Center was established as well.

Parma Senior High School was built in 1953.

In 1956, the Holy Family Home was established by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, New York, who cared for cancer patients.

In 1957, a committee started a fund-raising drive to raise money for the proposed hospital.

In the 1960’s, the mall was built.

In August 1961, the hospital opened its doors.

Ridge Road School was located at Ridge Road and Day Drive and closed in 1962.

The college opened in September of 1966 with 2,600 students enrolled.

The following is excerpted from a conversation with Earl and Eliza Miller Gibbs, August 12, 1972, by Norma Grady Fillipic of the Parma Regional Library.

The City of Parma purchased the property from the Gibbs family in 1980 to preserve this unique remnant of Parma’s rural heritage.

Way back in 183 BC, 2000 Romans founded a colony here, which was an important center of commerce.

In 2010 Parma was the seventh largest city in the state of Ohio and the second largest city in Cuyahoga County after Cleveland.

However, as of April 25, 2013, Stearns Farm has partnered with Cleveland Crops to create an urban farm in the city.

In 2017 Parma celebrates 2200 years since its foundation.