Snippets of Bay Village History: The 'May Company' Barn

The Wischmeyer family’s barn, with a painted advertisement for the May Company directed at Lake Road travelers, burned down in the 1940s.

Henry Wischmeyer Sr. came to Dover Township in 1872. He owned the land from the shores of Lake Erie south to just past where Wolf Road is today and from Dover Center Road east to Glen Park Drive. We remember the family best by the hotel and wine cellar they built on the lake.

In the 1940s, Henry Wischmeyer Jr., the last of the original Wischmeyer family, was the caretaker of the property and still resided in the family home on the south side of Lake Road. West of his house, next to the grape vineyard, stood a large barn with a May Company ad painted on the side.

The barn was built to house the livestock. Over the years the barn became more of a storage area for tools, wagons and farm implements.

One cold and dark night in the 1940s, the Wischmeyer barn burned down. Rumor has it that two young boys were seen smoking in the area.

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Volume 7, Issue 5, Posted 10:37 AM, 03.03.2015