Milford Center, OH

Milford Center is a Union County village whose name once stopped at Milford. The settlement was platted in 1816 and incorporated in 1853, then grew into a railroad stop on the Big Four line between Columbus and the surrounding farm country. The old Richter Hotel once welcomed traveling salesmen from the trains; by the 1960s its building held apartments, a grocery, a locker plant, a theater, and several small shops. The village’s history is unusually easy to picture because one building carried so many jobs and errands.

Today Milford Center is served by Fairbanks Local School District, with the district office on State Route 38. The annual Labor Day Darby Dash keeps the village’s park side busy with canoe and kayak races, live music, games, crafts, a car show, and fireworks. A village park and the old Railroad Street address keep the event tied to the town’s physical history. Milford Center’s local scoop is the handoff from passenger trains to paddle races: transportation changed, but the gathering place stayed.