Willoughby Hills City Hall history

The township was formed in 1815 and stretched south from Lake Erie to the north boundary of Mayfield Township (now Mayfield Village and Highland Heights). It spanned the gap from Euclid Township on the West (now Richmond Heights and Euclid) to Mentor and Kirtland Townships on the East.

In 1834, residents changed the community's name one final time to Willoughby, after Doctor Westel Willoughby, an educator in Herkimer County, New York.

By 1840, nearly four hundred people resided in the community, which contained at least two churches and Doctor Willoughby's medical college.

He was also a very busy medical doctor in Newport, NY, where he died in 1844 and lies buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery.

Eventually, these various small pockets incorporated beginning in 1853 with the Village of Willoughby.

Digitized editions of the News-Herald, 1879 – present can be accessed from any public computer in any one of the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library locations.

The CPE, which ran until 1927, also brought electricity to Euclid Avenue residents.

To prevent further loss of valuable land and population, the residents of what was left of Willoughby Township incorporated and became the Village of Willoughby Hills in April of 1954.

Also, in 1970, the voters adopted a City Charter streamlining the government to better fit the needs of the community.

An amendment adopted in 1975 created three district council seats and four at large with the fourth highest at-large vote getter to serve a two year term.

Willoughby Hills Auto Repair was opened as 691 Auto Care Inc in November 1995.

Another amendment, adopted in 2000, divided the council-at-large seats into four separate terms.